The Economic Tragedy of the XXth Century: Growth in Africa / Elsa V. Artadi, Xavier Sala-i-Martin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Artadi, Elsa V.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Sala-i-Martin, Xavier.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w9865.

NBER working paper series no. w9865

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

The Economic Tragedy of the XXth Century

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2003.

Summary:

The dismal growth performance of Africa is the worst economic tragedy of the XXth century. We document the evolution of per capita GDP for the continent as a whole and for subset of countries south of the Sahara desert. We document the worsening of various income inequality indexes and we estimate poverty rates and headcounts. We then analyze some of the central robust determinants of economic growth reported by Sala-i-Martin, Doppelhofer and Miller (2003) and project the annual growth rates Africa would have enjoyed if these key determinants had taken OECD rather than African values. Expensive investment goods, low levels of education, poor health, adverse geography, closed economies, too much public expenditure and too many military conflicts are seen as key explanations of the economic tragedy.

Notes:

Print version record

July 2003.