This paper investigates the linkages between oil and growth in Congo, where there appears to be no evidence of direct spillover effects. The empirical results suggest however that political instability has a negative effect on non-oil growth, and that the presence of oil could have fueled...

The production function approach is used to analyze the role of farmers’ education, infrastructure, and political instability on aggregate agricultural production in East Africa. Lack of price data prevent application of modern duality approaches. All countries in the region are assumed to be...

Cotton production is truly a success story in West and Central Africa. The region is now the second largest exporter of lint, after the United States, with a world market share of 15 percent. Despite its strong performance in the past, the sector is characterized by several institutional and...

This study investigates the relationship between indicators of macroeconomic performance and real exchange rate (RER) misalignment and instability in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Three measures of RER misalignment are used. There is ample evidence that countries which have pursued more predictable...

This paper assesses the economic performance during 1986-93 of sub-Saharan African countries as a group and of selected analytical subgroups of countries.

This paper assesses empirically the role of public policies in stimulating private savings and investment in sub-Saharan African countries, based on data for the period 1986-92. The main findings of the analysis are as follows: (i) policies effective in stimulating private savings and investment...

The effects of economy-wide distortions on economic performance have received close attention in the empirical literature for developing countries. This paper extends the analysis to investigate the effects of these distortions on aggregate trade in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using pooled time-series...

The paper investigates the existence of "super pro-poor" policies-that is, policies that directly influence the income of the poor after accounting for the effect of growth. It uses a dynamic panel estimator to capture both across- and within-country effects, and a Bayesian-type robustness check...