Economic Development Patterns and Outcomes in Africa and Asia

The present paper draws heavily on the existing empirical literature and compares Asian (mainly the high-performing economies) and African economies to illuminate the patterns of economic development as they developed since the 1960s. The discussion points to strong physical and human capital accumulation as well as pro-export policies, international favorable attitude and social capital as main reasons behind the HPAEs‘ successful development. Quite the opposite, SSA have found itself trapped into economic stagnation since the mid-1970s and culminated in steadily declining living standards. The extent of the Asian–African divergence can also be found in agriculture productivity, manufacturing growth and exports. The paper concludes with distinctive patterns of the two regions development, respectively termed as a ―self-consistent development model for the HPAEs, in opposition to the Africa pattern: the ―inconsistent development model. Furthermore, the paper argues that the inference that the Africa could duplicate the East Asian experience is largely not relevant.