Trade, Exchange Rate, and Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa

A sophisticated yet accessible analysis of economic activity in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Jean-Paul Azam (Author)

9780521684071, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 7 December 2006

280 pages, 10 tables
22.7 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.455 kg

'Jean-Paul Azam is one of the most creative development economists working today. This book is a joy to read: it addresses a set of well-known macro policy puzzles and consistently delivers new insights that are both unconventional and convincing. The net effect is to expose the simple mindset that international financial institutions brought to the trade and macroeconomic policy reform debates of the 1980s and 1990s, and that still lies at the core of contemporary policy analysis. He does this not by adopting different analytical methods, but by accommodating the structural realities of African economies, including the dominance of the informal sector. This is applied macroeconomics at its best. The book should be required reading for all development macroeconomists and Africa specialists. It will be an excellent classroom resource for upper-level and graduate students in development economics.' Stephen A. O'Connell, Professor of Economics, Swarthmore College

In this sophisticated yet accessible analysis of the open economies of Sub-Saharan Africa, Jean-Paul Azam analyses international trade, exchange rate issues, and longer-term growth, taking due account of the distinctive features of African economies. In particular, he examines the informal as well as the formal institutional frameworks which prevail in different African countries and which affect their macroeconomic behaviour. Key issues explored include tariffs and quotas, membership of the CFA Zone, and currency convertibility or inconvertibility, as well as smuggling, corruption, parallel markets in goods and currencies, ethnic diversity and redistribution. Case studies of important macroeconomic events are used to establish basic stylized facts from which the theory emerges, and special attention is paid to the consequences of macroeconomic events for the poor, via the food market or traditional redistribution mechanisms.

Preface
Figures
Tables
1. Introduction and overview
Part I. Unrecorded Trade in Goods and Currencies: 2. The welfare implications of unrecorded cross-border trade
3. Parallel trade and currency convertibility
Part II. Foreign Exchange Constraints: 4. Dollars for sale: inflation and the black market premium
5. The public debt constraint in the CFA zone
6. Currency crises, food, and the cola nut effect
Part III. Longer-term Growth in African Countries: 7. Exchange rate, growth and poverty
8. Export crops, human capital and endogenous growth
9. Ethnic rents and the politics of redistribution
Conclusion
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], International economics [KCL]