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Research in the field of economic development is increasingly engaged with questions of political economy, of how political choices, institutional structures, and forms of governance influence the economic choices made by governments and citizens. We summarize recent developments in the field and introduce a set of papers that illustrate key themes and methodological innovations associated with the ‘new’ political economy of development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In many developing countries less than half the population has access to formal financial services, and in most of Africa less than one in five households has access. Lack of access to finance is often the critical mechanism for generating persistent income inequality, as well as slower economic growth. Hence expanding access remains an important challenge across the world, leaving much for governments to do. However, not all government actions are equally effective and some policies can even be counterproductive. This paper sets out principles for effective government policy on broadening access, drawing on the available evidence and illustrating with examples. The paper concludes with directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, many African states replaced authoritarian political regimes with competitive electoral systems; the economies of many also began to grow, some for the first time in decades. We argue that democratic reform led to economic growth, as did Acemoglu, Naidu, Restrepo and Robinson in an earlier paper. Our approach differs from theirs in that while we to seek to identify a causal relationship between democracy and development, we build our analysis around the qualitative accounts of regional specialists and the reasoning of political economists. Where others test for the existence of a causal account, we test for the existence of specific casual mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How much do countries in Africa benefit from their neighbours' growth? This paper shows that neighbouring growth increases a country's 'foreign market access' (FMA)--boosting export demand and increasing local output. Using luminosity data to exploit within-country variation, I find that between 1992 and 2012 domestic output responded to increases in FMA with an elasticity in the range 0.3 to 0.6. By reducing trade costs, countries can increase their FMA, and so increase the spillover of neighbouring growth into domestic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The newly formed African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) special programme have recommitted Africa to the development and application of science, technology and innovation towards socio-economic development and transformation of the continent. This paper looks at the AU/NEPAD policy frameworks for promoting S&T development. The paper argues that the AU/NEPAD frameworks now provide new direction for Africa. The revival of S&T initiatives in the various sub-regional organisations and the interest and commitment shown by some countries, such as South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and other architects and supporters of NEPAD S&T initiatives, including the intention of some bilateral and multilateral development agencies to improving S&T capacity building, have added fresh impetus to the new direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Built with great expectations to connect Africa with growing global trade in the nineteenth century, many of Africa's cities today have economies that are predominantly local--not regional or global in their reach. At the same time, Africa's cities are experiencing rapid population growth, with the urban population predicted to exceed 1 billion by 2040. Why have Africa's urban economies not been able to keep pace with their burgeoning populations and get into the production of regionally and globally tradable goods and services? And what should policy-makers focus on to renew expectations about Africa's cities? This paper makes the case that as long as African cities lack functioning land markets and regulations and early, coordinated infrastructure investments, they will remain local cities: closed to regional and global markets, trapped into producing only locally traded goods and services, and limited in their economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explaining cross-country differences in growth rates requires not only an understanding of the link between growth and public policies, but also an understanding of why countries choose different public policies. This paper shows that ethnic diversity helps explain cross-country differences in public policies and other economic indicators. In the case of Sub-Saharan Africa, economic growth is associated with low schooling, political instability, underdeveloped financial systems, distorted foreign exchange markets, high government deficits, and insufficient infrastructure. Africa's high ethnic fragmentation explains a significant part of most of these characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents data and analyzes the structure of employment in 13 African economies at the administrative unit level, with a focus on the role of services. We provide two novel pieces of evidence. First, we present a descriptive snapshot of changes in the composition of employment over time and across geographies. This reveals evidence of structural transformation toward services and service-related occupations at subnational level and provides a fine-grained overview of who works in services and where and how this has changed over time. Second, we provide correlations between services and economic development, using per capita nightlight luminosity as a proxy. We document (1) a strong positive association between high skills services and economic development; (2) substantial heterogeneity across industries within services; and (3) a mediating role of market conditions and technology in the relation between services and economic development. Overall, our work highlights an important role of services activities for employment, skills, and economic development in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to finance helps explain the link between the historical African slave trade and current gross domestic product.We first present mistrust, weakened institutions, and ethnic fractionalization as plausible historical channels linking the slave trade to modern finance and development.We then show (i) the slave trade is consistently linked to reduced access to the formal and trade credit needed by modern firms, (ii) this shortage particularly reduces capital investment in smaller firms not in business groups, and (iii) the slave trade cannot explain