John Page

The Brookings Institution · Global Economy and Development

Management studies and economics are yielding new insights into the determinants of firm-level productivity. Therefore, industrial policy in low-income countries increasingly focuses on the firm. This chapter argues that Kaizen—continuous improvement through the interaction of workers and managers—is an effective way to build “firm capabilities,” t...

Natural resources can make diversification and structural change more challenging. This chapter focuses on why public policy matters. International competitiveness depends on both relative prices and on the policy and institutional changes and investments that governments make to enhance it. Drawing on the five country case studies in this volume,...

It is likely that Africa holds almost a third of the world’s reserves of minerals, oil, and gas. The exploitation of natural resources is a huge opportunity, but it also carries considerable risks. The exploitation of natural resources is a huge opportunity, but one that carries considerable risks. Relative prices in resource-exporting economies te...

This open access book provides a glimpse into the Japanese management technique known as “Kaizen,” and the ways it has been disseminated around the developing world. The novelty of this book is three-fold: it provides a contextualized view of the mechanisms of initiatives implementing Kaizen in developing countries; compared with productivity studi...

This study combines evidence from interviews in seven countries with (i) government institutions responsible for attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), (ii) 102 multinationals (MNEs), and (iii) 226 domestic firms linked to these foreign affiliates as suppliers, customers, or competitors, to identify whether relations between MNEs and domestic...

Structural change is taking place in Africa at a pace and with a pattern distinct from the historical experience of today’s industrialized countries. These differences reflect technological change, a changing global marketplace interacting with policy, a rapidly growing labour force and natural endowments. Some African countries, perhaps with coast...

An early stylized fact of development economics is that low-income countries have large differences in output per worker across sectors, and the movement of workers from low- to high-productivity sectors—structural transformation—is a key driver of growth. Historically, manufacturing has been the key driver of structural transformation. It can empl...

Structural transformation in Africa has become a hot topic. One of the earliest stylized facts of development economics is that low-income countries have large differences in output per worker across sectors, and movement of workers from low- to high-productivity sectors—structural transformation is a key driver of economic growth. Between 1950 and...

Much of the information relevant to policy formulation for industrial development is held by the private sector, not by public officials. There is, therefore, fairly broad agreement in the development literature that some form of structured engagement—often referred to as close or strategic coordination—between the public and private sectors is nee...

Much of the information relevant to policy formulation for industrial development is held by the private sector, not by public officials. There is, therefore, fairly broad agreement in the development literature that some form of structured engagement—often referred to as close or strategic coordination—between the public and private sectors is nee...

Tanzania ranks among the stars of the ‘African Growth Miracle’. Since the turn of the century, annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth has averaged around 6 per cent while growth in labour productivity has been 4.1 per cent per year. Much of this productivity growth is a result of structural change. Since about 2000 labour has been moving out of...

Twenty years ago the World Bank, at the urging of the government of Japan, published its first attempt to understand the policy origins of East Asia’s extraordinary economic success. The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy was a study of the sources of growth and the role of public policy in the Four Asian Tigers—Hong Kong, Korea,...

In Japan, Kanreki—the 60th birth anniversary—marks a time for reflection, a period of looking back on past accomplishments and of looking forward to new challenges. In this chapter, we draw on the 20 chapters in this book to reflect on lessons from history and to look to the future of Japan’s foreign assistance. Over the past 60 years, Japan has mo...

Africa is rising. Since 1995 it has grown faster than many other parts of the developing world. Per capita income has been increasing steadily, and with six of the world's ten fastest- growing economies of the last de cade, Africa has been branded the developing world's next "frontier market" by Wall Street and the World Bank. Yet Africa's experien...

Growth in Africa is weakly linked to poverty reduction. The reason is that Africa has failed to create enough good jobs. Structural transformation-the relative growth of employment in high productivity sectors-has not featured in Africa's post-1995 growth story. As a result, the region's fastest growing economies have the least responsiveness of em...

Aid providers often describe small firms as 'job creators'. But what types of jobs do they create? Drawing on enterprise survey data for nine African countries and panel data for Ethiopia we find that small and large formal sector firms create similar numbers of net jobs. Small firms, however, have much higher turnover of employment and pay persist...

Africa should industrialize. Without structural change it cannot sustain recent growth. Economies with more diverse and sophisticated industrial sectors tend to grow faster. But since 1980 Africa has deindustrialized. The paper shows that between 1975 and 2005 the size, diversity and sophistication of industry in Africa have all declined. An indust...

