Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Systems of Innovation and Human Capital in African Development

Contents:

Author Info

  • Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, Banji

    () (United Nations University, Institute for New Technologies)

  • Barclay, Lou Anne

Abstract

In this paper, we propose that historically generated institutions and persistent pattern of human capital formation conditions the emergent systems of innovation in Africa. These effectively determine the development trajectory of the region. We advance the notion of dynamic and non-dynamic systems of innovation, the latter describing the African condition. In doing this, we combine the strand of literature on institutions and their persistence in shaping industrialisation with the literature on evolutionary theory and systems of innovation. We provide evidence of the colonial origins of skewed schooling enrolment, at variance with the industrialisation and wealth creation objective of modern economies. Employing simple statistical tests, the persistence of initial human capital (school enrolment) reflects in the significant correlation among the three levels of schooling enrolments, and correlation of enrolment in 1970 with per capital income in 2000, a periodicity of some three decades. This outcome is consistent with the literature on countries at early stages of development. Path-dependency is partially proved by the human capital variables even though we did not attempt to investigate all variables making up the system of innovation. Our findings suggest that Africa's present underdeveloped system of innovation in part has its roots in both the past and present poor pattern of human capital formation. This is a first tentative attempt to explore long-run development in Africa within the systems of innovation framework

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://www.intech.unu.edu/publications/discussion-papers/2003-2.pdf
Our checks indicate that this address may not be valid because: 500 Can't connect to www.intech.unu.edu:80 (10060). If this is indeed the case, please notify (Ad Notten)
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by United Nations University, Institute for New Technologies in its series Discussion Papers with number 2.

as in new window
Length:
Date of creation: 2003
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:dgr:unuint:200302

Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://www.intech.unu.edu

Related research

Keywords: innovation; technology policy; government policy; Africa; human capital; path-dependency;

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Van De Walle, Nicolas, 1994. "Political liberation and economic policy reform in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 483-500, April.
  2. Stein, Howard, 1994. "Theories of institutions and economic reform in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(12), pages 1833-1849, December.
  3. Bennell, Paul, 1996. "Rates of return to education: Does the conventional pattern prevail in sub-Saharan Africa?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 183-199, January.
  4. Easterlin, Richard A., 1981. "Why Isn't the Whole World Developed?," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(01), pages 1-17, March.
  5. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2001. "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1369-1401, December.
  6. Ulrich Witt, . "How Evolutionary is Schumpeter's Theory of Economic Development?," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2001-12, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Evolutionary Economics Group.
  7. Abramovitz, Moses, 1986. "Catching Up, Forging Ahead, and Falling Behind," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(02), pages 385-406, June.
  8. David, Paul A., 1994. "Why are institutions the 'carriers of history'?: Path dependence and the evolution of conventions, organizations and institutions," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 205-220, December.
  9. Antonelli, Cristiano, 1997. "The economics of path-dependence in industrial organization," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 643-675, October.
  10. Biggs, Stephen D., 1990. "A multiple source of innovation model of agricultural research and technology promotion," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 18(11), pages 1481-1499, November.
  11. Mkandawire, Thandika, 2001. "Thinking about Developmental States in Africa," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 25(3), pages 289-313, May.
  12. Carlsson, Bo & Jacobsson, Staffan & Holmen, Magnus & Rickne, Annika, 2002. "Innovation systems: analytical and methodological issues," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 233-245, February.
  13. Forbes, Naushad & Wield, David, 2000. "Managing R&D in technology-followers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(9), pages 1095-1109, December.
  14. Biggs, T. & Shah, M. & Srivastava, P., 1995. "Technological Capabilities and Learning in African Enterprises," Papers 288, World Bank - Technical Papers.
  15. Wolff, Edward N, 2001. "The Role of Education in the Postwar Productivity Convergence among OECD Countries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 735-59, September.
  16. Vitta, Paul B., 1990. "Technology policy in sub-Saharan Africa: Why the dream remains unfulfilled," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 18(11), pages 1471-1480, November.
  17. Richard B. Freeman & David L. Lindauer, 1999. "Why Not Africa?," NBER Working Papers 6942, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  18. Ha-Joon Chang & Ali Cheema & L. Mises, 2002. "Conditions For Successful Technology Policy In Developing Countries—Learning Rents, State Structures, And Institutions," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 11(4-5), pages 369-398.
  19. Balconi, Margherita, 2002. "Tacitness, codification of technological knowledge and the organisation of industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 357-379, March.
  20. Sachs, Jeffrey D & Warner, Andrew M, 1997. "Sources of Slow Growth in African Economies," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), vol. 6(3), pages 335-76, October.
  21. Lundvall, Bengt-Ake & Johnson, Bjorn & Andersen, Esben Sloth & Dalum, Bent, 2002. "National systems of production, innovation and competence building," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 213-231, February.
  22. Dani Rodrik, 1998. "Trade Policy and Economic Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa," NBER Working Papers 6562, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  23. Sandberg, Lars G., 1979. "The Case of the Impoverished Sophisticate: Human Capital and Swedish Economic Growth before World War I," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(01), pages 225-241, March.
  24. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2001. "Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution," NBER Working Papers 8460, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  25. Nissanke, Machiko K, 2001. "Financing Enterprise Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 25(3), pages 343-67, May.
  26. Wolgin, Jerome M, 1997. "The Evolution of Economic Policymaking in Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 54-57, May.
  27. Mikesell, Raymond F, 1997. "Explaining the resource curse, with special reference to mineral-exporting countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 191-199, December.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Rajneesh Narula, 2004. "Understanding absorptive capacities in an "innovation systems" context consequences for economic and employment growth," DRUID Working Papers 04-02, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dgr:unuint:200302

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Ad Notten).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.