Inclusive Growth: An Application of the Social Opportunity Function to Selected African Countries

Abstract

The inclusiveness of growth depends on the extent of access to economic and social opportunities. This paper applies the concept of social opportunity function to ascertain the inclusiveness of growth episodes in selected African countries. Premised on the concept of social welfare function, inclusive growth is associated with increased average opportunities available to the population and improvement in their distribution. The paper establishes that the high growth episodes in the last decade in the selected countries came with increased average opportunities in education and health; but distribution of such opportunities varied across countries, depending on the country-specific policies underpining the growth episodes.

Keywords: Economic growth, Africa, Cameroon, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Education, Health care, Cross country analysis, Inclusive growth, social opportunity curve, and equity, education, school enrollment, access to education, education system, education for all, education development plan, education sector, education development, access to primary education, schooling, quality of education, enrollment ratio, education enrollment, education access, education policy, education sector development, education policies, education expenditure, education strategy, educational opportunities, education quality, education services, school enrollments, enrollments, educational information, completion r

JEL Classification: I14, I24, O40