Boosting Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa : Policies and Institutions to Promote Efficiency

This book documents the productivity trends in Sub-Saharan Africa in three different dimensions, assessing productivity at the aggregate level, the sectoral level, and the establishment level. It characterizes the evolution of productivity in the region relative to other countries and regions, as...

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Main Author:	Calderon, Cesar
Format:	Book
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2022
Subjects:	PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH FARM PRODUCTIVITY FIRM PRODUCTIVITY FRAGILITY AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY MANUFACTURING PRODUCTIVITY POLICY AGENDA
Online Access:	https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/839471641273086995/boosting-productivity-in-sub-saharan-africa-policies-and-institutions-to-promote-efficiency http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36786

id	okr-10986-36786
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-367862022-01-06T15:22:00Z Boosting Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa : Policies and Institutions to Promote Efficiency Calderon, Cesar PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH FARM PRODUCTIVITY FIRM PRODUCTIVITY FRAGILITY AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY MANUFACTURING PRODUCTIVITY POLICY AGENDA This book documents the productivity trends in Sub-Saharan Africa in three different dimensions, assessing productivity at the aggregate level, the sectoral level, and the establishment level. It characterizes the evolution of productivity in the region relative to other countries and regions, as well as country groups in Africa, classified by their degree of natural resource abundance and condition of fragility. The volume suggests that the persistence of the productivity gap in Africa vis-à-vis the technological frontier can be attributed to the slow accumulation of physical and human capital relative to the region’s growing population, as well as the poor allocation of these resources. These allocative inefficiencies are the outcome of policies and institutions that introduce distortions in the decision-making process of individuals. Hence, the volume assesses the implications of production decisions across agricultural farms and manufacturing firms. It presents evidence on aggregate productivity from the perspective of production units, using recent household surveys for farmers and firm-level surveys for select countries, as well as frontier estimation techniques. It documents the extent of severe resource misallocation across agricultural and manufacturing production units. These distortions decelerate the growth of the production units, disincentivize their adoption of productivity-enhancing technologies, and reduce the ability of their peers to learn new techniques. Boosting Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa highlights the adoption of digital technologies to reduce some of these market frictions. Mobile money has increased financial inclusion in several countries, and digital financial technologies have given individuals access to savings instruments and loan products. Enhancing access to credit can help individuals invest in schooling and overcome the costs of formality. The volume discusses further avenues of research that may provide additional insights on the productivity dynamics across countries in the region, and it identifies the different channels of policy transmission to enhance productivity. The empirical work presented can help to guide the design of policy in the region. 2022-01-03T17:58:07Z 2022-01-03T17:58:07Z 2022-01-03 Book https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/839471641273086995/boosting-productivity-in-sub-saharan-africa-policies-and-institutions-to-promote-efficiency 978-1-4648-1550-8 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36786 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Publication Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) Africa Western and Central (AFW) Sub-Saharan Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH FARM PRODUCTIVITY FIRM PRODUCTIVITY FRAGILITY AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY MANUFACTURING PRODUCTIVITY POLICY AGENDA
spellingShingle	PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH FARM PRODUCTIVITY FIRM PRODUCTIVITY FRAGILITY AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY MANUFACTURING PRODUCTIVITY POLICY AGENDA Calderon, Cesar Boosting Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa : Policies and Institutions to Promote Efficiency
geographic_facet	Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) Africa Western and Central (AFW) Sub-Saharan Africa
description	This book documents the productivity trends in Sub-Saharan Africa in three different dimensions, assessing productivity at the aggregate level, the sectoral level, and the establishment level. It characterizes the evolution of productivity in the region relative to other countries and regions, as well as country groups in Africa, classified by their degree of natural resource abundance and condition of fragility. The volume suggests that the persistence of the productivity gap in Africa vis-à-vis the technological frontier can be attributed to the slow accumulation of physical and human capital relative to the region’s growing population, as well as the poor allocation of these resources. These allocative inefficiencies are the outcome of policies and institutions that introduce distortions in the decision-making process of individuals. Hence, the volume assesses the implications of production decisions across agricultural farms and manufacturing firms. It presents evidence on aggregate productivity from the perspective of production units, using recent household surveys for farmers and firm-level surveys for select countries, as well as frontier estimation techniques. It documents the extent of severe resource misallocation across agricultural and manufacturing production units. These distortions decelerate the growth of the production units, disincentivize their adoption of productivity-enhancing technologies, and reduce the ability of their peers to learn new techniques. Boosting Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa highlights the adoption of digital technologies to reduce some of these market frictions. Mobile money has increased financial inclusion in several countries, and digital financial technologies have given individuals access to savings instruments and loan products. Enhancing access to credit can help individuals invest in schooling and overcome the costs of formality. The volume discusses further avenues of research that may provide additional insights on the productivity dynamics across countries in the region, and it identifies the different channels of policy transmission to enhance productivity. The empirical work presented can help to guide the design of policy in the region.
format	Book
author	Calderon, Cesar
author_facet	Calderon, Cesar
author_sort	Calderon, Cesar
title	Boosting Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa : Policies and Institutions to Promote Efficiency
title_short	Boosting Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa : Policies and Institutions to Promote Efficiency
title_full	Boosting Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa : Policies and Institutions to Promote Efficiency
title_fullStr	Boosting Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa : Policies and Institutions to Promote Efficiency
title_full_unstemmed	Boosting Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa : Policies and Institutions to Promote Efficiency
title_sort	boosting productivity in sub-saharan africa : policies and institutions to promote efficiency
publisher	Washington, DC: World Bank
publishDate	2022
url	https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/839471641273086995/boosting-productivity-in-sub-saharan-africa-policies-and-institutions-to-promote-efficiency http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36786
_version_	1764483339499077632

Boosting Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa : Policies and Institutions to Promote Efficiency

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