Agricultural Sector Development and Structural Transformation: Sub-Saharan Africa versus East Asia

44 Pages Posted: 22 Jan 2015

See all articles by Hee-Sik Kim

Hee-Sik Kim

The Bank of Korea; Bank of Korea - Economic Research Institute

Mthuli Ncube

BARBICAN Asset Management; London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Financial Markets Group

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: April 11, 2013

Abstract

This paper has revisited the roles of agricultural sector development for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in responding to the twofold challenges – broadening the base of economic growth and sustaining growth momentum. Based on a holistic and long-term perspective on the mechanism of an economic take-off and a realistic characterization of the initial conditions of SSA economies including their crucial dependence on ‘communal ownership of land,’ this paper proposes a two-transition approach to a traditional agriculture-based economy’s take-off, where agricultural development in the current generation precedes and prepares for industrial development in the next generation.

The results from the empirical analyses using regional and country data have confirmed the following hypotheses derived from the framework: First, that it is agricultural development that generates positive external effects on industrial development, and not vice versa. Second, that a primitive economy evolves to higher stages through agricultural and industrial developments in a sequence with the demographic dividend and savings accumulated in the phase of agricultural development being indispensable for the economy’s transition to industrial development.

Keywords: structural develpment, agricultural sector develpment, demographic dividend, stage of economic development

JEL Classification: O1, O4

Suggested Citation

Kim, Hee-Sik and Ncube, Mthuli, Agricultural Sector Development and Structural Transformation: Sub-Saharan Africa versus East Asia (April 11, 2013). Bank of Korea Working Paper No. 2013-8, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2552979 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2552979

Hee-Sik Kim (Contact Author)

The Bank of Korea ( email )

39, Namdaemun-ro, Jung-gu
Seoul, 04531
Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

Bank of Korea - Economic Research Institute ( email )

110, 3-Ga, Namdaemunno, Jung-Gu
Seoul 100-794
Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

Mthuli Ncube

BARBICAN Asset Management ( email )

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Financial Markets Group

Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

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