IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/oec/devaaa/150-en.html

The Role of Capital Accumulation, Adjustment and Structural Change for Economic Take-Off: Empirical Evidence from African Growth Episodes

Author

Listed:
  • Jean-Claude Berthélemy
  • Ludvig Söderling

Abstract

In this study, we analyse extended periods of growth in Africa based on panel estimations from 27 African countries during the 1960-1996 period. Only a dozen of such rapid growth episodes are observable in Africa since 1960, and several of them eventually came to an end. We use all existing information on macroeconomic performance in Africa in a comparative manner, in order to assess the sustainability of current growth episodes. Our main conclusion is that sustainable growth needs to be based on a balanced mix of capital accumulation, macroeconomic adjustment and structural change. In addition to more commonly used determinants of Total Factor Productivity, we construct a measure for the effect of labour reallocation as well as an index of economic diversification and estimate the impact of the latter on long-term growth. We also build an analysis of investment behaviour, which is influenced by Total Factor Productivity gains, while influencing economic growth directly through ... Dans ce document, nous analysons des périodes de croissance prolongées en Afrique sur la base d’estimations en données de panel pour 27 pays sur la période 1960-1996. Il n’y a eu qu’une douzaine de tels épisodes de croissance « rapide » en Afrique depuis 1960 et beaucoup d’entre eux se sont soldés par des échecs. Nous utilisons à titre comparatif l’ensemble des informations disponibles sur les performances macroéconomiques en Afrique, afin d’évaluer le caractère soutenable des épisodes de croissance en cours. Notre principale conclusion est que pour être soutenable, la croissance doit reposer sur une combinaison équilibrée d’accumulation du capital, d’ajustement macroéconomique et de changement structurel. En complément des déterminants usuels de la productivité globale des facteurs, nous construisons un indicateur de l’effet de la réallocation du travail ainsi qu’un indicateur de diversification économique, dont nous testons l’impact sur la croissance à long terme. Nous proposons ...

Suggested Citation

  • Jean-Claude Berthélemy & Ludvig Söderling, 1999. "The Role of Capital Accumulation, Adjustment and Structural Change for Economic Take-Off: Empirical Evidence from African Growth Episodes," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 150, OECD Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:oec:devaaa:150-en
    DOI: 10.1787/518867170562
    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
    for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

    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:oec:devaaa:150-en. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dcoecfr.html .

    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.