The essays in this volume document in various ways the limited extent of structural change in Africa over the past 40 years. They also document and analyse the failure of Africa to industrialise while addressing the question of how policies might be reshaped to boost industrial development and accelerate structural transformation in Africa. Each of...

Africa needs structural change to sustain growth. Industry with and without smoke stacks is key, but Africa has deindustrialised since the 1970s. Can Africa industrialise? Rising costs and domestic demand in Asia offer an opportunity. However, trade in tasks, firm capabilities and agglomeration will drive industrial location choices. Strategies to...

The impact of globalization on world trade and investment flows continues to have profound implications for the success of export-led growth strategies in the MENA region. Rising shares of foreign direct investment, trade in services and manufactured exports, have heightened the potential gains from trade negotiations in these areas for all

This paper argues that official development assistance (foreign aid) is partly responsible for the lack of structural change in Africa. Africa.s development partners have devoted too few resources and too little attention to two critical constraints to private investment, infrastructure and skills, focusing instead on easily understood, but potenti...

Has Africa finally reached the path to sustained growth? We find that much of the improvement in economic performance in Africa after 1995 is attributable to a substantial reduction in the frequency and severity of growth declines in all economies and an increase in growth accelerations in mineral-rich economies. We find, however, that growth accel...

This paper uses a new, 2005/06 nationally-representative household survey to analyze the impact of internal remittances (from Ghana) and international remittances (from African and other countries) on poverty and inequality in Ghana. To control for selection and endogeneity, it uses a two-stage multinomial logit model with instrumental variables fo...

This paper uses a new, nationally-representative household survey from Ghana to analyze within a rigorous econometric framework how the receipt of internal remittances (from within Ghana) and international remittances (from African or other countries) affects the marginal spending behavior of households on a broad range of consumption and investmen...

In this paper, Arbache, Go, and Page examine the recent acceleration of growth in Africa. Unlike the past, the performance is now registered broadly across several types of countries-particularly the oil-exporting and resource-intensive countries and, in more recent years, the large- and middle-income economies, as well as coastal and low-income co...

Sub-Saharan Africa has grown at record figures since the mid-1990s, generating optimism that the continent has finally turned the corner on the path to sustained growth. But growth has been largely driven by high international demand for commodities in general, and hydrocarbons and other minerals in particular, and it is unclear how the region will...

This paper examines the country-level dynamics of long-run growth in Africa between 1975 and 2005. We are primarily interested in examining how growth has affected mobility and the distribution of income among countries. We analyse changes in the cross-country income structure and convergence. We also look for evidence of the formation of country g...

This paper provides a survey on studies that analyze the macroeconomic effects of intellectual property rights (IPR). The first part of this paper introduces different patent policy instruments and reviews their effects on R&D and economic growth. This part also discusses the distortionary effects and distributional consequences of IPR protection a...

Using the most recent purchasing power parity data for 44 sub-Saharan African countries, this paper examines the characteristics of long run growth in Africa between 1975 and 2005. The authors investigate the following issues: cross-country income structure, income convergence, the country level distribution of income, growth and income persistence...

This paper provides a survey on studies that analyze the macroeconomic effects of intellectual property rights (IPR). The first part of this paper introduces different patent policy instruments and reviews their effects on R&D and economic growth. This part also discusses the distortionary effects and distributional consequences of IPR protection a...

This paper analyzes changes in poverty and inequality in the Middle East and North Africa. It finds that the structural relationship between poverty reduction, income growth and distribution is the same for MENA and other developing economies. Prior to 1985 rapid growth sharply reduced poverty. After 1985, despite very low income growth, a rising s...

What is pro-poor growth, and is it a useful concept for African development policy? This paper examines the debate between proponents of growth and poverty reduction, highlighting the diversity of regional and country experiences in promoting development with these two objectives. The author concludes that the most effective development policies wi...

A considerable amount of research has been conducted on the topic of migration and remittances over the last few years. Early studies on immigration policy assumed that migrants leave their countries, settle in a new country, start integrating in their new society, and abandon their ties with their country of origin. Today, however, globalization m...

Les migrations internationales sont l’un des facteurs qui conditionnent le plus les relations économiques entre pays développés et pays en développement (PED) au XXIe siècle. On estimait en début de siècle qu’environ 175 millions de personnes, soit à peu près 3% de la population mondiale, vivaient et travaillaient hors de leur pays de naissance (Na...

