IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-01110731.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Structural Change or Path Dependence? Assessing the Growth Paths of Sub-Saharan African Economies

Author

Listed:
  • Alice Nicole Sindzingre

    (EconomiX - EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LAM - Les Afriques dans le monde - IEP Bordeaux - Sciences Po Bordeaux - Institut d'études politiques de Bordeaux - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Institut d'Études Politiques [IEP] - Bordeaux - UBM - Université Bordeaux Montaigne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

Sub-Saharan African economies have exhibited spectacular growth rates since the early-2000s. For many observers, this marks the end of the pessimism that has long prevailed in the economic literature on the region. The paper argues that uncertainties remain, however. Growth rates mostly stem from distorted export structures - based on commodities -, and high international commodity prices due to demand from China and other emerging countries. These growth rates may not imply any change of export structures (which may even be strengthened), they remain vulnerable to price fluctuations and external shocks, and they may not involve structural transformation, i.e. a break in the pre-existing structure of the economy, industrialisation and productivity growth. On the other hand, sustained high commodity prices may foster structural transformation via higher fiscal resources; emerging countries also invest in Sub-Saharan African industrial sectors and infrastructure, which are key determinants of structural change; equally, commodities may trigger linkages towards industrialisation. The relative strengths of these arguments are assessed.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Alice Nicole Sindzingre, 2014. "Structural Change or Path Dependence? Assessing the Growth Paths of Sub-Saharan African Economies," Post-Print halshs-01110731, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01110731
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    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:hal:journl:halshs-01110731. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.