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African Growth: Why a 'Big Push'?

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  • Paul Collier

Abstract

Over the past 40 years Africa has stagnated while other developing countries have grasped growth opportunities. This process of divergence has turned Africa into the poorest region. Africa needs a big push to escape from four development traps: the conflict trap, the corruption trap, the primary commodity trap and the fractionalized society trap. Since these low level equilibria have been sustained over some time a marginal effort is unlikely to be successful. However, the traps weaken the effectiveness of aid, making increased aid unlikely to be a successful instrument to push Africa's development. This paper suggests four non-traditional policy instruments donors can use in addition to increased aid: a security guarantee, templates of good governance, temporary trade preferences and the conditioning aid on processes of governance rather than on policies. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Collier, 2006. "African Growth: Why a 'Big Push'?," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 15(2), pages 188-211, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jafrec:v:15:y:2006:i:2:p:188-211
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Berg, Andrew & Portillo, Rafael & Zanna, Luis-Felipe, 2015. "Policy Responses to Aid Surges in Countries with Limited International Capital Mobility: The Role of the Exchange Rate Regime," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 116-129.
    2. Sanjeev K. Sobhee, 2010. "Would Better Institutional Quality Contribute towards Reducing the Size of Government in Sub-Saharan Africa?," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 4(3), pages 265-278, August.
    3. Workneh, Migbaru Alamirew & Francken, Nathalie, 2015. "A review of the impact of foreign aid on domestic saving," MPRA Paper 92174, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 13 Feb 2019.
    4. Calderon, Cesar & Serven, Luis, 2008. "Infrastructure and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4712, The World Bank.
    5. Joshua K. Ault & Andrew Spicer, 2014. "The institutional context of poverty: State fragility as a predictor of cross-national variation in commercial microfinance lending," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(12), pages 1818-1838, December.
    6. Naudé, Wim, 2009. "Geography, transport and Africa’s proximity gap," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 1-9.
    7. Julius Gatune, 2010. "Africa’s Development beyond Aid: Getting Out of the Box," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 632(1), pages 103-120, November.
    8. Manfred Wiebelt & Rainer Schweickert & Clemens Breisinger & Marcus Böhme, 2011. "Oil revenues for public investment in Africa: targeting urban or rural areas?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 147(4), pages 745-770, November.
    9. Workneh, Migbaru Alamirew, 2018. "Poverty and unemployment in Spain during the 2008's financial crises," MPRA Paper 92145, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Ole Boysen and Alan Matthews, 2008. "Poverty Impacts of an Economic Partnership Agreement between Uganda and the EU," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp261, IIIS.
    11. Wim Naudé, 2010. "Africa And The Global Economic Crisis: A Risk Assessment And Action Guide," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 27, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    12. Catalina Cantu, 2017. "Mexico’s economic infrastructure: international benchmark and its impact on growth," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 6(1), pages 1-26, December.
    13. Marlies Sas & Koen Ponnet & Genserik Reniers & Wim Hardyns, 2020. "The Role of Education in the Prevention of Radicalization and Violent Extremism in Developing Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-12, March.
    14. Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2010. "Aid and Conditionality," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4415-4523, Elsevier.
    15. Sanjeev K. Sobhee, 2017. "The effects of poor institutional quality on economic growth – investigating the case of Sub-Saharan and Latin American economies prior to the world economic downturn," Economic Thought journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 1, pages 69-82,83-95.
    16. Ndambendia, Houdou, 2014. "Exports diversification and knowledge sharing from south-south and south-north economic cooperation: evidence from the Central and West Africa," MPRA Paper 71571, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2015.
    17. Unbreen Qayyum & Hasan Siftain, 2014. "Governance and the Effectiveness of Foreign Capital," PIDE-Working Papers 2014:98, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    18. Kerekes, Monika, 2009. "Growth miracles and failures in a Markov switching classification model of growth," Discussion Papers 2009/11, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.

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