Explaining African Economic Performance
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 37,
no. 1, March 1999
(pp. 64-111)
Abstract
Africa has had slow growth and a massive exodus of capital. In many respects it has been the most capital-hostile region. We review and interpret the aggregate-level and microeconomic literatures to identify the key explanations for this performance. There is a reasonable correspondence of the two sets of evidence, pointing to four factors as being important. These are a lack of openness to international trade; a high-risk environment; a low level of social capital; and poor infrastructure. These problems are to a substantial extent attributable to government behavior, and the paper includes a review of the political economy literature addressing that behavior.Citation
Collier, Paul, and Jan Willem Gunning. 1999. "Explaining African Economic Performance." Journal of Economic Literature, 37 (1): 64-111. DOI: 10.1257/jel.37.1.64JEL Classification
- O55 Economywide Country Studies: Africa
- O57 Comparative Studies of Countries