most other business obstacles, suggesting that long-term societal shocks are exceptionally important for finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State capacity matters for growth. I test Bates' explanation of pre-colonial African states. He argues that trade across ecological boundaries promoted states. I find that African societies in ecologically diverse environments had more centralized states. This is robust to reverse causation, omitted heterogeneity, and alternative interpretations of the link between diversity and states. The result survives including non-African societies. I test mechanisms connecting trade to states, and find that trade supported class stratification between rulers and ruled. I underscore the importance of ethnic institutions and inform our knowledge of the effects of trade on institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its structural flaws and excesses, its regularly prophesized demise and foretold death, capitalism has remained predominant worldwide because under the appropriate institutional framework it offers the most viable path for optimal industrial upgrading, structural transformation, and economic development. In this article, I discuss a particular vulnerability of capitalism, that is, its high propensity to produce major risks, which exacerbates inequality and social tensions. I analyse the differential set of risk-coping options between poor households and non-poor. I then focus on African versions of capitalism, which reflect the peculiar historicity of the continent, marked by centuries of foreign domination, pervasive violence, randomness in economic policy-making, and power struggles not arbitrated by constitutional or legal means. I highlight the root causes of the distorted, extraverted, and largely ineffective forms of capitalism in vogue in Africa and suggest a policy framework for resurrecting capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the aspects of rehabilitation in refugee-impacted areas in the Great Lakes region in Africa. It explores the effects of refugee population in the economic, social and environmental situation in the region. It looks into the principles which can be used to develop rehabilitation activities in refugee areas. It also examines the link between refugee assistance programs and long-term development.

We evaluate the impact of the African slave trade between 1400 and 1900 on modern household finance. Exploiting cross-country and cross-ethnic group differences in the intensity with which people were enslaved and exported from Africa, we find that slave exports during the 1400–1900 period are negatively associated with current measures of household (a) access to financial services, (b) access to credit, (c) use of mobile finance and (d) trust in financial institutions, suggesting that the slave trade has had an enduring, deleterious effect on household finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's increased trade with, and investment in, Africa have boosted the continent's economic growth but have also generated considerable controversy. The aggregate data on China's overseas direct investment (ODI) in African countries reveal that China's share of the stock of foreign investment is small, though growing rapidly. China's attraction to resource-rich countries is no different from Western investment. China's overall ODI is uncorrelated with a measure of rule of law, whereas Western investment favors the better governance environments. As a result, Chinese investment in strong and weak governance environments is about the same, but its share of foreign investment is higher in the weak governance states. Micro data from MOFCOM's database on registered Chinese firms investing in Africa between 1998 and 2012 provide a different perspective. Key words in project descriptions are used to code the investments into 25 sectors. This database captures the small and medium private firms investing in Africa. Contrary to common perceptions, there are few projects in natural resource sectors. Most projects are in services, with a significant number in manufacturing as well. Country-sector-level regressions based on firms' transaction-level data find that Chinese ODI, both horizontal and vertical, is profit-driven, like investment from other countries. In particular, regressions show that Chinese ODI is relatively more concentrated in skill-intensive sectors in skill-abundant countries but in capital-intensive sectors in capital-scarce countries. These patterns are mostly observed in politically unstable countries, suggesting stronger incentives to seek profits in tougher environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the Luxembourg Rail Protocol to the Cape Town Convention will enter into force in the very near future, the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law is currently working towards the adoption of a fourth Protocol under the Cape Town Convention umbrella, which deals with mining, agricultural, and construction equipment (MAC Protocol). This article examines the common ground and core differences between the two legal texts. To this end, the article first introduces the basic features of the Cape Town Convention system and then focuses on the expected macro- and microeconomic impact of both the Rail Protocol and the MAC Protocol. It moves on to analyse the application of the Cape Town Convention to the railway sector in areas where four major industry-specific obstacles are needed to be overcome and contrasts the draft MAC Protocol, elaborating on its unique features. The authors conclude that both Protocols will not only enhance the legal position of creditors but also bring about significant macro-economic benefits. In addition, the draft MAC Protocol features several innovative provisions and thus can be expected to become a reference point in the ongoing debate on the modernization of the secured transactions framework both at the international and the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the effect of malaria on economic development in Africa over the very long run. Using data on the prevalence of the mutation that causes sickle cell disease, we measure the impact of malaria on mortality in Africa prior to the period in which formal data were collected. Our estimate is that in the more afflicted regions, malaria lowered the probability of surviving to adulthood by about ten percentage points, which is twice the current burden of the disease. The reduction in malaria mortality has been roughly equal to the reduction in other causes of mortality. We then ask whether the estimated burden of malaria had an effect on economic development in the period before European contact. Using data at the ethnic group level, we find little evidence of a negative relationship