Learning from experience: Special Economic Zones in Southern Africa

Neva Makgetla

No wp-2021-124, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have become common across Southern Africa in the past 20 years. In line with experiences in the rest of the world, they have had at best marginal success. Their essential premise is that it should be more efficient and effective to establish an enclave with world-class administration and infrastructure than to address cross-cutting blockages to growth. In East Asia, this approach was able to build on a broader national industrialization trajectory. In Southern Africa, by contrast, it has proved unable to offset the main constraints on investment.

Keywords: Special Economic Zones; Southern Africa; Industrialization; Growth; Inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publ ... -Southern-Africa.pdf (application/pdf)

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:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-124

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Siméon Rapin ().