EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

The Comparative Economics of Catch-up in Output per Worker, Total Factor Productivity and Technological Gain in Sub-Saharan Africa

John Ssozi and Simplice Asongu

African Development Review, 2016, vol. 28, issue 2, 215-228

Abstract: type="main" xml:lang="en">

Using the two-step system general method of moments panel data analysis we first investigate the effects of external financial flows on total factor productivity and technological gain, and then use the beta catch-up and sigma convergence to compare dispersions in output per worker, total factor productivity and technological gain in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for the years 1980–2010. The comparative evidence is articulated with income levels, years of schooling, and health factors. We find; first, a positive association between foreign direct investment, trade openness, foreign aid, remittances and total factor productivity. However, when foreign direct investment is interacted with schooling, its direct effect becomes negative on total factor productivity. Second, beta catch-up is between 19.22 percent and 19.70 percent per annum with corresponding time to full catch-up of 25.38 years and 26.01 years respectively. Third, we find sigma-convergence among low-income nations and upper-middle income nations separately, but not for the entire sample together. Fourth, schooling in SSA is not yet a significant source of technology, but it can make external financial inflows more effective. Policies to induce external financial flows are not enough for development if absorptive capacity is low.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (44)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/ (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: The Comparative Economics of Catch-Up in Output per worker, total factor productivity and technological gain in Sub-Saharan Africa (2015) Downloads
Working Paper: The Comparative Economics of Catch-Up in Output per worker, total factor productivity and technological gain in Sub-Saharan Africa (2015) Downloads
Working Paper: The Comparative Economics of Catch-Up in Output per worker, total factor productivity and technological gain in Sub-Saharan Africa (2015) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:afrdev:v:28:y:2016:i:2:p:215-228

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1017-6772

Access Statistics for this article

African Development Review is currently edited by John C. Anyanwu, Hassan Aly and Kupukile Mlambo

More articles in African Development Review from African Development Bank Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery (contentdelivery@wiley.com).

 
Page updated 2024-12-24
Handle: RePEc:bla:afrdev:v:28:y:2016:i:2:p:215-228