Users and producers of African income: Measuring the progress of African economies

African Affairs

Volumn 110, Issue 439, 2011, Pages 169-190

  Jerven, Morten ^a  

^a SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ECONOMIC HISTORY; INCOME; POLITICAL ECONOMY; REGIONAL ECONOMY;

AFRICA;

EID: 79953737923     PISSN: 00019909     EISSN: 14682621     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adq079     Document Type: Article

References (74)

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2. See also Morten Jerven, 'Random growth in Africa? Lessons from an evaluation of the growth evidence on Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, 1965-1995', Journal of Development Studies 46, 2 (2010), pp. 274-94.
3. Jeffrey G. Williamson, 'Discussion', Journal of Economic History 43, 1 (1983), pp. 56-60.
4. For a discussion of the implications of the lack of economic data on African economies beyond 1960, see Morten Jerven, 'African growth recurring: an economic history perspective on African growth episodes, 1690-2010' (Simons Papers in Security and Development, No. 4/2010, School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver).
5. Steven N. Durlauf, Paul A. Johnson and Jonathan R. W. Temple, 'Growth econometrics' in Philippe Aghion and Steven Durlauf (eds), Handbook of Economic Growth (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2004), p. 559.
6. For a critique of the economic growth literature on Africa, see Morten Jerven, 'The quest for the African dummy: explaining African postcolonial economic performance revisited', Journal of International Development, .
7. Michael Ward, 'Review of the measurement of real product', Economic Journal 81, 324 (1971), pp. 974-7, p. 977.
8. Republic of Kenya, Economic Survey 1967 (Nairobi, 1968), p. 2.
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10. William Easterly, 'The lost decades: explaining developing countries' stagnation in spite of policy reform 1980-1998', Journal of Economic Growth 6, 2 (2001), pp. 135-57.
11. Dudley Seers, 'The role of national income estimates in the statistical policy of an under-developed area', Review of Economic Studies 20, 3 (1952-53), pp. 159-68, p. 160.
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35. Morten Jerven, 'Accounting for the African growth miracle: the official evidence, Botswana 1965-1995', Journal of Southern African Studies 36, 1 (2010) pp. 73-94.
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47. This information was conveyed to me in two independent conversations at the University Library, Lusaka and the National Archives, Lusaka during February 2007.
48. Interviews, Professor Nsowah-Nuamah at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), Legon, Ghana, 15 February 2010 and O. F. Nwaboku at National Bureau of Statistics, Abuja, Nigeria, 23 February 2010.
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53. For recent reviews of the informal sector literature see Kenneth King, 'Africa's informal economies: thirty years on', SAIS Review 11, 1 (2001).
54. Keith Hart, 'On the informal economy: the political history of an ethnographic concept' (CEB Working Paper No. 09/042, Centre Emile Bernheim, 2009).
55. Kate Meagher, Identity Economics: Social networks and the informal economy in Nigeria (James Currey, Woodbridge, 2010).
56. For a review of these different estimation methods and their growth implications, see Jerven, 'Random growth in Africa?'.
57. John Sender, Christopher Cramer, and Carlos Oya, 'Unequal prospects: disparities in the quantity and quality of labour supply in sub-Saharan Africa' (Working Paper, World Bank Social Protection Discussion Paper Series, No. 0525, 2005).
58. Lars Bondestam, 'Some notes on African statistics: collection. reliability and interpretation' (Research Report No. 18, Uppsala, 1973), p. 10.
59. Morten Jerven, 'Controversy, facts and assumptions: population growth and agricultural productivity in Nigeria, 1911-2006' (Paper presented at the African Economic History Workshop, London School of Economics, April 2010).
60. The Ghanaian Chronicle, 'Ghana: Conundrums', 17 August 2005.
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62. The re-basing of the national accounts to year 2006 for Ghana was announced in November 2010, with an upward revision of national income of more than 60 percent.
63. Reuters Africa, 'Update 3: data overhaul shows Ghana's economy 60 pct bigger', 5 November 2010.
64. Interviews conducted at Ghana Statistical Services in Accra, Ghana, 15-17 February 2010 and at the National Bureau of Statistics, Abuja, Nigeria, 21-23 February 2010.
65. For a demonstration of the growth effects of such methods, see Jerven, 'Accounting for the African growth miracle'.
66. The recently published Human Security Report reviews some of the problems in assessing both the negative effects of war and the benefits of conflict resolution and peacekeeping operations.
67. Human Security Report Project, 'Shrinking costs of war' (Human Security Report 2009/2010, Prepublication, Human Security Research Project, Vancouver) (Oxford University Press, Oxford, forthcoming).
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70. Alwyn Young, 'The African growth miracle' (LSE Working Paper, 2009).
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74. Benno J. Ndulu, Stephen O'Connell, Jean-Paul Azam, Robert H. Bates, Augustin K. Fosu, Jan Willem Gunning, and Dominique Njinkeu (eds), The Political Economy of Growth in Africa 1960-2000: An analytic survey and The Political Economy of Growth in Africa 1960-2000: Case studies (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2008).