Growth, Jobs and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) should not be defined by the structural parameters and opportunities of low-income countries, given that it also comprises a number of higher-income countries. This book finds that SSA is tightly constrained in its growth, employment and poverty outcomes. Rather than taking this as a conceptual downside, these constraints to growth and development have to be recognised and overcomenot just by a few countries able to escape them more easily, but by all countries in SSA, such that no country is left behind. The book observes a weakness in the quantum of growth in SSA. It relates this to a growth path based more on extractives than manufactured goods. While SSA is endowed with extractives, global demand for these is very volatile. These boom-bust cycles in export demand come to affect not just the export sector in SSA as a resource curse, but also the production of output of the entire economy. The book captures this through the working out of equilibrium in four major markets: the tradeables market, the domestic goods market, the labour market, and the money market.

Explains about the growth in SSA that has been much weaker and more volatile than in other regions in last two decades Presents that Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is in danger of being significantly left behind other regions Discusses about per capita incomes, structures, and poverty in SSA and in the world

Auteur
Moazam Mahmood is Professor in Economics at the Lahore School of Economics (Pakistan) and Visiting Professor at the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing (China).

Contenu

1. The Narrative.- 2. The Quantum of Growth.- 3. Drivers of Growth in Sub Saharan Africa.- 4. Sectoral Growth in Sub Saharan Africa.- 5. Deindustrialisation in Sub Saharan Africa Explains Key Vulnerabilities in Growth and Productivity.- 6. The Labour Market in Sub Saharan Africa.- 7. Poverty, Jobs and Growth: The Primary Policy Agenda for SSA.- 8. A Policy Agenda for the way forward in Poverty, Jobs and Growth in Sub Saharan Africa.