The Role of Endogenous Technology in Making Sustained Economic Growth in Sub‒Saharan Africa : A Panel Approach

This study examines the role of endogenous technology in making sustained economic growth in a panel of 36 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries over the period 1990–2020. Based on the data originally obtained from the United Nations aggregate database, World Bank development indicators and International Monetary Fund economic outlook, we derive growth rates of total physical capital (TPC), total employment productivity (TEP), total foreign direct investment inflows (TFDIIN), total factor productivity (TFP) and terms of trade (TOT) using various concepts. As the main determinants among others, dealing with the role of TFP and TEP in economic growth; the skills, knowledge and innovation that people accumulate domestically are the greatest economic resources which could bring a better living standard in the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. In this sense, the panel of short-run vector error correction model (VECM) and panel of long–run generalized method of moments (GMM) are applied and the estimation results are obtained. The empirical results reveal that there are significantly positive impacts of the growth rates of TFP, TEP and terms of trade (TOT) on real GDP growth rate in the long -run