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Abstract: This paper studies the role played by the quality of property rights in the linkages of international capital flows into sub‐Saharan African (SSA) economies. Using panel data of 36 SSA countries over the period 1996–2015 and the ARDL procedure with the Pooled Mean Group regression method appropriate for non‐stationary panel data estimation, we account for the joint effects of property rights quality and openness to foreign capital flows on economic growth. We uncover the existence of a property rights quality threshold beyond which property rights either amplifies the spillovers effects or attenuates the negative effect of capital flows on economic growth. For instance, it takes a level of property rights of at least 60 to have a positive long‐term impact of capital flows on economic growth in natural resource‐poor African countries. The quality of property rights matters more to obtain spillover effects of capital flows on growth in natural resource‐poor countries than in their peer natural resource‐rich countries. Finally, with regard to the countries' income levels, capital flows have significant long‐term spillovers effects on economic growth in advanced African economies than in their low‐income peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses an instrumental variables approach to estimate the relationship between trade openness and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Instrumental variables estimates show that economic growth has a significant negative contemporaneous effect on trade openness, while trade openness has a significant positive effect on economic growth. A 1 percentage point increase in the ratio of trade over GDP is associated with a short-run increase in growth of approximately 0.5% in a given year; the cumulative long-run effect on the level of GDP per capita is larger, reaching about 2%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes capacity building in Africa based on the experiences of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF). The ACBF was set up through a collaborative effort of African Governments, the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the African Development Bank (ADB). The study develops a conceptual framework of capacity building followed by a review of the major perspectives explaining capacity deficiency in Africa. The empirical analyses show that there is a relationship between capacity building and institutional factors such as non-receptivity of policymakers toward policy analysis, politicization of policymaking and lack of capacity prevailing in Africa. The correlation analyses reveal a statistically significant relationship between capacity building and the availability of human and material resources in the region. However, the weak relationship between capacity building and some of the resource variables such as donor funding and expatriate staff as well as the insignificant number of studies seem to suggest that the relationships should be further explored with a large data set. The study also indicates that gestation period, integration of program elements and institutional setting must be carefully considered in designing capacity building projects in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the various theories and paradigms relating to trade and output in monetary unions. Both descriptive and empirical evidence have been used to analyse the case of African regional economic groupings, especially that of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and other countries in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). While the descriptive statistics point to greater room for improvement, especially in the areas of price stability, fiscal discipline and greater intra-trade, the empirical evidence shows that monetary union is beneficial to bilateral trade and especially economic growth. The results support the hypothesis that important beneficial effects of monetary union also come through central bank credibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the strong factors reflecting Africa's economic backwardness is the low level of industrial development. Not only does the industrialization process appear to have bypassed the continent, there is evidence of de-industrialization in the case of several countries. This paper seeks to address a set of interrelated questions: To what extent is the growth performance of African economies related to these structural characteristics? More precisely, is there any discernible evidence that GDP growth and overall labour productivity growth of African countries is positively related to how fast their industrial sector is growing? We test out Kaldor's three growth laws: first, that the growth of GDP is positively related to the growth of manufacturing output not simply in a definitional sense (because manufacturing output is a part of GDP) but in a fundamental causal sense related to the production characteristics of manufacturing activity; secondly, that the growth of labour productivity in manufacturing is positively related to manufacturing output growth because of static and dynamic increasing returns to scale (Verdoorn's Law); and thirdly, that there will be a negative relation between labour productivity growth in the economy as a whole and the rate of growth of employment in the non-manufacturing sector because most activity outside the manufacturing sector is subject to diminishing returns, particularly in land-based activities such as agriculture and many service activities. The authors' conclusions are that there is some empirical support for Kaldor's growth laws in respect of the countries of Africa. The growth of GDP seems much more closely associated with the growth of the manufacturing/industrial sector than the agricultural or service sectors. Structural change in favour of industrial activities would almost certainly help to accelerate the growth of GDP and living standards in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]