Growth Variability among and within African Countries: An Aspect of Unsustained Development

John Weeks ()
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John Weeks: Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK

No 115, Working Papers from Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK

Abstract: There is a considerable literature on the growth performance of the sub-Saharan countries, which tends to focus on average rates of growth over shorter or longer periods. This paper demonstrates that a key characteristic of the countries of the sub-Saharan region is the instability of growth rates, across countries, but, even more, for individual countries over time. The dispersion of country growth rates is not normally distributed; on the contrary, measures of dispersion are negatively correlated with long-term growth rates. It is argued that this instability, greater than in other regions, is the result of underdevelopment. Reducing instability is a task of long-run development policy, rather than short-term macro management. Further, it is probably the case that aspects of market deregulation make very poor countries more prone to instability.

Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2001-04
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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