John Rand

Finn Tarp

John Page

Abebe Shimeles

Carol Newman

Måns Söderbom

Why is there so little industry in Africa? Over the past forty years, industry has moved from the developed to the developing world, yet Africa’s share of global manufacturing has fallen from about 3 percent in 1970 to less than 2 percent in 2014. Industry is important to low-income countries. It is good for economic growth, job creation, and poverty reduction. Made in Africa: Learning to Compete in Industry outlines a new strategy to help African industry compete in global markets. This book draws on case studies and econometric and qualitative research from Africa and emerging Asia to understand what drives firm-level competitiveness in low-income countries. The results show that while traditional concerns such as infrastructure, skills, and the regulatory environment are important, they alone will not be sufficient for Africa to industrialize. The book also addresses how industrialization strategies will need to adapt to the region’s growing resource abundance.

Learning to Compete in Industry

Made in Africa

Channing Arndt

Douglas Jay Arent

Mackay Miller

Owen Zinaman

A volume on the political economy of clean energy transition in developed and developing regions, with a focus on the issues that different countries face as they transition from fossil fuels to lower carbon technologies.

The Political Economy of Clean Energy Transitions

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Detailed analyses of poverty and wellbeing in developing countries, based on household surveys, have been ongoing for more than three decades. The large majority of developing countries now regularly conduct a variety of household surveys, and the information base in developing countries with respect to poverty and wellbeing has improved dramatically. Nevertheless, appropriate measurement of poverty remains complex and controversial. This is particularly true in developing countries where (i) the stakes with respect to poverty reduction are high; (ii) the determinants of living standards are often volatile; and (iii) related information bases, while much improved, are often characterized by significant non-sample error. It also remains, to a surprisingly high degree, an activity undertaken by technical assistance personnel and consultants based in developed countries. This book seeks to enhance the transparency, replicability, and comparability of existing practice. In so doing, it also aims to significantly lower the barriers to entry to the conduct of rigorous poverty measurement and increase the participation of analysts from developing countries in their own poverty assessments. The book focuses on two domains: the measurement of absolute consumption poverty and a first order dominance approach to multidimensional welfare analysis. In each domain, it provides a series of flexible computer codes designed to facilitate analysis by allowing the analyst to start from a flexible and known base. The book volume covers the theoretical grounding for the code streams provided, a chapter on 'estimation in practice', a series of 11 case studies where the code streams are operationalized, as well as a synthesis, an extension to inequality, and a look forward.

Measuring Poverty and Wellbeing in Developing Countries

For a growing number of countries in Africa the discovery and exploitation of natural resources is a great opportunity, but one accompanied by considerable risks. This book presents research on how to better manage the revenues and opportunities associated with natural resources.

Natural Resources and Industry in Africa

Mining for Change

Mans Soderbom

While it is possible for economies to grow based on abundant land or natural resources, more often structural change-the shift of resources from low-productivity to high-productivity sectors-is the key driver of economic growth. Structural transformation is vital for Africa. The region's much-lauded growth turnaround since 1995 has been the result of making fewer economic policy mistakes, robust commodity prices, and new discoveries of natural resources. At the same time, Africa's economic structure has changed very little. Primary commodities and natural resources still account for the bulk of the region's exports. Industry is most often the leading driver of structural transformation. Africa's experience with industrialization over the past thirty years has been disappointing. In 2010, sub-Saharan Africa's average share of manufacturing value added in GDP was ten per cent, unchanged from the 1970s. Actually, the share of medium- and high-tech goods in manufacturing production has been falling since the mid-1990s. Per capita manufactured exports are less than ten per cent of the developing country average. Consequently, Africa's industrial transformation has yet to take place. This book presents results of comparative country-based research that sought to answer a seemingly simple but puzzling question: why is there so little industry in Africa? It brings together detailed country case studies of industrial policies and industrialization outcomes in eleven countries, conducted by teams of national researchers in partnership with international experts on industrial development. It provides the reader with the most comprehensive description and analysis available to date of the contemporary industrialization experience in low-income Africa.

Comparative Studies of Industrial Development in Africa and Emerging Asia

Manufacturing Transformation

While it is possible for economies to grow based on abundant land or natural resources, more often structural change-the shift of resources from low-productivity to high-productivity sectors-is the key driver of economic growth. Structural transformation is vital for Africa. The region's much-lauded growth turnaround since 1995 has been the result of making fewer economic policy mistakes, robust commodity prices, and new discoveries of natural resources. At the same time, Africa's economic structure has changed very little. Primary commodities and natural resources still account for the bulk of the region's exports. Industry is most often the leading driver of structural transformation. Africa's experience with industrialization over the past thirty years has been disappointing. In 2010, sub-Saharan Africa's average share of manufacturing value added in GDP was ten per cent, unchanged from the 1970s. Actually, the share of medium- and high-tech goods in manufacturing production has been falling since the mid-1990s. Per capita manufactured exports are less than ten per cent of the developing country average. Consequently, Africa's industrial transformation has yet to take place. This book presents results of comparative country-based research that sought to answer a seemingly simple but puzzling question: why is there so little industry in Africa? It brings together detailed country case studies of industrial policies and industrialization outcomes in eleven countries, conducted by teams of national researchers in partnership with international experts on industrial development. It provides the reader with the most comprehensive description and analysis available to date of the contemporary industrialization experience in low-income Africa. This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

This volume contains a stimulating collection of analytical studies focusing on taxation in Mozambique. It tells a compelling story about tax systems in a low income economy increasingly integrated into the world trading system, but very much dependent on foreign trade taxes and international development assistance. Key issues covered include: A better understanding of the historical background of tax reforms in a representative African economy (Mozambique) along with an assessment of taxation performance in a comparative perspective. Insights into the practice and implications of tax policy, both from the perspective of the consumer and the firm level. Discussion of the existing institutional set up in which tax policy and its enforcement operate and analyses of current tax practices. Taxation themes at the border and at domestic level, which are typical for low-income economies, characterized by a high degree of reliance on foreign trade taxes. This volume is meant as a guide for developing country government officials and professional aid practitioners as well as academics, researchers and tax policy analysts working in the development field. It will also be of interest to students of development with a special interest in public finance issues in poor countries and how to improve policy-effectiveness, including tax policy, in a developing country setting.

