IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/inecon/v161y2026ics0022199626000383.html

Structural change in sub-Saharan Africa: An open economy perspective

Author

Listed:
  • de Vries, Gaaitzen
  • Kruse, Hagen
  • Mensah, Emmanuel
  • Vidogbena, Yabo
  • Yi, Kei-Mu

Abstract

We study the evolution of manufacturing value-added shares in 11 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries through the lens of an open economy model of structural change. Our analysis leverages recent developments in input–output tables in SSA countries. Our model allows for income effects, substitution and relative price effects, and comparative advantage and specialization effects. We calibrate our model to include each SSA country with nine major economies for each year between 2000 and 2018. We do similar calibrations for 11 developing Asian (DA) countries. Our main results are that domestic and foreign sectoral TFP are important drivers of structural change. Trade integration over time plays a small role. However, trade is important as a transmission mechanism of foreign productivity trends. While the drivers and mechanisms of industrialization are broadly similar in SSA and DA countries, one difference is the larger mining sector in SSA countries, which generates Dutch disease-type effects.

Suggested Citation

  • de Vries, Gaaitzen & Kruse, Hagen & Mensah, Emmanuel & Vidogbena, Yabo & Yi, Kei-Mu, 2026. "Structural change in sub-Saharan Africa: An open economy perspective," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:inecon:v:161:y:2026:i:c:s0022199626000383
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2026.104248
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022199626000383
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jinteco.2026.104248?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F11 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Neoclassical Models of Trade
    • F43 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Economic Growth of Open Economies
    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:inecon:v:161:y:2026:i:c:s0022199626000383. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505552 .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.