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Weeks, John (2001) Growth Variability among and within African Countries: An Aspect of Unsustained Development. CDPR Discussion Paper 1801. In: Paper prepared for Committee for Development Policy of the United Nations, Expert Meeting, 21-23 February 2001, New York. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

There is a considerable literature on the growth performance of the subSaharan countries, which tends to focus on average rates of growth over shorter or longer periods. This paper demonstrates that a key characteristic of the countries of the sub-Saharan region is the instability of growth rates, across countries, but, even more, for individual countries over time. The dispersion of country growth rates is not normally distributed; on the contrary, measures of dispersion are negatively correlated with long-term growth rates. It is argued that this instability, greater than in other regions, is the result of underdevelopment. Reducing instability is a task of long-run development policy, rather than short-term macro management. Further, it is probably the case that aspects of market deregulation make very poor countries more prone to instability.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Items (Paper)
SOAS Departments & Centres: Legacy Departments > Faculty of Law and Social Sciences > Department of Development Studies
School Research Centres > Centre for Development Policy and Research (CDPR)
Date Deposited: 24 Feb 2009 12:20
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/6509

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