The Changing Structure of Africa’s Economies

Xinshen Diao, Kenneth Harttgen and Margaret McMillan

The World Bank Economic Review, 2017, vol. 31, issue 2, 412-433

Abstract: Using data from the Groningen Growth and Development Center’s Africa Sector Database and the Demographic and Health Surveys, we show that much of Africa’s recent growth and poverty reduction has been associated with a substantive decline in the share of the labor force engaged in agriculture. This decline is most pronounced for rural females over the age of 25 who have a primary education; it has been accompanied by a systematic increase in the productivity of the labor force, as it has moved from low productivity agriculture to higher productivity services and manufacturing. We also show that, although the employment share in manufacturing is not expanding rapidly, in most of the low-income African countries the employment share in manufacturing has not peaked and is still expanding, albeit from very low levels. More work is needed to understand the implications of these shifts in employment shares for future growth and development in Africa south of the Sahara.

Keywords: Structural change; Labor productivity; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C80 N17 O14 O40 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

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Working Paper: The Changing Structure of Africa's Economies (2017)
Working Paper: The changing structure of Africa's economies (2017)
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