A Governance Dividend for Sub-Saharan Africa?

By Amine Hammadi, Marshall Mills, Nelson Sobrinho, Vimal V Thakoor, Ricardo Velloso

January 11, 2019

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Amine Hammadi, Marshall Mills, Nelson Sobrinho, Vimal V Thakoor, and Ricardo Velloso. A Governance Dividend for Sub-Saharan Africa?, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2019) accessed December 22, 2024

Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

Summary

Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) tend to lag those in most other regions in terms of governance and perceptions of corruption. Weak governance undermines economic performance through various channels, including deficiencies in government functions and distortions to economic incentives. It thus stands to reason that SSA countries could strengthen their economic performance by improving governance and reducing corruption. This paper estimates that strengthening governance and mitigating corruption in the region could be associated with large growth dividends in the long run. While the process would take considerable time and effort, moving the average SSA country governance level to the global average could increase the region’s GDP per capita growth by about 1-2 percentage points.

Subject: Corruption, Crime, Econometric analysis, Education, Estimation techniques, Inflation, National accounts, Personal income, Prices

Keywords: Corruption, Corruption perception, Economic Growth, Estimation techniques, Global, Governance, Governance × LAC, Governance × SSA, Governance channel, Governance indicator, Government effectiveness, Inflation, Institutions, Null hypothesis, Personal income, Significance level, Sub-Saharan Africa, Terms of trade, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

43
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2019/001
Stock No:

WPIEA2019001
ISBN:

9781484354872
ISSN:

1018-5941

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