IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/rdevec/v23y2019i3p1101-1140.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Macroeconomic consequences of state fragility in sub‐Saharan Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Chuku Chuku
  • Kenneth Onye

Abstract

Are poor macroeconomic outcomes primarily the result of economic policies, or of deeper underlying state fragility problems in sub‐Saharan Africa? We attempt to answer this question by using carefully specified dynamic panel regression techniques to show how state fragility conditions help to explain the differences in the macroeconomic performance of sub‐Saharan African economies, and to identify the most plausible mechanisms of transmission. We find that countries with greater fragility suffer higher macroeconomic volatility and crisis; they also experience weaker growth. When we disaggregate state fragility into its various components, we find that it is the security and social components that have the strongest causal impact on macroeconomic outcomes, while the political component is, at best, weak. Therefore, we conclude that it is state fragility conditions, and not necessarily macroeconomic policies, that are of first‐order importance in explaining the differences in macroeconomic performance for African countries. The knock‐on effects are mostly mediated through the fiscal channel, the aid channel, and the finance channel. Accordingly, we recommend that interventions in fragile states should best focus on exploiting the potential for using fiscal policy, aid, and finance as instruments to improve macroeconomic outcomes in sub‐Saharan Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Chuku Chuku & Kenneth Onye, 2019. "Macroeconomic consequences of state fragility in sub‐Saharan Africa," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 1101-1140, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:23:y:2019:i:3:p:1101-1140
    DOI: 10.1111/rode.12570
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.12570
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/rode.12570?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Josephson, Anna & Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob, 2020. "Preferences and crop choice during Zimbabwe’s macroeconomic crisis," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 15(3), September.
    2. Christian Agu, 2024. "Moderating Effect Of State Fragility On The Globalisation: Economic Growth Nexus In Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Academic Research in Economics, Spiru Haret University, Faculty of Accounting and Financial Management Constanta, vol. 16(2 (July)), pages 239-264.
    3. Ijirshar, Victor Ushahemba & Andohol, Jerome, 2022. "Investment-growth nexus in West Africa: An assessment of whether fragility matter," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1-17.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:23:y:2019:i:3:p:1101-1140. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1363-6669 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.