between malaria burden and population density or other measures of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is urbanizing rapidly, and this creates both opportunities and challenges. Labour productivity appears to be much higher in developing-world cities than in rural areas, and historically urbanization is strongly correlated with economic growth. Education seems to be a strong complement to urbanization, and entrepreneurial human capital correlates strongly with urban success. Immigrants provide a natural source of entrepreneurship, both in the US and in Africa, which suggests that making African cities more livable can generate economic benefits by attracting talent. Reducing the negative externalities of urban life requires a combination of infrastructure, incentives, and institutions. Appropriate institutions can mean independent public authorities, public-private partnerships, and non-profit entities, depending on the setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We know less about growth and poverty based on numbers in African economies than we would like to think. Numbers are soft, and data availability is sparse, sporadic, and uneven. For researchers and data users, whether engaged in inferential or descriptive statistics, the message is that studying Africa by numbers can be misleading. This research note surveys the knowledge gap and provides guidance on how to and how not to study Africa by numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the expansion of women's political representation in sub-Saharan Africa has been nothing short of remarkable. The number of women legislators in African parliaments tripled between 1990 and 2010, resulting in African countries having among the highest rates of women's legislative representation in the world. The dominant explanations for this change have been institutional factors (namely, the adoption of gender quotas and presence of proportional representation systems) and democratization. We suggest that existing research has not gone far enough to evaluate the effects of one powerful structural change: the end of civil war. Using Latent Growth Curve modeling, we show that the end of long-standing armed conflict had large positive impacts on women's political representation, above what can be explained by electoral institutions and democratization alone. However, post-conflict increases in women's legislative representation materialize only after 2000, amid emerging international and regional norms of women's political inclusion. In countries exiting armed conflict in these recent years, women's movement into national legislatures follows a trajectory of social change that is much faster and more extensive than what we observe in other African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debate on the 'securitization' of aid and international development since 9/11 has been anchored in two key claims: that the phenomenon has been driven and imposed by western governments and that this is wholly unwelcome and deleterious for those in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world. This article challenges both of these assumptions by demonstrating how a range of African regimes have not only benefited from this dispensation but have also actively encouraged and shaped it, even incorporating it into their own militarized state-building projects. Drawing on the cases of Chad, Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda-four semi-authoritarian polities which have been sustained by the securitization trend-we argue that these developments have not been an accidental by-product of the global 'war on terror'. Instead, we contend, they have been the result of a deliberate set of choices and policy decisions by these African governments as part of a broader 'illiberal state-building' agenda. In delineating this argument we outline four major strategies employed by these regimes in this regard: 'playing the proxy'; simultaneous 'socialization' of development policy and 'privatization' of security affairs; making donors complicit in de facto regional security arrangements; and constructing regime 'enemies' as broader, international threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the international engagement with Africa from the First World War and the apex of colonial rule through to the present day. It is argued that there have been dramatic shifts throughout this period-from increasing interventionism on the part of the colonial state, to decolonization and the emergence of nation-states with independent foreign policy programmes, to the predations and influences of the Cold War, to the developmentalism and humanitarianism of the contemporary era. Yet, there has also been marked continuity in terms of policy, perception and practice. In particular, Africa has long been seen in terms of economic opportunity-a place where markets and raw materials abound-and of military and political threat, a place in which intrinsic instability makes external intervention both desirable and inevitable. While immediate contexts have changed over time, the international engagement with the continent remains essentially economic and military. A concern for democratization and development represents a relatively new element, although even this can be traced to the paternalistic humanitarianism of the colonial era and, earlier still, moral stances toward Africa in the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have identified ethnic divisions as a leading cause of underdevelopment, due partially to their adverse effects on public goods. We investigate this issue in post-war Sierra Leone, one of the world's poorest and most ethnically diverse countries. To address concerns over endogenous local ethnic composition, we use an instrumental variables strategy using earlier census data on ethnicity and include several historical and geographic covariates. Perhaps surprisingly, we find that local diversity is not associated with worse public goods provision across multiple outcomes and specifications, with precisely estimated zeros. We investigate the role of historical factors in generating the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the African Union (AU) following its 10th anniversary on July 9, 2012. Particular focus is given to the role that the AU plays in Africa, including in humanitarian intervention, economic development, promoting democracy and mediating in civil wars. An overview of the AU's origin, which derives from the philosophy of Pan-Africanism, is provided. The AU's policies and frameworks to promote economic development, help grant Africa's citizens access to health care and education and to monitor African government practices, including its New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), are discussed.