The Case of Mozambique

Taxation in a Low-Income Economy

Andy McKay

While the economic growth renaissance in sub-Saharan Africa is widely recognized, much less is known about progress in living conditions. This book comprehensively evaluates trends in living conditions in 16 major sub-Saharan African countries, corresponding to nearly 75% of the total population. It shows how some countries have seen little economic growth and progress for the poor whilst others have made impressive progress in key non-monetary indicators ofwellbeing.

Growth and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Industrial policy still generates more heat than light among economists and development practitioners. However, there appears to be a growing consensus that markets can fail both when governments interfere too much and when they engage too little.Governments have now begun to look for a more balanced strategy to accelerate structural transformation and growth. Such a balanced approach is critically needed in Africa, where 20 years of levelling theplaying field have failed to produce rapid structural transformation. This book contributes to the design of that new approach, exploring existing experiences and providing guidance on priority areas for action in strengthening government-business coordination.

GovernmentDLBusiness Coordination in Africa and East Asia

The Practice of Industrial Policy

Carlos Gradín

Murray Leibbrandt

An analysis of the elevated level of contemporary global economic inequality--its measurement, trends over time and geography, and the policy challenges thrown up by them, with a focus on mainly five countries--Brazil, China, India, South Africa, and Mexico.

Inequality in the Developing World

Richard Newfarmer

By 2030 more than three quarters of the world's absolute poor are projected to live in Africa. Accelerating economic growth is key to rising incomes on the continent, and central to this challenge is establishing activities that are capable of employing large numbers of unskilled workers, that can raise productivity through innovation, and that can power growth through exports. Such structural transformation is a key driver of growth, and between 1950-1996 about half of the economic catch-up by developing countries (led by East Asia) was due to rising productivity in manufacturing combined with growing agricultural output. Africa, however, has lagged behind. In 2014, the average share of manufacturing in GDP in sub-Saharan Africa hovered around 10 per cent, unchanged from the 1970s, leading some observers to be pessimistic about Africa's potential to catch the wave of sustained rapid growth and rising incomes. Industries Without Smokestacks: Industrialization in Africa Reconsidered challenges this view. It argues that other activities sharing the characteristics of manufacturing- including tourism, ICT, and other services as well as food processing and horticulture- are beginning to play a role analogous to that played by manufacturing in East Asia. This reflects not only changes in the global organization of industries since the early era of rapid East Asian growth, but also advantages unique to Africa. These 'industries without smokestacks' offer new opportunities for Africa to grow in coming decades.

Industrialization in Africa Reconsidered

Industries Without Smokestacks

Many developing countries-Viet Nam included-continue to struggle to raise incomes per capita. A common feature of the growth and development process is a fundamental change in the pattern of economic activity, as households reallocate labour from traditional agriculture to more productive forms of agriculture and modern industrial and service sectors. Broad structural transformation and widespread poverty reduction is the combined result of these large-scale shifts in work and labour allocation when they realise desired development goals. The roots of this volume grow from when the first pilot Viet Nam Access to Resources Household Survey (VARHS) was carried out in 2002. The success of this inspired the Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM) in Hanoi, the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (CAP-IPSARD), the Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs (ILSSA), and the Development Economics Research Group (DERG) of the University of Copenhagen, together with Danida and later on UNU-WIDER, to plan and carry out a more ambitious VARHS from 2006, increasing coverage and representativeness to more than 2,150 families and 12 provinces across the various regions of Viet Nam. The VARHS covering these very same households had by 2014 been carried out five times, i.e. every two years. It is on this high quality panel data foundation and almost 15 years of study and policy work using the VARHS data the present volume builds, in its effort to bring out the essential rural micro-economic characteristics and insights of a dynamic South-East Asian economy in transition from a centrally planned towards a more market based economy.

A Rising Dragon on the Move

Growth, Structural Transformation, and Rural Change in Viet Nam

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Vietnam provides a comprehensive analytic contribution to a crucial topic within development economics. Based on fifteen years of continued data collection and research efforts it brings together nine up-to-date studies on micro, small, and medium enterprise (SME) development in a coherent framework to help persuade national and international policymakers of the need to take the international call for a data revolution seriously. This edited volume provides an in-depth evaluation of the development of private sector formal and informal manufacturing SMEs in Vietnam over the past decade, combining a unique primary data source with the best panel data and analytical tools available. It generates a comprehensive understanding of the impact of business risks, credit access, institutional characteristics, and government policies, and makes available a set of materials and studies of use to academics, students, and development practitioners interested in an integrated approach to the study of growth, private sector development, and the microeconomic analysis of SME development in a fascinating developing country. Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Vietnam serves as a lense through which other countries, and the international development community at large, may wish to approach the massive task of pursuing a meaningful data revolution as an integral element of the Sustainable Development Goals agenda.

Finn Tarp

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