Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa, 1885-2008

Stephen Broadberry and Leigh Gardner

Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History

Abstract: Estimates of GDP per capita are provided on an annual basis for eight SubSaharan African economies for the period since 1885. Although the growth experienced in most of SSA since the mid-1990s has had historical precedents, there have also been episodes of negative growth or “shrinking”, so that long run progress has been limited. Despite some heterogeneity across countries, this must be seen as a disappointing performance for the region as a whole, given the possibilities of catch-up growth. Avoiding episodes of shrinking needs to be given a higher priority in understanding the transition to sustained economic growth.

Keywords: growth; Africa; historical national accounts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E01 N17 O47 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2019-04
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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/100473/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1885-2008 (2020)
Working Paper: Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1885-2008 (2019)
Working Paper: Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1885-2008 (2019)
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