1st Edition

Sustainable Growth in the African Economy How Durable is Africa�s Recent Performance?

By Jeffrey James Copyright 2017
    174 Pages
    by Routledge

    174 Pages 14 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The current growth path in sub-Saharan Africa is not following the Lewis model where labour moves from low-productivity agriculture to higher productivity manufacturing. Instead, it is moving directly to inappropriate (import and labour-saving) methods. This book seeks to show how this distorted growth process leaves out the major resource of these countries – labour – and ends up creating unstable employment and underemployment, leading to inequality and poverty. In this way it demonstrates how the entire growth process may be rendered unstable and unsustainable.



    Sustainable Growth in the African Economy considers whether the relatively rapid growth of recent years can be maintained or improved upon, with a focus on the process of industrialisation. Basing itself on a well-known dual-economy model, the proposed book focuses on several major problems of industrialisation, which has long been seen as the means of structural change in an economy which begins from a low income level. The book considers how the future trajectory of sub-Saharan Africa compares to recent success stories on other continents, and explains how factors such as rapid population growth and capital and import-intensive technology in manufacturing could foreshadow future social and political problems.



    This book will be essential reading to students and policymakers who are concerned with the existing pattern of African growth.

    List of figures



    List of tables



    Acknowledgements





    1 Introduction





    PART I Defining the issues



    2 Structural change in historical perspective



    3 The Lewis model in alternative historical contexts



    4 The (un)sustainability of Africa’s growth path





    PART II Countervailing tendencies and policies



    5 Towards labour-intensity in African manufacturing



    6 The new global economic order: prospects for African manufacturing



    7 A note on services as a growth escalator in Africa



    8 Is there a renewed role for appropriate technology in the new global economic order?





    PART III Building technological capabilities



    9 Trait-making for labour-intensive technology in Africa: insights from infrastructure



    10 A critique of macro measures of technological capabilities in an African perspective



    11 Conclusions





    References



    Index

    Biography

    Jeffrey James is Emeritus Professor of Development Economics at Tilburg University, the Netherlands.

    'Africa can solve its long-standing unemployment and poverty problems by tapping into one of its major resource - labour.After thorough analysis of the underlying facts of development and growth trajectory of African countries, this book highlights on the risk ahead as a result of current path, and warns against ignoring the socio-economic consequences of development modality vigorously pursued by most African countries. As such the book provides a timely and relevant insight for policy-makers to look back and take into account the institutional and social implications of the current development trajectory that is loaded with technology and capital heavy projects. I recommend that everybody with interest in African development should read this book.' — Professor Adugna Lemi, University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA

    ‘The book by Jeffrey James is important as it looks at durability of growth in Africa rather than simply on growth rates, and as it is based on a new approach to explain structural change and industrialization processes in Africa.’ — Professor Karl Wohlmuth, University of Bremen, Germany