This article discusses the ebb and flow of theoretical ideas in African Studies, specifically the interface between African Studies and Development Studies. It explores the epistemological nature of interdisciplinarity in African Studies, interrogating when and how theoretical insight may contribute to an understanding of material reality and welfare improvement in some circumstances, and miss the mark by a wide margin in other cases. The purpose of this exercise is to stimulate reflection on the contribution of African Studies to continental and global intellectual and material change, juxtaposing African Studies theory and its role as an applied field of study. This necessitates consideration of Africa's position in the interplay of world politics and the power of agenda-setting international institutions, notably the World Bank. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article adds empirical and historical depth to the debate about security sector reform (SSR) by analysing British-led reform of the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) against the backdrop of late-colonial policing reforms. It argues that the security–development logic that frames SSR skates gingerly over a difficult problem familiar from the late-colonial period: that of investing sufficient coercive capacity in the state for it to withstand threats without simultaneously making it more effective at oppression. Whereas colonial discourse balanced the goal of introducing a civilian order against relatively specific advice on how to organize and use force in emergencies, the security–development discourse offers little guidance as to the type and level of force the police should be equipped with in the service of development. The supply of more than £1m worth of weapons and munitions to the SLP illustrates the inherent dilemma of SSR in weak states, and by strengthening the coercive capacity of the state it may ultimately jeopardize the success of police reform in Sierra Leone. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses exploitative German forestry efforts in both the primitive Central African rainforest and Poland's Białowieza forest in the first half of the 20th century and their connection to the concept of Urwälder, or a fairly mythic belief in outlying primitive superstitious human groups. The author connects scientific forestry practices to the development of German economic imperialism during this period, and comments on Africans' ability to resist colonial labor exploitation. He also argues that the practices of the United Nations' (UN) Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) demonstrate the ability of Germany's international development model to outlast World War II.

This article traces how African incomes have been measured through history, and shows that there has been a conflict of aims between producers and users of national income estimates. Politicians and international organizations seek income measures that reflect current political and economic priorities and achievements. Thus the importance given to markets, the state, and peasants in the estimates varies through time and space. Meanwhile statisticians aim to produce a measure that gives the best possible reflection of the economy given the available data and definitions at any time. Scholars prefer a measure that is consistent through time and space so that ‘progress’ can be measured, compared, and analysed, while not being able to reach consensus on how ‘progress’ is best calculated or defined. The result is not an objective measure of progress, but rather an expression of development priorities determined by changes in the political economy. The article provides a much-needed study of the ability of the statistical offices to provide income statistics independently and regularly. These data are of crucial importance as they enter the public domain in policy evaluations, political debates, and progress towards lofty aims such as the Millennium Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Following advice from the World Bank, and hoping for economic growth and independence from donors, a number of African countries have opened up opportunities for large-scale mining by foreign investors over the last decade and a half. Tanzania, one of the ‘new’ mining countries, is now among the largest gold producers in Africa, but investor-friendly contracts have resulted in extremely low government revenues from mining, totalling less than 5 percent of what the country receives in development aid. In response to widespread discontent, and acknowledging the plight of affected communities, the government amended the 1998 Mining Act in 2010. However, improved legal provisions may have limited effect if the present governance challenges are not resolved. The article demonstrates that the legal provisions meant to protect the rights of affected people are not followed, and that poorly functioning local democracy is particularly dangerous for pastoralists who are ‘represented’ by local authorities often dominated by non-pastoralist immigrants. Compensation to smallholder farmers is either non-existent or too low – or the compensation money is embezzled by the authorities entrusted to distribute it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During the Cold War, state-led education exchange programmes between post-colonial states and the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) were common. The biggest such project, the School of Friendship (SdF), sent 899 Mozambican children for socialist-inspired schooling in the GDR. By the time they returned to Mozambique in 1988, the transition from socialist-revolutionary state to capitalist society was under way. This article discusses the legacies of socialist education, focusing