Is Per-Capita Growth in Africa Hampered by Poor Governance and Weak Institutions? Examining the Case of the ECOWAS Countries

Author(s):  
Gilles Dufrénot ◽  
Gilles Sanon ◽  
Abdoulaye Diop
Keyword(s):  
2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 810-832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bluhm ◽  
Denis de Crombrugghe ◽  
Adam Szirmai

Abstract This paper studies periods of prolonged contractions in output per capita in a sample of 145 countries from 1950 to 2014. Economic slumps are defined as abrupt interruptions of a period of growth by several regime switches. Slumps start with a sharp contraction along with a trend break, which is followed by another switch when growth stabilizes again. The paper then analyzes the correlates of these slumps, focusing on the length and depth of the contraction, from the beginning of the slump to its trough. The results establish three new stylized facts: (i) weak political institutions predate crises whereas political reforms tend to follow them, (ii) the length and depth of economic declines are robustly correlated with executive constraints and ethnic heterogeneity, and (iii) there is a robust interaction between these two variables, suggesting that institutions constraining leaders are important for stabilizing growth. This is particularly relevant for Sub-Saharan Africa, where politics are often ethnic and decision makers are comparatively unconstrained.


2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (S 01) ◽  
pp. S16-S18 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Brand ◽  
N. von der Weid

SummaryThe Swiss Haemophilia Registry of the Medical Committee of the Swiss Haemophilia Society was established in 2000. Primarily it bears epidemiological and basic clinical data (incidence, type and severity of the disease, age groups, centres, mortality). Two thirds of the questions of the WFH Global Survey can be answered, especially those concerning use of concentrates (global, per capita) and treatment modalities (on-demand versus prophylactic regimens). Moreover, the registry is an important tool for quality control of the haemophilia treatment centres.There are no informations about infectious diseases like hepatitis or HIV, due to non-anonymisation of the data. We plan to incorporate the results of the mutation analysis in the future.


2015 ◽  
pp. 30-53
Author(s):  
V. Popov

This paper examines the trajectory of growth in the Global South. Before the 1500s all countries were roughly at the same level of development, but from the 1500s Western countries started to grow faster than the rest of the world and PPP GDP per capita by 1950 in the US, the richest Western nation, was nearly 5 times higher than the world average and 2 times higher than in Western Europe. Since 1950 this ratio stabilized - not only Western Europe and Japan improved their relative standing in per capita income versus the US, but also East Asia, South Asia and some developing countries in other regions started to bridge the gap with the West. After nearly half of the millennium of growing economic divergence, the world seems to have entered the era of convergence. The factors behind these trends are analyzed; implications for the future and possible scenarios are considered.


2018 ◽  
pp. 71-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. L. Lyubimov ◽  
M. V. Lysyuk ◽  
M. A. Gvozdeva

Well-established results indicate that export diversification might be a better growth strategy for an emerging economy as long as its GDP per capita level is smaller than an empirically defined threshold. As average incomes in Russian regions are likely to be far below the threshold, it might be important to estimate their diversification potential. The paper discusses the Atlas of economic complexity for Russian regions created to visualize regional export baskets, to estimate their complexity and evaluate regional export potential. The paper’s results are consistent with previous findings: the complexity of export is substantially higher and diversification potential is larger in western and central regions of Russia. Their export potential might become larger if western and central regions, first, try to join global value added chains and second, cooperate and develop joint diversification strategies. Northern and eastern regions are by contrast much less complex and their diversification potential is small.


2016 ◽  
pp. 67-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Zaytsev

Using level accounting methodology this article examines sources of per capita GDP and labor productivity differences between Russia and developed and developing countries. It considers the role played by the following determinants in per capita GDP gap: per hour labor productivity, number of hours worked per worker and labor-population ratio. It is shown that labor productivity difference is the main reason of Russia’s lagging behind. Factors of Russia’s low labor productivity are then estimated. It is found that 33-39% of 2.5-5-times labor productivity gap (estimated for non-oil sector) between Russia and developed countries (US, Canada, Germany, Norway) is explained by lower capital-to-labor ratio and the latter 58-65% of the gap is due to lower technological level (multifactor productivity). Human capital level in Russia is almost the same as in developed countries, so it explains only 2-4% of labor productivity gap.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document