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10 - African Economic Development

Growth, Reversals, and Deep Transitions

from Part I - Regional Developments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2021

By
Ewout Frankema
Edited by
Stephen Broadberry  and
Kyoji Fukao
Stephen Broadberry
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Kyoji Fukao
Affiliation:
Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo
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Summary

African per capita income levels have fallen significantly behind other world regions during the long twentieth century. But despite the outward appearance of economic stagnation, African economies underwent profound transitions. This chapter contrasts African patterns of recurrent growth and contraction, and persisting specialization in primary commodity production, to deeper changes in factor endowments, economic geographies, and institutions governing states and markets. It discusses the periodization of growth cycles in relation to global market forces and colonial and postcolonial economic policies, and questions how the deeper currents of change have affected the capacity of African societies to outgrow poverty.

Keywords

Africaeconomic developmenteconomic growthpovertyfactor endowmentstradeinstitutions.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World , pp. 276 - 305
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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