Growth and Institutions in African Development: (Routledge Studies in Development Economics)

Recent years have seen a sustained research effort exploring the African development experience. The extant literature has offered a large set of explanations as to why the African development record has lagged behind that of other regions of the developing world. This new volume brings international contributors together to focus on the role of growth and institutions. First, it provides brief evidence on the growth and institutional records, as well as on development outcomes, during the post-independence period. Second, it targets certain growth determinants, including industrial embeddedness, innovation, exchange rate regimes, and environmental quality. Third, it sheds light on the dynamics and distribution of growth, and on growth-enhancing sectors of the economy. Finally, it investigates several issues of institutional development, as well as institutions generating development outcomes. Though focused on these two key areas, the coverage strives to achieve a comprehensive analysis of how Africa’s development may have been enhanced or undermined and to offer lessons for the future. This volume is essential reading for all scholars of development economics and development studies.

Table of Contents:
Growth and Institutions in African Development 2. Determinants of Industrial Embeddedness: Evidence from Manufacturing Firms in an African Economy 3. Does Lack of Innovation and Absorptive Capacity Retard Economic Growth in Africa? 4. Exchange Rate Regimes and Trade: Is Africa Different? 5. Interrelationships among Health, Environmental Quality, and Economic Activity: What Consequences for Economic Convergence? 6. Emerging Evidence on the Relative Importance of Sectoral Sources of Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa 7. Tourism and Economic Growth: African Evidence from Panel Vector Autoregressive Framework 8. Hunting for Leopards: Long-Run Country Income Dynamics in Africa 9. Growth and Distributional Aspects of Poverty Reduction in South Africa 10. Outfits: Narrowly Tailored Laws that Harm Instead of Help. A Case Study of Liberia’s Telecommunication Laws 11. Does Foreign Aid Support Democracy Development? Aid, Democracy, and Instability from Trade 12. Who’s the Alien? Xenophobia in post-Apartheid South Africa 13. How Does Colonial Origin Matter for Economic Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa? 14. Institutional Reforms, Private Sector, and Economic Growth in Africa 15. Women’s Labour Supply and Household Insurance in Africa

About the Author :
Augustin K. Fosu is Professor of Economics at the University of Ghana, Ghana, and Extraordinary Professor at the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa. He is also Research Associate, Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), University of Oxford, UK, and was Deputy Director of UN University-WIDER, Finland (2006-2013).

Review :
This volume throws new light on the factors that have contributed to the relatively inclusive growth pattern presently prevailing in Africa. The resurgence of growth in the last fifteen years, following a long period of stagnation, appears to be linked to major improvements in governance and economic freedom. In particular, the role of institutions is crucial to the current growth and development phase. A contribution of this book is to provide specific examples of successful developmental institutions in different African countries. Erik Thorbecke, Professor of Economics at Cornell University, College of Human Ecology, USA. This volume contributes to a much better and broader understanding of growth and development in Africa. It gives a key role to institutions, but also pays attention to bottlenecks—such as lack of absorptive capacity and innovation and to issues as health and poverty. Rick van der Ploeg, Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford, UK.