How instability lowers African growth

This paper aims to assess the role of instabilities on Africa'slow rates of growth during the seventies and eighties, usingcross-section econometric estimates, on a sample of Africanand non-African countries and two pooled decades. Africa exhibitshigher 'primary' instabilities (climatic, terms of trade andpolitical instabilities), i.e., instabilities which are structuralrather than the result of policy. These 'primary' instabilitiesinfluence African growth more through a lower growth residualthan through a lower average rate of investment. They do soby their impact on economic policy, which is evidenced by theirinfluence on two 'intermediate' instabilities, the instabilitiesof the rate of investment and of the real exchange rate, whichsignificantly lower the rate of growth.     

Economic research and economic growth: Evidence from East Asian economies

Based upon page counts of articles published in 60 quality economics journals, the role of economic research is examined for five East Asian economies. In Hong Kong, causality runs bi-directionally between research productivity and economic growth; in Japan, the causal effects tend to be one direction from economic growth to research publications; in Korea and Taiwan, causality runs the other way around from publications to growth; and in Singapore, the causal effects are small and insignificant. Socioeconomic differences in each economy help to explain the various causal directions found.     

Commodity price instability and economic goal attainment in developing countries

This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical micro and macro foundations for the frequent claims that instabilities in international commodity markets have deleterious effects on goal attainment in primary-commodity exporting developing countries. This review leads to the conclusion that the available evidence does not support these claims. The paper concludes with speculation on why such claims are so strong despite the lack of supporting evidence: perhaps it is because of measurement problems and perhaps because of small but articulate groups with vested interests in overstating the problem.     

Political instability, investment and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper explores the relationship between political instabilityand economic growth in Sub-Saharan African nations. A more comprehensivemeasure of political instability than has previously been developedis used in combination with a simultaneous equations model anddynamic panel estimation approach to produce several interestinginferences. First, the statistically significant inverse relationshipbetween political instability and economic growth identifiedby earlier studies is confirmed by the estimates presented here.Second, the estimated system of equations indicates that economicgrowth and political instability are jointly endogenous. Third,in addition to the direct impact that political instabilityhas upon growth, estimates confirm the hypothesis that politicalinstability indirectly decreases economic growth by decreasinglong-run capital accumulation. Fourth, failure to account forthe dynamic nature of growth equations as well as the endogeneityof explanatory variables may produce biased effects of politicalinstability on growth. Fifth, the broad measure of politicalinstability we use in this study can better capture the effectsof political instability on economic growth than 'elite' instabilitythat has been used by earlier researchers. Finally, principalcomponents estimation is used to develop a measure of politicalinstability that can serve as an alternative to the arbitraryweighting scheme used in previous research.     

Recent U.S. economic policies and the Central Caribbean economies

This study examines the trade and investment performances of three economies in the Central Caribbean region since the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) and associated programs. We find that the rapid growth in nontraditional exports from these economies to the United States did not necessarily translate into net foreign exchange earnings. On a per capita basis, export-related investment in Haiti was much lower than in the other two economies — Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. As a percentage of the labor force, gross employment gains for Jamaica have been significantly larger than those in either the Dominican Republic or Haiti. It appears that the policies favoring expansion in the offshore sector may foster employment opportunities of females, especially where traditional sectors are in decline.     

A South African national economic and environmental policyframework

Most contemporary economic theories upon which conventional national accounting is based regard man‐made assets as productive capital to be depreciated against the value of production. Such production, without replenishment or renewal of the asset or capital stock, is not sustainable. Natural resource assets, however, are not valued in the same way. There is no accounting mechanism to reflect the decrease in potential future pro duction as the resource diminishes or deteriorates. In 1993, the United Nations adopted its guidelines for a ‘System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting’ (SEEA), which allows for the adjustment of the System of National Accounts (SNA) for natural asset stripping and degradation, providing a format for national accounting which assesses the viability and sustainability of economic growth. The concept of an SEEA for South Africa was pursued in 1994 as a pilot study. The framework to be devel oped was termed the South African National Economic Environmental Planning (SANEEP) model. The framework can be used to predict the environmental impact, in terms of natural resource use and degradation, of economic growth, both nationally and at the sectoral level. In addition, it can be used to test the sectoral economic impact, and thus the desirability of certain types of environmental economic instruments such as pol lution taxes, or the imposition of royalties on mineral extraction. Hence, the SANEEP framework has the potential to become a broad‐based, integrated environmental and economic planning tool. This article describes the SANEEP model, its information requirements and applications.     

