African Successes, Volume IV: Sustainable Growth (Volume 4) (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report)

Studies of African economic development frequently focus on the daunting challenges the continent faces. From recurrent crises to ethnic conflicts and long-standing corruption, a raft of deep-rooted problems has led many to regard the continent as facing many hurdles to raise living standards. Yet Africa has made considerable progress in the past decade, with a GDP growth rate exceeding five percent in some regions. The African Successes series looks at recent improvements in living standards and other measures of development in many African countries with an eye toward identifying what shaped them and the extent to which lessons learned are transferable and can guide policy in other nations and at the international level. The fourth volume in the series, __African Successes: Sustainable Growth__ combines informative case studies with careful empirical analysis to consider the prospects for future African growth. "The four published volumes present results from 39 research teams within the NBER Africa Research Project. They present studies on what policies and strategies have worked on the African continent in regards to economics development. The reports focus on identifying lessons learned and examining whether these success can be transferred and replicated across the continent. The NBER Africa Project was conceived in the early 2000s and undertaken from 2007 to 2014 to study economic success stories in Africa. The primary goal of the project was to support high quality research that identified and analyzed African economic development successes, ultimately to inform policy making at both the national and international levels. Of particular interest were the positive economic experiences in a number of African countries over the previous decade. What were the roots of these developments? To what extent were they sustainable and transferable to other African countries? Another goal of the project was to strengthen the cadre of researchers working on African development, and build linkages between developed country researchers and their counterparts in Africa. We particularly wanted non-African specialists to learn more about the continent, in the hope of making serious study of Africa a more mainstream endeavor for applied economics. The third and final goal of the project was to systematize available data on Africa. The NBER established a website as an inventory and clearinghouse of economic data on Africa, available at the Portal of Public-Use Datasets on Sub-Saharan Africa. The group met at annual conferences in either Cambridge or Africa, culminating in a policy-oriented conference in Africa in 2012. The NBER Africa Project held a series of six meetings between 2008 and 2012. The project concluded in 2014." Publisher This is Volume IV of a four volume set reporting on research on Africa funded by the Gates Foundation. Volume I is focused on conditions that make growth possible; Volume II deals with human development; and Volume III discusses ways in which modernization has come to sub-Saharan Africa, including banking, mobile phones, and dimensions of the export sector. Volume IV examines whether recent African growth rates will prove sustainable. This volume offers three different ways to address this general question. First, five of our research teams look at the details of African agriculture, ranging from its overall prospects to the specific institutional arrangements in two countries. As in our other volumes, the chapters here set a high standard in terms of putting together high quality data and analyzing it using appropriate statistical and econometric technique. Second, one team looked carefully at barriers to trade within West Africa - what keeps markets segmented and prevents trade from developing? Can these obstacles be overcome in the foreseeable future? Four teams look at particular country case studies to understand growth and development and also pay considerable attention to episodes of poor economic performance. Researchers participating in this project were encouraged to combine careful NBER-type empirical analysis with investigations of specific country experiences. In terms of in-depth country analysis, this volume includes material on Cape Verde, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Uganda Intro -- Contents -- Series Introduction / Sebastian Edwards, Simon Johnson, and David N. Weil -- Volume Introduction / Sebastian Edwards, Simon Johnson, and David N. Weil -- I. Agriculture -- 1. The Decline and Rise of Agricultural Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa since 1961 / Steven Block -- 2. Agriculture, Roads, and Economic Development in Uganda / Douglas Gollin and Richard Rogerson -- 3. The Sahel's Silent Maize Revolution: Analyzing Maize Productivity in Mali at the Farm Level / Jeremy Foltz, Ursula Aldana, and Paul Laris -- 4. Contract Farming and Agricultural Productivity in Western Kenya / Lorenzo Casaburi, Michael Kremer, and Sendhil Mullainathan -- 5. The Determinants of Food-Aid Provisions to Africa and the Developing World / Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian -- 6. International and Intranational Market Segmentation and Integration in West Africa / Jenny C. Aker, Michael W. Klein, and Stephen A. O'Connell -- II. Country Studies -- 7. Cape Verde and Mozambique as Development Successes in West and Southern Africa / Jorge Braga de Macedo and Luís Brites Pereira -- 8. Mauritius: African Success Story / Jeffrey Frankel -- 9. Indirect Rule and State Weakness in Africa: Sierra Leone in Comparative Perspective / Daron Acemoglu, Isaías N. Chaves, Philip Osafo-Kwaako, and James A. Robinson -- Contributors -- Author Index -- Subject Index Studies of African economic development frequently focus on the daunting challenges the continent faces. From recurrent crises to ethnic conflicts and long-standing corruption, a raft of deep-rooted problems has led many to regard the continent as facing many hurdles to raise living standards. Yet Africa has made considerable progress in the past decade, with a GDP growth rate exceeding five percent in some regions. The African Successes series looks at recent improvements in living standards and other measures of development in many African countries with an eye toward identifying what shaped them and the extent to which lessons learned are transferable and can guide policy in other nations and at the international level.
           
The fourth volume in the series, African Successes: Sustainable Growth combines informative case studies with careful empirical analysis to consider the prospects for future African growth.