IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/43734.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Poor Numbers: explanation of Africa's statistical tragedy
[Pauvreté de chiffres : explication de la tragédie statistique africaine]

Author

Listed:
  • Kodila-Tedika, Oasis

Abstract

Why does sub-Saharan Africa have statistics of low quality? We try to provide an answer by empirically testing a plethora of hypotheses. Results show that with the exception of English, French and Portuguese colonies, other colonies have a weak statistical capacity. Ethnic fragmentation, openness and revolutions lead to the same conclusion. Government effectiveness positively associated statistical capacity. The level of development has a nonlinear relationship with statistical capacity, while the effect of human capital remains complex. Pourquoi l’Afrique sub-saharienne a des statistiques de faible qualité ? Nous testons à partir d’un échantillon africain plusieurs hypothèses explicatives, de manière empirique. Les résultats suggèrent que les colonies autres qu’anglaises, portugaises et françaises ont des faibles capacités statistiques. La fragmentation ethnique, l’ouverture et les révolutions conduisent aussi à la même conclusion. L’efficacité du gouvernement explique positivement la capacité statistique. Le niveau de développement est associé de manière non linéaire à la capacité statistique. L’effet du capital humain reste complexe.

Suggested Citation

  • Kodila-Tedika, Oasis, 2013. "Poor Numbers: explanation of Africa's statistical tragedy [Pauvreté de chiffres : explication de la tragédie statistique africaine]," MPRA Paper 43734, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:43734
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/43734/1/MPRA_paper_43734.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/47294/8/MPRA_paper_47294.pdf
    File Function: revised version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oasis Kodila-Tedika, 2014. "Africa's statistical tragedy: best statistics, best government effectiveness," International Journal of Development Issues, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(2), pages 171-178, July.
    2. 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.
    3. Morten Jerven, 2011. "Counting the Bottom Billion," World Economics, World Economics, 1 Ivory Square, Plantation Wharf, London, United Kingdom, SW11 3UE, vol. 12(4), pages 35-52, October.
    4. Morten Jerven, 2010. "Random Growth in Africa? Lessons from an Evaluation of the Growth Evidence on Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, 1965-1995," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 274-294.
    5. Morten Jerven, 2013. "Comparability of GDP estimates in Sub-Saharan Africa: The effect of Revisions in Sources and Methods Since Structural Adjustment," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 59, pages 16-36, October.
    6. Graziella Bertocchi & Andrea Guerzoni, 2012. "Growth, history, or institutions," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 49(6), pages 769-783, November.
    7. Dimitri Sanga & Bakary Dosso & Steve Gui‐Diby, 2011. "Tracking Progress Towards Statistical Capacity Building Efforts: The African Statistical Development Index," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 79(3), pages 303-329, 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


    Cited by:

    1. Kodila-Tedika, Oasis & Asongu, Simplice & Azia-Dimbu, Florentin, 2015. "Statistics and IQ in Developing Countries: A Note," MPRA Paper 68323, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Asongu Simplice, 2016. "State fragility, rent seeking and lobbying: evidence from African data," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(10), pages 1016-1030, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Morten Jerven, 2014. "A West African experiment: constructing a GDP series for colonial Ghana, 1891–1950," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(4), pages 964-992, November.
    2. Graziella Bertocchi, 2016. "The legacies of slavery in and out of Africa," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, December.
    3. Jerven, Morten, 2014. "African growth miracle or statistical tragedy? Interpreting trends in the data over the past two decades," WIDER Working Paper Series 114, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Ulrich Eydam & Florian Leupold, 2023. "What is it good for? On the Inflationary Effects of Military Conflicts," CEPA Discussion Papers 65, Center for Economic Policy Analysis.
    5. Oasis Kodila-Tedika, 2014. "Africa's statistical tragedy: best statistics, best government effectiveness," International Journal of Development Issues, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(2), pages 171-178, July.
    6. Ewout Frankema & Marlous van Waijenburg, 2011. "Structural Impediments to African Growth? New Evidence from Real Wages in British Africa, 1880-1965," Working Papers 0024, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.
    7. Graziella Bertocchi, 2016. "The Legacies of Slavery in and out of Africa," Department of Economics 0096, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    8. Anatole Goundan, 2018. "Colonial Legacy and Economic Efficiency across Africa: A Metafrontier Approach," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 30(2), pages 187-199, June.
    9. Sebastian Galiani & Stephen Knack & Lixin Colin Xu & Ben Zou, 2017. "The effect of aid on growth: evidence from a Quasi-experiment," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-33, March.
    10. Bournakis, Ioannis & Rizov, Marian & Christopoulos, Dimitris, 2023. "Revisiting the effect of institutions on the economic performance of SSA countries: Do legal origins matter in the context of ethnic heterogeneity?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    11. Bournakis, Ioannis & Rizov, Marian & Christopoulos, Dimitris, 2021. "Revisiting the Economic Performance and Institutions Debate in SSA Countries: The Role of Legal Origins in the Context of Ethnic Heterogeneity," MPRA Paper 106557, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Amavilah, Voxi Heinrich, 2017. "The African origins of Euro-American development: Pins on an empirical roadmap," MPRA Paper 79925, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Mensah, Emmanuel Buadi & Szirmai, Adam, 2018. "Africa Sector Database (ASD): Expansion and update," MERIT Working Papers 2018-020, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    14. Derrick M. Anderson & Andrew B. Whitford, 2015. "Developing Knowledge States: Technology and the Enhancement of National Statistical Capacity," Papers 1502.07625, arXiv.org.
    15. Juan Carlos Chávez & Felipe J. Fonseca & Manuel Gómez-Zaldívar, 2017. "Resoluciones de disputas comerciales y desempeño económico regional en México. (Commercial Disputes Resolution and Regional Economic Performance in Mexico)," Ensayos Revista de Economia, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Economia, vol. 0(1), pages 79-93, May.
    16. Leeson, Peter T., 2005. "Endogenizing fractionalization," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 75-98, June.
    17. Halvor Mehlum & Karl Moene & Ragnar Torvik, 2006. "Institutions and the Resource Curse," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(508), pages 1-20, January.
    18. Vieira, Flávio & MacDonald, Ronald & Damasceno, Aderbal, 2012. "The role of institutions in cross-section income and panel data growth models: A deeper investigation on the weakness and proliferation of instruments," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 127-140.
    19. Heineck, Guido & Süssmuth, Bernd, 2013. "A different look at Lenin’s legacy: Social capital and risk taking in the Two Germanies," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 789-803.
    20. Guido Tabellini & Mariaflavia Harari, 2009. "The Effect of Culture on the Functioning of Institutions: Evidence from European Regions," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 7(1), pages 13-19, 04.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Afrique sub-saharienne; capacité statistique; qualité des données;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • N17 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Africa; Oceania

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:43734. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.