Growth and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa

Edited by Channing Arndt, Senior Research Fellow, World Institute for Development Economics Research, United Nations University, Andy McKay, Professor of Development Economics, University of Sussex, and Finn Tarp, Chair, Development Economics, University of Copenhagen; Director, UN University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)

Channing Arndt has more than 20 years of experience in development economics with seven years combined resident experience in Morocco and Mozambique. He has published more than 55 articles in leading academic journals and has taken leadership roles in major policy documents such as the design of a carbon tax for the National Treasury of South Africa, the Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change for the World Bank, and the Second and Third National Poverty Assessments for the Government of Mozambique. His program of research has focused on agricultural development, poverty measurement, poverty alleviation and growth, market integration, gender and discrimination, the implications of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, technological change, trade policy, aid effectiveness, infrastructure investment, energy and biofuels, climate variability, and the implications of climate change.

Andy McKay is Professor of Development Economics at the University of Sussex where he teaches masters and PhD students in different fields of development economics. He has recently become managing editor of the Review of Development Economics; and is closely associated with the African Economic Research Consortium as a resource person and as co-coordinator of their collaborative project on the growth-poverty nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa. He was associate director of the Chronic Poverty Research Centre from 2005-2011; he recently obtained research grants for two projects looking at female labour supply in relation to poverty reduction, much of this in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Finn Tarp is Professor of Development Economics at the University of Copenhagen and Director of the UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER). He has more than 35 years of experience in academic and applied development economics, including 20 years of work in some 35 developing countries. He is a leading international expert on issues of development strategy and foreign aid and he was appointed to the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) advising the Chief Economist of the World Bank in 2013.

Dede Houeto Aduayom, independent consultant
Olu Ajakaiye, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research
Olufunke A. Alaba, University of Cape Town
Channing Arndt, UNU-WIDER
Ulrik Beck, University of Copenhagen
Arne Bigsten, University of Gothenburg
Denis Cogneau, Paris School of Economics
Lionel Demery, independent consultant
Anaclet Désiré Dzossa, National Institute of Statistics
Samuel Fambon, University of Yaoundé II
Arden Finn, University of Cape Town
Michael Grimm, Universities of Passau and Erasmus Rotterdam
Kenneth Houngbedji
Afeikhena T. Jerome, Nigerian Governors' Forum
E. Samuel Jones, University of Copenhagen
Olive Stéphanie Kouakep, University of Dschang
Murray Leibbrandt, University of Cape Town
Kristi Mahrt, UNU-WIDER
Damiano Kulundu Manda, University of Nairobi
Gibson Masumbu, Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research
Andy McKay, University of Sussex
Sandrine Mesplé-Somps, French Research Institute for Development
Richard Mussa, University of Malawi
Germano Mwabu, University of Nairobi
Malokele Nanivazo, University of Kansas
Aude Nikiema, Institut des Sciences des Sociétés
Olanrewaju Olaniyan, University of Ibadan
Morné Oosthuizen, University of Cape Town
Karl Pauw, IFPRI
Jukka Pirttilä, UNU-WIDER
Faly Rakotomanana, INSTAT
Tiaray Razafimanantena, CREAM and University of Antananarivo
Haruna Sekabira, Makerere University
David Stifel, Lafayette College
Finn Tarp, University of Copenhagen and UNU-WIDER
Romain Tchakoute Ngoho, University of Yaoundé 1
Joseph-Pierre Timnou, University of Yaounde II
Bjorn Van Campenhout, IFPRI
Marijke Verpoorten, University of Antwerp
Anthony Wambugu, University of Nairobi
Claude Wetta, University of Ouagadougou
Tassew Woldehanna, Addis Ababa University

"This book provides the appropriate balance in the analysis of the links between two decades of growth and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa. Relying on very comprehensive and excellent country studies, it is able to show a lot more clearly than others the mainly positive effects of the recent African growth experience. The book brings together good country data, excellent analyses, and solid understanding of local contexts." - Ernest Aryeetey Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana

"Africa has been a puzzle for development specialists for well over half a century. From the post-Independence euphoria, when sub-Saharan Africa outperformed Southeast Asia, to the grim reality of failed industrialization strategies and the pain of structural adjustment during the commodity bust of the 1980s and 1990s, to the resurgence of growth after the turn of the Millennium, the Continent has resisted easy answers to even simple questions: are living standards rising or falling? Is economic growth finally having an impact on rural poverty? This volume provides the best possible answers to these questions," - C. Peter Timmer, Harvard University, emeritus

"This book provides the appropriate balance in the analysis of the links between two decades of growth and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa. Relying on very comprehensive and excellent country studies, it is able to show a lot more clearly than others the mainly positive effects of the recent African growth experience. The book brings together good country data, excellent analyses, and solid understanding of local contexts." - Ernest Aryeetey, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana

"This book masterfully combines macroeconomic, microeconomic, and case study approaches in analyzing the complex relationship between growth and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. It avoids the all-too-common simplistic characterizations of the continent, and instead weaves a balanced, nuanced, and informative narrative of where things have gone relatively well, where they have not, and the multiple forces behind these trends. This book is a must read for all serious scholars and analysts of economic development in Africa." - Steven Radelet, Donald F. McHenry Chair in Global Human Development and Director of the Global Human Development Program, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University