Explaining Africa's (Dis)advantage

Africa's economic performance has been widely viewed with pessimism. In this paper, firm-level data for around 80 countries are used to examine formal firm performance. Without controls, manufacturing African firms perform significantly worse than firms in other regions. They have lower productivity levels and growth rates, export less, and have lower investment rates. Once geography, political competition and the business environment are controlled for, formal African firms lead in productivity levels and growth. Africa's conditional advantage is higher in low-tech than in high-tech manufacturing, and exists in manufacturing but not in services. The key factors explaining Africa's disadvantage at the firm level are lack of infrastructure, access to finance, and political competition.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Harrison, Ann E., Lin, Justin Yifu, Xu, L. Colin
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper biblioteca
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2013-01
Subjects:	ACCOUNTABILITY, ACCOUNTING, ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS, ADVERSE EFFECT, ADVERSE EFFECTS, AGENCY PROBLEMS, AUTOMOBILE, AUTOMOBILES, BANK LOANS, BENCHMARK, BENCHMARKING, BUSINESS CLIMATE, BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT, BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS, BUSINESS REGULATION, BUSINESSES, CAPITAL INVESTMENTS, COLLECTIVE ACTION, COMMUNICATION INFRASTRUCTURE, COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE, COMPARATIVE ECONOMICS, COMPETITIVENESS, CONTRACT ENFORCEMENT, CUSTOM, DAMAGES, DEMOCRACY, DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS, DEVELOPMENT POLICY, ECONOMETRICS, ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY, ECONOMIC GROWTH, ECONOMIC OUTCOMES, ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE, ECONOMIC RESEARCH, ECONOMICS, ECONOMISTS, ELECTRICITY, EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS, EMPIRICAL STUDIES, EMPLOYMENT GROWTH, ENDOGENOUS VARIABLES, ENTERPRISE SURVEY, ENTERPRISE SURVEYS, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, ENVIRONMENTAL, ENVIRONMENTS, EQUIPMENT, EXPORTS, FACE VALUE, FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS, FINANCIAL CRISIS, FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT, FOREIGN ENTRY, FOREIGN INVESTMENT, GDP, GDP PER CAPITA, GLOBAL MARKETS, GLOBALIZATION, GROWTH RATE, IMPORT TARIFFS, IMPUTATION, INCOME, INCOME GROUPS, INCOME LEVELS, INDUSTRIALIZATION, INDUSTRY PRODUCTIVITY, INEFFICIENCY, INFLATION, INFLATION RATE, INFORMATION SHARING, INNOVATION, INNOVATIONS, INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION, INTERNATIONAL TRADE, JOB CREATION, LABOR COSTS, LABOR MARKET, LABOR MARKET FLEXIBILITY, LABOR MARKETS, LABOR PRODUCTIVITY, LABOR REGULATIONS, LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, MACROECONOMIC PERFORMANCE, MACROECONOMIC POLICIES, MANAGERIAL DISCRETION, MANUFACTURING, MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES, MARKET COMPETITION, MATERIAL, MENU, MINIMUM WAGES, MONITORING MECHANISM, MONOPOLY, MONOPOLY RENTS, NATURAL RESOURCE, NATURAL RESOURCES, NETWORK DATA, OPEN ACCESS, PENALTIES, PERFORMANCE INDICATOR, PERFORMANCE MEASURE, PERFORMANCE MEASURES, PHONES, POLICY INSTRUMENTS, POLICY MAKERS, POLITICAL ECONOMY, POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS, POSITIVE EFFECTS, PRIVATE INVESTMENT, PRIVATE SECTOR, PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT, PRIVATIZATION, PRODUCERS, PRODUCTION FUNCTION, PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH, PROFITABILITY, PROPERTY RIGHTS, PUBLIC GOODS, RESULT, RESULTS, RETAIL STORES, RISK SHARING, SAFETY, SEVERANCE PAY, STRUCTURAL CHANGE, TAXATION, TELECOM, TELECOMMUNICATION, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, TELEPHONE, TIME PERIOD, TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY, TRANSPORT, UNEMPLOYMENT, URBANIZATION, VALUE ADDED, WAGE STRUCTURE, WAGES, WEB,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/01/17395138/explaining-africas-disadvantage http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13181
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