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Is Per Capita Growth in Africa Hampered by Poor Governance and Weak Institutions? An Empirical Study on the ECOWAS Countries
Author(s) -
Diop Abdoulaye,
Dufrénot Gilles,
Sa Gilles
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
african development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1467-8268
pISSN - 1017-6772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8268.2010.00236.x
Subject(s) - per capita , corporate governance , rule of law , per capita income , economics , government (linguistics) , conditional convergence , order (exchange) , property rights , development economics , convergence (economics) , panel data , politics , economic growth , political science , econometrics , population , linguistics , philosophy , demography , finance , microeconomics , sociology , law
Abstract : This paper proposes an empirical study of the links between poor governance, weak institutions and the growth of per capita income in the countries that belong to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). We estimate a conditional beta‐convergence model using panel data. We find that variables such as the rule of law, property rights, the regulatory burden, political violence, and government ineffectiveness hinder growth in these countries. An interesting question is then the following: what can the countries do to improve their situations? To answer this question, we give several examples (Ghana, Nigeria and the NEPAD) of measures that are undertaken in order to strengthen the institutions and improve governance.