Book Review: Growth and Institutions in African Development

Augustin K. Fosu, a leading and respected expert in the field of African development has edited an interesting bulk of studies in a book entitled: Growth and Institutions in African Development. The book is a timely contribution to knowledge that offers very interesting insights into views and agenda within rigorous theoretical and empirical frameworks on policy issues surrounding the relevance of growth and institutions in African development. The book's coverage comprises of 15 chapters presented into two main subject areas, namely: growth and institutions. Each of the two subjects is further divided into two parts. On the one hand, the growth area covers: (i) growth determinants (industrial embeddedness, innovation, exchange-rate regimes and environmental quality); and (ii) sectors, dynamics and distribution of growth. On the other hand, the institutions area entails: (i) institutional development; and (ii) institutions and development outcomes. An interesting common denominator among authors of various chapters in the two subject areas is that the empirical results are succinctly summarised to enhance accessibility and readability by interested readers who might have required technical reading skills to understand the rigorous empirical analyses and resulting policy insights. Hence, it is an easy-to-read and richly policy-relevant book for both specialists and non-specialists. Moreover, the underlying ease of readership is facilitated with an introductory chapter by Augustin K. Fosu which lays out the general framework with hard but interesting stylized facts, before summarising the key motivations and contributions of various chapters with very accessible and non-technical language. This is a critical review of the book.