Future challenges in measuring Africa’s past: Lessons from estimating GDP for the Gold Coast, 1891-1954

Morten Jerven ()

No 3/2012, African Economic History Working Paper from African Economic History Network

Abstract: There has been a recent surge in research on long term African development. For this research agenda to be fruitful and its theories, it is crucial to have consistent estimates of economic change. This paper contributes with a new GDP time series for Ghana, 1891-1954. The series implies a sustained period of economic expansion from the late 19th century into the 1960s. This suggests a revision of some prevalent truths about the history of economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper discusses the potential of creating historical national accounts for other African economies across the colonial and post-colonial period.

Keywords: Afriica; GDP; Gold Coast; Colonialism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N17 N27 N37 N47 N57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2012-08-25
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:afekhi:2012_003

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in African Economic History Working Paper from African Economic History Network
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Erik Green ().