IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unm/unuint/200509.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Dependence on Primary Commodities and Poverty Traps in Sub-Saharan Africa: Devising strategies and building capabilities for diversification

Author

Listed:
  • Habiyaremye, Alexis

    (United Nations University, Institute for New Technologies)

Abstract

This paper analyses the poverty traps problem of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries and their dependence on a few primary export commodities in their trade relationships with the rest of the world. We argue that traditional approaches to development and industrialization have failed to take account of the necessity of building appropriate technological capability for SSA countries to acquire, master and effectively apply modern technologies. Taking lessons from the failure of these traditional approaches, w e place the national systems of innovation (NSI) approach and the adequate technological capability building (TCB) at the source of economic diversification needed to reduce dependence on primary commodities and disentangle poverty traps in SSA countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Habiyaremye, Alexis, 2005. "Dependence on Primary Commodities and Poverty Traps in Sub-Saharan Africa: Devising strategies and building capabilities for diversification," UNU-INTECH Discussion Paper Series 2005-09, United Nations University - INTECH.
    • Handle: RePEc:unm:unuint:200509
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/discussion-papers/2005-9.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fagerberg, Jan, 1994. "Technology and International Differences in Growth Rates," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 1147-1175, September.
    2. John Olatunji Adeoti, 2002. "Building technological capability in the less developed countries: The role of a national system of innovation," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 29(2), pages 95-104, April.
    3. C-J. Dalgaard & H. Hansen, 2001. "On Aid, Growth and Good Policies," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(6), pages 17-41.
    4. Paola Criscuolo & Rajneesh Narula, 2008. "A novel approach to national technological accumulation and absorptive capacity: aggregating Cohen and Levinthal," The European Journal of Development Research, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 56-73.
    5. David Dollar & Craig Burnside, 2000. "Aid, Policies, and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 847-868, September.
    6. Abramovitz, Moses, 1986. "Catching Up, Forging Ahead, and Falling Behind," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(2), pages 385-406, June.
    7. Bon Ho Koo & Dwight H. Perkins (ed.), 1995. "Social Capability and Long-Term Economic Growth," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-13512-7.
    8. Pritchett, Lant, 1996. "Where has all the education gone?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1581, The World Bank.
    9. Hildegunn Stokke, 2004. "Technology adoption and multiple growth paths: An intertemporal general equilibrium analysis of the catch-up process in Thailand," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 140(1), pages 80-109, March.
    10. Burnside, Craig & Dollar, David, 2004. "Aid, policies, and growth : revisiting the evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3251, The World Bank.
    11. Xu, Bin, 2000. "Multinational enterprises, technology diffusion, and host country productivity growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 477-493, August.
    12. Carl J. Dahlman & Richard Nelson, 1995. "Social Absorption Capability, National Innovation Systems and Economic Development," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Bon Ho Koo & Dwight H. Perkins (ed.), Social Capability and Long-Term Economic Growth, chapter 5, pages 82-122, Palgrave Macmillan.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rajneesh Narula, 2004. "Understanding absorptive capacities in an "innovation systems" context consequences for economic and employment growth," DRUID Working Papers 04-02, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    2. Ahmed, Elsadig Musa, 2012. "Are the FDI inflow spillover effects on Malaysia's economic growth input driven?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 1498-1504.
    3. Alexis Habiyaremye, 2019. "Enhancing productive capabilities through intra-regional trade and cross-border investments in Southern Africa," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(4), pages 409-425, July.
    4. Kemeny, Thomas, 2010. "Does Foreign Direct Investment Drive Technological Upgrading?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 1543-1554, November.
    5. Lavopa, Alejandro, 2011. "The impact of sectoral heterogeneities in economic growth and catching up: Empirical evidence for Latin American manufacturing industries," MERIT Working Papers 2011-075, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    6. Jan Fagerberg & Bengt-Åke Lundvall & Martin Srholec, 2018. "Global Value Chains, National Innovation Systems and Economic Development," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(3), pages 533-556, July.
    7. Alexis Habiyaremye, 2008. "Economic Proximity and Technology Flows: South Africa's Influence and the Role of Technological Interaction in Botswana's Diversification Effort," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-92, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Castellacci, Fulvio, 2008. "Technology clubs, technology gaps and growth trajectories," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 301-314, December.
    9. Dollar, David & Levin, Victoria, 2006. "The Increasing Selectivity of Foreign Aid, 1984-2003," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2034-2046, December.
    10. Agénor, Pierre-Richard & Bayraktar, Nihal & El Aynaoui, Karim, 2008. "Roads out of poverty? Assessing the links between aid, public investment, growth, and poverty reduction," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 277-295, June.
    11. Innocent .U. Duru & Bartholomew .O.N. Okafor & Millicent Adanne Eze & Gabriel .O. Ebenyi, 2020. "Foreign Aid and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Nigeria," Growth, Asian Online Journal Publishing Group, vol. 7(1), pages 35-50.
    12. Strand, Jon, 2009. ""Revenue management"effects related to financial flows generated by climate policy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5053, The World Bank.
    13. Slavo Radosevic & Esin Yoruk, 2014. "Are there global shifts in the world science base? Analysing the catching up and falling behind of world regions," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(3), pages 1897-1924, December.
    14. Rajneesh Narula, 2015. "The Importance of Domestic Capabilities for FDI-assisted Development: Lessons from Asia and Latin America," John H Dunning Centre for International Business Discussion Papers jhd-dp2015-05, Henley Business School, University of Reading.
    15. Jean-David Naudet, 2005. "Pourquoi donner de l'aide : commentaires," Revue d’économie du développement, De Boeck Université, vol. 13(2), pages 61-70.
    16. Feeny, Simon & de Silva, Ashton, 2012. "Measuring absorptive capacity constraints to foreign aid," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 725-733.
    17. Diego Romero-Ávila, 2013. "Is Physical Investment The Key To China'S Growth Miracle?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(4), pages 1948-1971, October.
    18. Almuth Scholl, 2018. "Debt Relief for Poor Countries: Conditionality and Effectiveness," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 85(339), pages 626-648, July.
    19. Fagerberg, Jan & Srholec, Martin & Verspagen, Bart, 2010. "Innovation and Economic Development," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 833-872, Elsevier.
    20. Dierk Herzer & Michael Grimm, 2012. "Does foreign aid increase private investment? Evidence from panel cointegration," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(20), pages 2537-2550, July.

    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:unm:unuint:200509. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Ad Notten (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/meritnl.html .

    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.