This paper puts sub-Saharan Africa's economic development into perspective. While much did not go as hoped for at independence, much of the region has been on a more promising development trajectory since the mid-1990s, as we illustrate using growth, poverty, and human development indicators. We...

Africa has come a long way since the economic turmoil of the 1980s, the decade of "structural adjustment". Growth has been strong, yet poverty remains high. Underlying the shortage of good livelihoods and high social inequality is the lack of diversification in Africa's economies-in contrast to...

This research is an attempt to explore what appears to be a contradictory development message coming out of Africa. On the one hand, several African nations are facing structural difficulties such as predatory regimes, political violence, civil wars, numerous diseases, and extreme poverty. An...

According to the World Bank, in 2011, 415 million, that is 41.5 percent of the world's extremely poor, living on less than $1.25 a day, live in Saharan Africa. A situation where more than 415 million people in a sub region of the world still live in abject poverty should be of global concern not...

A 2015 World Bank report on attainment of Millennium Development Goals concludes that the number of extremely poor has dropped substantially in all regions with the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa. We assess if poverty is in the African gene by revisiting the findings of Ashraf and Galor (2013,...

The purpose of the chapter is to analyze Africa's economic successes in the past half century, to understand not only what made it possible but also and more importantly what risk factors may eventually bring it to an end or compromise it. While it may not be possible for Africa to alter, for...