Applying the Growth Identification and Facilitation Framework to the Least Developed Countries: The Case of Uganda

Justin Lin () and Jianjun Xu

CDP Background Papers from United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs

Abstract: This paper aims to draw insights from New Structural Economics by applying its practical policy tool – the Growth Identification and Facilitation Framework (GIFF) – to least-developed countries (LDCs) with a special focus on the case of Uganda. The GIFF offers practical development paths for enabling developing countries to follow comparative advantage in its industrial development and to tap into the potential of advantages of backwardness in industrial upgrading in an effort to achieve sustained and dynamic growth. After a brief introduction of the GIFF, we present an overview of Uganda’s recent economic and social performance and analyses Uganda’s factor endowments, i.e., land (or natural resources), labour and capital that can be used in the production process. After identifying tradable goods and services which would fit Uganda’s latent comparative advantage, we diagnose sector-specific binding constraints in starting and scaling up the selected subsectors and discuss how to remove or mitigate these key constraints. Finally, we conclude with main findings and policy recommendations. The take-home message is that developing countries should not focus on what they lack but what they have when formulating their development strategies.

Keywords: New Structural Economics; Growth Identification and Facilitation Framework; latent comparative advantage; growth diagnostics; least-developed countries; Uganda (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 O14 O19 O24 O25 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2016-06
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:une:cpaper:032

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