The Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics

Volume 1: Context and Concepts

Edited by Célestin Monga and Justin Yifu Lin

Oxford Handbooks

Critical and analytical essays that make new and original arguments about economic thinking, policy, and practice in the African context
Covers all main areas of economics and reflects a very wide range of knowledge and perspectives
Offers a balanced analysis of approaches without developing the defense of any particular paradigm
Together, the 2 volumes provide an extensive survey of cutting-edge research on Africa, as well as an in-depth assessment of the economic policy and institutional issues across the continent

The Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics

Volume 1: Context and Concepts

Edited by Célestin Monga and Justin Yifu Lin

Description

For a long time, economic research on Africa was not seen as a profitable venture intellectually or professionally-few researchers in top-ranked institutions around the world chose to become experts in the field. This was understandable: the reputation of Africa-centered economic research was not enhanced by the well-known limitations of economic data across the continent. Moreover, development economics itself was not always fashionable, and the broader discipline of economics has had its ups and downs, and has been undergoing a major identity crisis because it failed to predict the Great Recession.

Times have changed: many leading researchers-including a few Nobel laureates-have taken the subject of Africa and economics seriously enough to devote their expertise and creativity to it. They have been amply rewarded: the richness, complexities, and subtleties of African societies, civilizations, rationalities, and ways of living, have helped renew the humanities and the social sciences-and economics in particular-to the point that the continent has become the next major intellectual frontier to researchers from around the world.

In collecting some of the most authoritative statements about the science of economics and its concepts in the African context, this handbook (the first of two volumes) opens up the diverse acuity of commentary on exciting topics, and in the process challenges and stimulates the quest for knowledge. Wide-ranging in its scope, themes, language, and approaches, this volume explores, examines, and assesses economic thinking on Africa, and Africa's contribution to the discipline. The editors bring a set of powerful resources to this endeavor, most notably a team of internationally-renowned economists whose diverse viewpoints are complemented by the perspectives of philosophers, political scientists, and anthropologists. The set of analyses and reflections presented here try to endow each subject with depth and discovery.

The Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics

Volume 1: Context and Concepts

Edited by Célestin Monga and Justin Yifu Lin

Oxford Handbooks

Introduction: Africa, the Next Intellectual Frontier, Célestin Monga and Justin Yifu Lin
Part I: Concepts
1:Economics as an African Science: An Epistemological Analysis, Fabien Eboussi Boulaga
2:Households and Income in Africa, Kathleen Beegle, Gero Carletto, Alberto Zezza, and Benjamin Davis
3:Transformation of African Farm-cum-Family Structures, Catherine Guirkinger and Jean-Philippe Platteau
4:The Economics of Marriage in North Africa: A Unifying Theoretical Framework, Ragui Assaad and Caroline Krafft
5:The Theory of the Firm in the African Context, Christopher Malikane
6:Markets and Urban Provisioning, Jane Guyer
7:Development as Diffusion: Manufacturing Productivity and Africa's Missing Middle, Alan Gelb, Christian Meyer, and Vijaya Ramachandran
8:Employment, Unemployment, and Underemployment in Africa, Stephen Golub and Faraz Hayat
9:Inclusive Growth in Africa, Mthuli Ncube
10:Poverty: Shifting Fortunes and New Perspectives, Abebe Shimeles
11:Dimensions of African Inequality, Arne Bigsten
12:Inclusive Growth and Developmental Governance: The Next African Frontiers, Richard Joseph
13:Economics and the Study of Corruption in Africa, Melissa Thomas
14:Thoughts on Development: The African Experience, Francois Bourguignon
15:The Idea of Economic Development: Views from Africa, Hippolyte Fofack
Part II: Methodological Issues
16:Principles of Economics: African Challenges, Célestin Monga
17:Economics and Culture in the African Context, Felwine Sarr
18:The Economics of Non-Cognitive Skills, Laura Camfield
19:Modeling African Economies: A DSGE Approach, Andrew Berg, Shu-Chun S. Yang, and Luis-Felipe Zanna
20:Measuring Economic Progress in the African Context, Morten Jerven
21:Measuring Structural Economic Vulnerability in Africa, Patrick Guillaumont
22:Measuring Democracy: An Economic Approach, Célestin Monga
23:Measurement and Analysis of Competitiveness, Julius Agbor and Olumide Taiwo
Part III: Historical Trajectories and Economic Landscape
24:Africa's New Economic Opportunities, Paul Collier
25:Tigers or Tiger Prawns? The African growth 'tragedy' and 'renaissance' in perspective, Ha-Joon Chang and Christopher Cramer
26:The Economic Legacies of the African Slave Trades, Warren Whatley
27:The Economics of Colonialism in Africa, Gareth Austin
28:The Public Private Interface, Olu Ajakaije and Afeikhena Jerome
29:Natural Resources: Precious Boon or Precious Ban?, Ibrahim Elbadawi and Nadir Mohammed
30:Volatility and Vulnerability, Xubei Luo
31:Africa's Urbanization: Challenges and Opportunities, Danny Leipziger, Maria Emila Freire, and Somik Lall
32:Environmental and Climate Change Issues in Africa, Tomonori Sudo
33:Informality, Growth and Development in Africa, Ahmadou Aly Mbaye and Nancy Benjamin
34:Capitalism and African Business Cultures, Scott D. Taylor
35:African Monetary Unions: An Obituary, Célestin Monga
Part IV: The Economics of Political Transformation
36:The Impact of Democracy on Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1982-2012, Takaaki Masaki and Nicolas Van de Walle
37:The Economics of Authoritarianism in North Africa, Tarik Yousef, Raj M. Desai, and Anders Olofsgård
38:The Potential Economic Dividends of North African Revolutions, Mustapha Nabli and Hakim Ben Hammouda
39:The Economics of Violent Conflict and War in Africa, Anke Hoeffler
40:The Causes and Consequences of Terrorism in Africa, Juliet Elu and Gregory Price
41:The Political Economy of the New Arab Awakening, Mustapha Nabli and Hakim Ben Hammouda
42:Democratic Decentralization and Economic Development, Roger Myerson
43:The Economics of Happiness and Anger in North Africa, Nadareh Chamlou

The Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics

Volume 1: Context and Concepts

Edited by Célestin Monga and Justin Yifu Lin

Oxford Handbooks

Author Information

Edited by Célestin Monga, Managing Director at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and Justin Yifu Lin, Councillor of the State Council; Professor and Honorary Dean, National School of Development at Peking University

Célestin Monga is Managing Director at the United a Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). He previously worked as senior advisor and program director at the World Bank and has held various board and senior positions in academia and financial services. A graduate of MIT, Harvard, and the universities of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Bordeaux and Pau, Dr Monga was the Economics editor for the 5-volume New Encyclopedia of Africa (Charles Scribner's, 2007). His published works have been translated into multiple languages.

Justin Yifu Lin is Councillor of the State Council and professor and honorary dean of the National School of Development at Peking University. He was the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank, 2008-2012. Prior to this, Professor Lin served for 15 years as Founding Director and Professor of the China Centre for Economic Research (CCER) at Peking University. He is a member of the Standing Committee, Chinese People's Political Consultation Conference, and Vice Chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. He is a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences for Developing World.

Contributors:

Julius Agbor, Stellenbosch University
Olu Ajakaije, African Centre for Shared Development Capacity Building
Ragui Assaad, University of Minnesota
Gareth Austin, The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
Kathleen Beegle, World Bank and FAO
Nancy Benjamin, World Bank
Andrew Berg, International Monetary Fund
Arne Bigsten, University of Gothenburg
Fabien Eboussi Boulaga, Catholic University of Yaounde
Francois Bourguignon, Paris School of Economics
Laura Camfield, University of East Anglia
Gero Carletto, World Bank and FAO
Nadareh Chamlou, World Bank
Ha-Joon Chang, University of Cambridge
Paul Collier, University of Oxford
Christopher Cramer, SOAS
Benjamin Davis, World Bank and FAO
Raj M. Desai, Georgetown University
Ibrahim Elbadawi, Dubai Economic Council
Juliet Elu, Morehouse University
Hippolyte Fofack, World Bank
Maria Emila Freire, George Washington University
Alan Gelb, Center for Global Development
Stephen Golub, Swarthmore College
Patrick Guillaumont, FERDI
Catherine Guirkinger, University of Namur
Jane Guyer, Johns Hopkins University
Hakim Ben Hammouda, African Development Bank
Faraz Hayat, Swarthmore College
Anke Hoeffler, University of Oxford
Afeikhena Jerome, Nigeria Governors Forum
Morten Jerven, Simon Fraser University
Richard Joseph, Northwestern University
Caroline Krafft, University of Minnesota
Somik Lall, George Washington University
Danny Leipziger, George Washington University
Xubei Luo, World Bank
Takaaki Masaki, Cornell University
Ahmadou Aly Mbaye, University of Dakar
Christopher Malikane, University of Witwatersrand
Christian Meyer, Center for Global Development
Nadir Mohammed, World Bank
Célestin Monga, UNIDO
Roger Myerson, University of Chicago
Mustapha Nabli, African Development Bank
Mthuli Ncube, African Development Bank
Anders Olofsgård, Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics
Jean-Philippe Platteau, University of Namur
Gregory Price, Morehouse University
Vijaya Ramachandran, Center for Global Development
Felwine Sarr, University of Saint-Louis
Abebe Shimeles, African Development Bank
Tomonori Sudo, JICA Research Institute
Olumide Taiwo, Center for the Study of the Economics of Africa
Scott D. Taylor, Georgetown University
Melissa Thomas, Johns Hopkins University
Nicolas Van de Walle, Cornell University
Warren Whatley, University of Michigan
Shu-Chun S. Yang, International Monetary Fund
Tarik Yousef, American University of Beirut
Luis-Felipe Zanna, International Monetary Fund
Alberto Zezza, World Bank and FAO

The Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics

Volume 1: Context and Concepts

Edited by Célestin Monga and Justin Yifu Lin

Oxford Handbooks

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