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Root Causes of African Underdevelopment

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Author Info
Sambit Bhattacharyya
Abstract

What are the root causes of Africa's current state of under-development? Is it the long history of slave trade, or the legacy of extractive colonial institutions, or the fallout of malaria? We investigate the relative contributions of these factors using an instrumental variable approach. The results show that malaria matters the most and all other factors are statistically insignificant. Malaria also negatively affects savings. Using a two period overlapping generation model we show that malaria impacts economic performance by increasing both mortality and morbidity. Increased mortality increases current household consumption and discourages savings. Increased morbidity adversely affects labour productivity. The combined impact is a slowdown of capital accumulation and economic growth.

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Paper provided by Australian National University, Economics RSPAS in its series Departmental Working Papers with number 2008-16.

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Length: 35 pages
Date of creation: 2008
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Handle: RePEc:pas:papers:2008-16

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Related research
Keywords: Poverty Vulnerability Food security Cross-section data

Find related papers by JEL classification:
O11 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
O41 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
O57 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries
N0 - Economic History - - General

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