on the lives of some of those who spent the decisive years of adolescence in the GDR. The narratives give insights into the contradictory social reality of this historical period, showing how the SdF equipped the participants with ‘modern’ virtues that became vital for their future lives, but which had also become largely obsolete by the time they returned to Mozambique. The SdF could thus be judged as a highly politicized programme where children were treated as pawns in a wider political game, while at the same time new horizons opened for its participants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the British government's commitment to Africa during Tony Blair's time as Prime Minister. Drawing on interviews with politicians from across the political spectrum and with officials involved in Africa policy, it shows how British work and relationships in Africa are described in thin and highly idealized ways, depicting a project seemingly able to transcend ordinary politics. The article suggests that this idealization of Africa has been valued by state actors for the ways in which it appeared to connect them to a 'good' and 'noble' cause, and in particular the way it enhanced their perceptions of the capacity and potency of the British state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africanists have long criticized the social construction, and consequences, of technical knowledge. Colonial science was seen as a particularly problematic enterprise, moulded by authoritarian colonial states, wherein science 'delineated the relationship of power and authority between rulers and ruled': Much the same critique has been applied to post-colonial experts and expertise, becoming almost paradigmatic in the literature. This article seeks to re-open this debate, pointing to the diverse and changing location of scientists; the salience of scientific work in constructing categories and understandings for historians and social scientists; the value of trying to understand scientific explanations, as opposed simply to analyse their application in coercive policies; and the degree to which experts have sometimes incorporated local knowledge. The article draws examples from veterinary science and policy in southern Africa, and seeks to move beyond the inversions of colonial thinking in post-colonial analysis and provide instead a platform for interdisciplinary research strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information about the briefing of African trade addressed by Our Common Interest, the Report of the Commission for Africa, and discussed at the Gleneagles G-8 meeting in July 2005. This briefing has carried trade policy debates concerning African countries are not sufficiently integrated into the global economy, trade problems are caused by lack of market access, and problems for Africa's agricultural producers are caused by subsidies in rich countries.

This article reviews the author's acquaintance with the literature of economic development, with particular reference to Africa, over the last 50 years. The belief that this development is propelled by the supply of capital, effectively of international aid, is criticized, and emphasis put instead on the effective demand for capital. This demand has been low in Africa; hence much capital investment has been of low or no productivity, and aid has generally failed to fulfil expectations. Aid continues nonetheless, since it serves donor as well as recipient interests and political opposition to it is weak. Free trade and free migration would be more effective means of raising African living standards but, in contrast to aid, they do encounter strong political opposition, in the one case from producer interests, in the other from nationalist ideology and racial bigotry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the implications of the presidential elections in Zimbabwe on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). Goals of the NEPAD: Overview on the political crisis in Zimbabwe; Response by African elites on the political crisis in Zimbabwe.

The article focuses on the need for communication research in the development process of Africa. According to the author, several Third World development specialists have advocated that culture-specific communication strategies must be implemented for development of the continent. Some of the factors identified by researchers, which pose problem for development in Africa, include the lack of a system for delivering knowledge and skills, and the lack of cooperation of the local people in the designing, planning and implementation of development projects.

The article focuses on the impact of socialist ideology on the economic development in the tropical region of Africa. Despite the diversity of socialist doctrine, most Africans who call themselves socialists do hold in common certain economic attitudes or preconceptions. All of them, first of all, view "capitalism" as an unsuitable system for Africa. It is the economy of the colonizers; capitalism and colonialism are really two sides of the same coin. It is old-fashioned, out of place in the modem world. It is inadequate to meet the pressing development needs of poor countries in general and Africa in particular. Individual enterprise cannot be counted on to mobilize resources on the scale required in Africa and the market mechanism is a wasteful, highly imperfect regulator of economic activity. Development by the "capitalist," free enterprise route is too slow. There is too little private capital accumulation, too few entrepreneurs. Capitalism is, at least according to President Nkrumah, "too complicated." It would, moreover, maintain and even intensify the hold of foreign capital and the dominance of agricultural exports in the economy.