Export instability and economic structure: An east-west comparison

Conclusion The purpose of this paper was to extend Massell’s model of export instability to the case of the European market and centrally planned economies. Using a common measure of export instability we first saw that the MEs displayed significantly greater export instability than the CPEs. Applying our extension of the Massell model we then found that this difference could be satisfactorily explained by the “other” structural characteristics of the economies involved, and one need not therefore invoke the difference in economic systems. In particular, exports of food and raw materials were each found to be significantly associated with greater export instability, while there was also a strong suggestion that countries with higher GNPC tended to experience, net of the other variables in the system, a greater degree of instability. Finally, a comparison of these results with those obtained by Massell revealed striking contrasts, indicating that very different policy conclusions could be drawn from the results of the two studies.     

Political instability and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Further evidence

After more than three decades of independence, many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have not yet developed stable political systems. Since the 1960s, when African countries began to achieve independence, many of them have encountered significant levels of institutional instability. In recent years, political violence has emerged as the most common method of governmental change. In this study, the effects of political violence on economic and human development in Sub-Saharan Africa are examined. It is seen that political instability is a significant constraint to the improvement of the human condition in the region.     

Evaluating participation in African economic integration schemes: the case of the North African Arab Maghreb

This article makes an attempt to assess the significance ofeconomic integration among African countries, taking the ArabMaghreb Union (AMU) of 1989 as a case study, judged from theperspective of one member country - Algeria. The main conclusionto emerge from the empirical findings is that, while the existenceof trade expansion effects can be demonstrated, their impacton the Algerian economy is quite modest.     

Political instability and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Some recent evidence

Political instability has become endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa. Since the early 1960s, when most of the African countries began to achieve independence, more than fifty coups have taken place in the continent. This rise in political decay has significantly affected economic development. This study examines the relationship between elite political instability and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. It concludes that lack of political stability has contributed significantly to economic stagnation in the continent of Africa.     

The color of money: The effects of foreign direct investment on economic growth in transition economies

During the initial phase of transformation to a market economy many of the Eastern European and Baltic countries experienced an initial decline of output. This paper explains, both theoretically and empirically, why they experienced negative growth initially, and how some of them started to get over and recorded positive growth recently. As a vehicle to transfer technology and managerial skills to the transition economies, as well as to increase capital work, foreign direct investment (FDI) is regarded important. Production function with a low elasticity of substitution between two inputs is employed to capture the dynamic short-run movement of these economies. Cross-sectional and panel data, are utilized to analyze the short-run dynamic movement of equilibrium paths of transformation to a market economy. The findings confirm that total factor productivity and GDP in the region grew together with the inflow of FDI, and the marginal contribution of FDI to growth is greater than that of domestic investment. JEL no. O50, P39, F21 This project is financially supproted by the ARC Small Grant, Department Research Grant, Department of Economics, UWA and Division Research Grant, Commerce, Division, Lincoln University.     

The role for competition policy in economic development: the South African experience

Competition policy is part of the new international orthodoxy in economic policy and, at the same time, was viewed in South Africa as a crucial element of economic transformation. This article reviews the role of competition policy in economic development and the experiences of developing countries such as Brazil and South Korea. It then assesses the effects of competition policy in South Africa after 1994, with the main focus being on the performance of the new competition institutions established in 1999. The case of the steel industry is used to assess the approach and impact of the institutions in a concentrated sector that has simultaneously undergone processes of liberalisation and domestic consolidation.     

An economic appraisal of a South African producer co‐operative

In an earlier article in this journal, the authors analysed the financial results of a South African producer co‐operative over a ten‐year period. The study focused on the commercial viability of the cooperative in terms of the exigencies of the market place expressed in current prices. In the present study, cost‐benefit techniques are used to extend the analysis to an investigation of the economic viability of the co‐operative and an assessment of whether scarce financial and other resources have been misallocated. The concept of investment cost per Job is widened to include the cost of maintaining a Job. Various scenarios such as sales growth, lower wages and the benefits of government incentives were simulated to analyse the viability of the enterprise under differing conditions.