The effect of climate change on economic growth: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper is a contribution to the empirics of climate change and its effect on sustainable economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using data on two climate variables, temperature and precipitation, and employing panel cointegration techniques, we estimate the short- and long-run effects of climate change on growth. We establish that an increase in temperature significantly reduces economic performance in Sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, we show that the relationship between real gross domestic product per capita on one hand, and the climate factors on the other, is intrinsically non-linear.