The Economic Legacies of the African Slave Trades

Author(s):  
Warren C. Whatley

A growing body of evidence is showing that the international slave trade was a significant shock to African economies—one with negative long-term consequences for economic growth. The slave trade was a welfare loss for Africa, which begs the question “why were so many slaves exported?” The main reason is that slave production was organized theft, so by its very nature it generated negative externalities and overproduction—overproduction that was further encouraged by the importation of the gunpowder technology. People fought back, reconfiguring the ways they interacted with each other as insurance against capture. The general trend was towards political decentralization, stronger and more-absolutist local chiefs, more polygyny and a culture of mistrust—all of which reduced long-term growth. These legacies remain developmental challenges for much of sub-Saharan Africa today.

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 69-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Cagé ◽  
Valeria Rueda

This article investigates the long-term consequences of the printing press in the nineteenth century sub-Saharan Africa on social capital nowadays. Protestant missionaries were the first to import the printing press and to allow the indigenous population to use it. We build a new geocoded dataset locating Protestant missions in 1903. This dataset includes, for each mission station, the geographic location and its characteristics, as well as the printing-, educational-, and health-related investments undertaken by the mission. We show that, within regions close to missions, proximity to a printing press is associated with higher newspaper readership, trust, education, and political participation. (JEL L82, N37, N77, N97, O17, O43, Z13)


Author(s):  
Josiah Chukwuma Ngonadi ◽  
Sun Huaping ◽  
Joy Okere ◽  
John Uche Ngonadi

The study focused on the long-term related effect among energy consumption (EC), CO2 production and economy growth (EG) of 12 randomly selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa. We used validation and causality tests in the 2008-2018 annual record. Special effects vary from country to country, in the long term, strong consumption of energy and economy growth in many countries has been linked with an increment in air pollution. The observation of the longitudinal study showed economic growth resulting in short-term CO2 emissions in Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, reflecting a lack of economy. This would not be possible without affecting the environment. The effect between CO2 and EG in Gabon, Nigeria and Togo has shown that environmental policies aimed at reducing pollution can be harmful. economic growth. In addition, long-term economic and CO2 production in Nigeria has been closely linked to the long-term links to Congo and Gabon. In the long-run, greenhouse gas emissions are the result of EC, EG and CO2 emission in Benin, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Togo.


Author(s):  
Boubacar Diallo ◽  
Fulbert Tchana Tchana ◽  
Albert G. Zeufack

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuaib Lwasa

Africa’s urbanization rate has increased steadily over the past three decades and is reported to be faster than in any other region in the world . It is estimated that by 2030, over half of the African population will be living in urban areas . But the nature of Africa’s urbanization and subsequent form of cities is yet to be critically analyzed in the context of city authorities’ readiness to address the challenges . Evidence is also suggesting that urbanization in African countries is increasingly associated with the high economic growth that has been observed in the last two decades . Both underlying and proximate drivers are responsible for the urbanization, and these include population dynamics, economic growth, legislative designation, increasing densities in rural centers, as well as the growth of mega cities such as Lagos, Cairo and Kinshasa, that are extending to form urban corridors . With the opportunities of urbanization in Sub–Saharan Africa, there are also challenges in the development and management of these cities . Those challenges include provision of social services, sustainable economic development, housing development, urban governance, spatial development guidance and environmental management, climate change adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction . The challenge involves dealing with the development and infrastructure deficit, in addition to required adaption to and mitigation of climate change . This paper examines the current state of urban management in Africa .


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1780
Author(s):  
Chima M. Menyelim ◽  
Abiola A. Babajide ◽  
Alexander E. Omankhanlen ◽  
Benjamin I. Ehikioya

This study evaluates the relevance of inclusive financial access in moderating the effect of income inequality on economic growth in 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for the period 1995 to 2017. The findings using the Generalised Method of Moments (sys-GMM) technique show that inclusive financial access contributes to reducing inequality in the short run, contrary to the Kuznets curve. The result reveals a negative effect of financial access on the relationship between income inequality and economic growth. There is a positive net effect of inclusive financial access in moderating the impact of income inequality on economic growth. Given the need to achieve the Sustainable Development Targets in the sub-region, policymakers and other stakeholders of the economy must design policies and programmes that would enhance access to financial services as an essential mechanism to reduce income disparity and enhance sustainable economic growth.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sándor Szabó ◽  
Irene Pinedo Pascua ◽  
Daniel Puig ◽  
Magda Moner-Girona ◽  
Mario Negre ◽  
...  

AbstractLack of access to modern forms of energy hampers efforts to reduce poverty. The provision of electricity to off-grid communities is therefore a long-standing developmental goal. Yet, many off-grid electrification projects neglect mid- and long-term operation and maintenance costs. When this is the case, electricity services are unlikely to be affordable to the communities that are the project’s primary target. Here we show that, compared with diesel-powered electricity generation systems, solar photovoltaic systems are more affordable to no less than 36% of the unelectrified populations in East Asia, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. We do so by developing geo-referenced estimates of affordability at a high level of resolution (1 km2). The analysis illustrates the differences in affordability that may be found at the subnational level, which underscores that electrification investments should be informed by subnational data.


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