Explaining African Economic Performance

Jan Willem Gunning and Paul Collier

Journal of Economic Literature, 1999, vol. 37, issue 1, 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.

JEL-codes: O55 O57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
Note: DOI: 10.1257/jel.37.1.64
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (443)

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Working Paper: Explaining African economic performance (1997)
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