The Role of Capital Accumulation, Adjustment and Structural Change for Economic Take-Off: Empirical Evidence from African Growth Episodes

Metals or Management? Explaining Africa's Recent Economic Growth Performance

“…Definitions and sources of data are given in the data appendix. 4 Berthelemy and Soderling (2001) find that diversification of exports (to OECD countries) has a positive impact on total factor productivity and growth. However, African countries had difficulty diversifying their exports and only a few countries (e.g., Mauritius, Botswana, Ghana, and to a lesser extent Uganda) (Berthelemy and Soderling (2001), p. 333) had managed to do so as of the time of their study.…”

“…Two early studies of African economic growth include Sachs and Warner (1997) and Berthelemy and Soderling (2001). Sachs and Warner (1997) investigate the sources of slow growth for Sub-Saharan Africa between 1965 and 1990.…”

“…Rather, poor policies-especially insufficient "openness"-explain much of Africa's slow growth between 1965 and 1990, they argue. Berthelemy and Soderling (2001) use growth accounting to determine the drivers of income and productivity growth during periods of extended growth for 27 African countries in two time periods: (1) from the 60s to the late 80s and (2) from the 80s to 1996. Their panel estimations reveal that in the first period growth was driven more by capital accumulation (investment) than by total factor productivity growth, while in the second period growth was driven more by total factor productivity growth than by capital accumulation (investment).…”

Diversification économique territoriale :

“…Par ailleurs, pendant que certains chercheurs s'attelaient à déterminer les conditions de réussite de la diversification des structures productives des économies, d'autres, en tirant les leçons des expériences historiques de développement dans les différentes sous-régions du monde, ont amorcé des réflexions sur les conditions et les politiques menant à une diversification réussie (UNECA, 2004;Berthélemy et Sôderling, 2001;Feenstra et coll., 1999).…”

Sectoral Performance in the African Economy - Some Issues and Trends

“…The share of agricultural products in total merchandise exports ranges from a high of more than 80 per cent for Sudan and Burundi to a low of less than 1 per cent for Gabon and Equatorial Guinea (UNECA and AU 2007;Rena 2007). Their leading export destination is the Eastern Union (EU) and the most important commodities exported are fish and crustaceans, fruits and nuts, cotton, and vegetables (Berthelemy and Soderling 2001).…”