| 1. |
- Albers, Thilo N.H., et al.
(författare)
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The Fiscal State in Africa : Evidence from a Century of Growth
- 2023
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Ingår i: International Organization. - 0020-8183. ; 77:1, s. 65-101
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- What is the level of state capacity in developing countries today, and what have been its drivers over the past century? We construct a comprehensive new data set of tax and revenue collection for forty-six African polities from 1900 to 2015. Our data show that polities in Africa have been characterized by strong growth in fiscal capacity on average, but that substantial heterogeneity exists. The empirical analysis reveals that canonical state-building factors such as democratic institutions and interstate warfare have limited power to explain these divergent growth paths. On the other hand, accounting for the relationship between African polities and the international environment - through the availability of external finance and the legacy of colonialism - is key to understanding their differing investments in fiscal capacity. These insights add important nuances to established theories of state building. Not only can the availability of external finance deter investment in fiscal capacity, but it also moderates the efficacy of canonical state-building factors.
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| 2. |
- Albers, Thilo, et al.
(författare)
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The Fiscal State in Africa: Evidence from a century of growth
- 2020
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Why do large differences in fiscal capacity exist between states in the Global South? We constructa comprehensive new dataset of tax and revenue collection for 46 African polities from 1900 to2015. Descriptive analyses show that many polities in Africa have been characterized by stronggrowth in real tax collection. As a next step, we employ these data to test theories of fiscal capac-ity in a long-run panel setting, using fixed-effects and causal estimation techniques. The resultsshow democratic institutions and interstate warfare can increase fiscal capacity, while governmentturnover reduces it. However, these factors are conditional on the availability of debt financingand external aid, which by themselves reduce incentives to invest in fiscal capacity. Leveragingnew data on exogenous movements in commodity prices, we show that resource income does notgenerally lead to lower capacity. These insights add important nuance to established theories ofstate-building.
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| 3. |
- Jerven, Morten
(författare)
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African Economic Growth 1900-50: Historical National Accounts for British Colonial Africa
- 2019
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The study of growth in African economies during the 20th Century is hampered by the lack of historical GDP estimates. There has been some backward projections, and country case studies, but despite the available data historical national accounts has not yet been assembled. This paper provides GDP estimates for some former British colonies between 1900 – 1950. The estimates indicate faster growth and economic expansion compared to the previous estimates that have been based on backward extrapolations. It further brings support to the argument that if we observe economic growth in many economies from the 1890s to the 1970s and then only interrupted from 1975s to 1995s, writing about the 20th century for Africa as a growth tragedy may be a mistake, caused by lack of data. New time series data on economic growth may foster a research agenda devoted to the study of different growth trajectories on the continent.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Jerven, Morten
(författare)
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Controversy, Facts and Assumptions: Lessons from Estimating Long Term Growth in Nigeria, 1900–2007
- 2018
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Ingår i: African Economic History. - : University of Wisconsin Press. - 0145-2258 .- 2163-9108. ; 46:1, s. 104-136
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article contributes to the debates surrounding "New African Economic History" by exploring the feasibility of constructing a time series of economic growth in Nigeria spanning the whole twentieth century. Currently most datasets for African economies only go back to 1960. The sources for their creation exist, but these valuable colonial data remain underutilized. This is an exploratory paper in a project aiming to create measures of economic growth through the twentieth century for a sample of African economies. The paper offers a systematic discussion of the different available datasets on population, agricultural production and income for the country. It finds that the existing data, often presented as facts, are more accurately described as projections based on assumptions. If these assumptions are already made in the production of the data, this precludes empirical testing of important questions. The main lesson is that any African economic history investigation must both begin and end with a critical analysis of the quantitative data, and must further be supported by careful qualitative evaluation.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Jerven, Morten
(författare)
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Quantitative Methods and Economic Statistical Sources for African History
- 2018
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The mode of enquiry in African economic history has changed quite radically in recent years. In 1987, Patrick Manning surveyed practices and databases in African economic history and compared empirical strategies of scholars who studied the African past. Current practice, which A. G. Hopkins called “new African economic history,” incorporates econometric methods. The specific methods chosen and the types of source material used have implications for what kind of questions are asked and how they can be answered. The dominant mode of research in current African economic history, responding to some of the new challenges posed by econometric work by economists, is to create new data sets and databases that allow more consistent analysis of economic change over time.
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| 10. |
- Jerven, Morten
(författare)
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THE HISTORY OF AFRICAN POVERTY BY NUMBERS : EVIDENCE AND VANTAGE POINTS
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of African History. - 0021-8537. ; 59:3, s. 449-461
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Poverty has a long history in Africa. Yet, the most conventional and influential history of African poverty is a very short one. As told by the World Bank, the history of poverty starts in the 1980s with the first Living Standard Measurement Study. This history of poverty by numbers is also a very narrow one. There is a disconnect between the theoretical and historical underpinnings of how academics understand and define poverty in Africa, and how it has been quantified in practice. While it is generally agreed that poverty is multidimensional and has certain time- and location-specific aspects, the shorthand definition for poverty is the dollar-per-day metric. This article reveals how particular types of knowledge about poverty have gained prominence and thus shaped the dominant interpretation of poverty in Africa. It argues that, based on other numerical evidence, the history of poverty in Africa could be radically different from the dominant interpretation today.
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