This chapter analyzes the interface between human rights and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) initiative, aiming to determine both commonalities as well as points of departure between the two approaches. It specifically locates where poverty reduction fits conceptually within the human rights domain. It also examines the fundamental pro...

Few studies have examined the impact of international migration and remittances on poverty in the developing world. This paper fills this lacuna by constructing and analyzing a new data set on international migration, remittances, inequality, and poverty from 71 developing countries. The results show that both international migration and remittance...

Few studies have examined the impact of international migration and remittances on poverty in a broad cross-section of developing countries. The authors try to fill this gap by constructing a new data set on poverty, international migration, and remittances for 74 low- and middle-income developing countries. Four key findings emerge: 1) Internation...

This paper critically reviews the debate on pro poor growth. Using new data that focuses on long run spells of growth and poverty reduction we demonstrate that poverty outcomes differ widely relative to the overall rate of growth across regions and countries. We also find that in a number of countries long run growth spells have been associated wit...

This paper uses crosscountry data and country-case studies to analyze trends in poverty, inequality and economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Compared to other regions, the MENA region has a low incidence of poverty and income inequality. Two factors account for this situation: international migration/remittances and pu...

Morocco and Tunisia both signed comprehensive integration agreements with the European Union in the early 1990s. These agreements consist of two essential elements — increased aid flows and technical assistance in exchange for reductions in trade barriers and other impediments to the flow of goods and investment over a period of 12 years. The EU-Me...

Despite the current growth crisis in the Middle East and North Africa, the historical picture contains both positive and negative elements. In the past the region as a whole outperformed all other regions except East Asia in both per capita income growth and equality of income distribution. But the cycle of economic expansion followed by contractio...

Potential sources of the very rapid growth in per capita income in a number of Asian countries are considered using cross-country regressions. While unusual investment ratios and initial levels of education both play a role, the superior performance is not totally explained by these variables. A growing body of microeconomic evidence suggests that...

There are two different sets of questions raised by Young's comments, one economic and the other includes econometric issues and the choice of variables. We consider each in turn.

Four public policy lessons of the East Asian miracle are examined. The argument is made that eight East Asian economies can be distinguished from other developing countries on the basis of three common characteristics-rapid, persistent, and shared growth. A growth accounting exercise based on cross-country data indicates that while accumulation was...

On the supply side, the growth of an economy, an industry, or a firm is determined by the rate of expansion of its productive resources and by improvements in their efficiency; that is, by total factor productivity (TFP) growth. In the short run, where there are limits to how fast employable resources can grow, achieving high rates of productivity...

This paper examines the contribution of productivity differentials to regional income variations in Yugoslavia over the period 1965–1978 and assesses regional development policy. We make a distinction between variations in technological levels and in the productivity with which technology is applied. An appropriate index number is developed to meas...

This paper proposes a simple decomposition of the widely used DRC measure of international competitiveness into three distinct elements: (1) changes in international prices (2) changes in production techniques, and (3) total factor productivity change. The decomposition provides a clear analytical link between two largely separate methodologies for...

Policy reforms to accelerate growth and improve production efficiency have been undertaken in Egypt since 1973. This paper evaluates the impact of these reforms on Egypt's public sector firms in terms of their productivity performance. We find an important asymmetry in the consequences of the reforms between the rapidly expanding import substitutio...

This study analyzes the effects of the trade policy reform on the structure, performance and competitiveness of the appliance industry. It also examines the links between changes in the industry structure with changes in the performance and competitiveness of the industry. In particular, it measures performance in terms of export earnings, efficien...

Builds on previous work by Corden (1970, 1974) and Martin (1978) who showed how to model X-efficiency effects using the concept of 'managerial leisure'. Extends these models of managerial behaviour, emphasizing the role of the external managerial labour market. The model is then used to explore the relationship between changes in public policy, man...

Proposes a method for the decomposition of total factor productivity change into two distinct elements, technical progress and changes in technical efficiency. The analysis indicates that the slow-down in total factor productivity growth in Yugoslavia in the 1970s was a consequence of both a reduction in the rate of technological progress and of a...

Except for the last 10 years, Africa had endurednearly 25 years of slow growth. The global financial crisis, and its attendant global recession, is certainly not welcome news. Commodity prices have fallen, foreign investment has declined, development assistance is under pressure and remittances have weakened. Prospects of sustained growth have thus...