Metals or management? Explaining Africa's recent economic growth performance
Explanations for Africa’s poor long-run growth performance have varied over time. The theories examined include geography (Jeffrey D. Sachs and Andrew Warner 1997); institutions (William Easterly and Ross Levine 1997; Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson 2001, 2002; Nathan Nunn 2007, 2008); health (David Bloom and Sachs 1998; Gregory N. Price 2003); and economic dependency (William Darity 1982). More recently, economists have attempted to explain what The Economist has called Africa’s new “period of unparalleled economic success” (The Economist 2008a, 33). Average annual real GDP growth was 1.8 percent between 1980 and 1989 and increased to 4.4 percent between 2000 and 2005. Per head, real growth in Africa fell by 1.1 percent between 1980 and 1989 and increased 2.1 percent between 2000 and 2005 (World Bank 2007a). This recent reversal of fortune may stem from the broad economic reforms that many African countries instituted during the 1990s, especially macroeconomic stabilization and financial-market liberalization. But it may also be due to the recent boom in international prices of oil, copper, and other primary commodities that constitute a significant fraction of Africa’s exports (International Monetary Fund (IMF) 2006). Metals or Management? Explaining Africa’s Recent Economic Growth Performance