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Aid, Structural Change and the Private Sector in Africa

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  • John Page

Abstract

This paper argues that official development assistance (foreign aid) is partly responsible for the lack of structural change in Africa. Africa's development partners have devoted too few resources and too little attention to two critical constraints to private investment, infrastructure and skills, focusing instead on easily understood, but potentially low impact regulatory reforms. A new aid strategy, one that catalyses private investment in high value added sectors, is needed.

Suggested Citation

  • John Page, 2012. "Aid, Structural Change and the Private Sector in Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2012-021, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2012-021
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    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp2012-021.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Serigne Bassirou Lo & Lassana Cissokho, 2023. "Financial development, institutions and industrialization in sub‐Saharan Africa," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 35(2), pages 152-164, June.
    3. Jonathan Temple & Huikang Ying & Patrick Carter, 2014. "Transfers and Transformations: Remittances, Foreign Aid, and Growth," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 14/649, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK, revised 02 Dec 2014.
    4. Shimeles Abebe & Adeleke Oluwole Salami & Anthony M. Simpasa, 2015. "Working Paper 221 - Employment Effects of Multilateral Development Bank Projects The Case of the African Development Bank," Working Paper Series 2160, African Development Bank.
    5. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2020. "Comparative Advantage Following (CAF) development strategy, Aid for Trade flows and structural change in production," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 9(1), pages 1-29, December.
    6. Haldar, Anasuya & Sethi, Narayan, 2022. "Effect of sectoral foreign aid allocation on growth and structural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa—Analysing the roles of institutional quality and human capital," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1010-1026.
    7. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2021. "Effect of Development Aid on Productive Capacities," EconStor Preprints 233973, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    8. Hanan Morsy & Antoine Levy, 2020. "Growing without changing: A tale of Egypt's weak productivity growth," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 32(3), pages 271-287, September.

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    Keywords

    Economic assistance and foreign aid; Economic development; Economic integration; Investments;
    All these keywords.

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