Growth in Africa Under Peace and Market Reforms

30 Pages Posted: 28 Feb 2011

See all articles by Gonzalo Salinas

Gonzalo Salinas

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Cheikh Anta Gueye

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Olessia Korbut

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: February 2011

Abstract

Economic stagnation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has led several economists to question the region’s ability to attain sustained economic growth, some of them arguing for the need to shift away from natural resource - based exports. Yet, we find that low growth has not been common to all SSA countries and that those that achieved political stability and significantly liberalized their economies experienced high growth in income per capita, as high as ASEAN-5 countries. This group of SSA countries attained high growth while maintaining their specialization in natural resource exports. Our analysis also rejects the hypothesis of reverse causality: that good growth performance allowed countries to attain political stability or liberalize their economies.

Keywords: Cross country analysis, Economic growth, Economic reforms, Economic stabilization, Exports, Natural resources, Political economy, Sub-Saharan Africa, Trade liberalization

Suggested Citation

Salinas, Gonzalo E. and Gueye, Cheikh Anta and Korbut, Olessia, Growth in Africa Under Peace and Market Reforms (February 2011). IMF Working Paper No. 11/40, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1770366

Gonzalo E. Salinas (Contact Author)

International Monetary Fund (IMF) ( email )

700 19th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20431
United States

Cheikh Anta Gueye

International Monetary Fund (IMF) ( email )

700 19th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20431
United States

Olessia Korbut

affiliation not provided to SSRN

No Address Available

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