Description
In recent years, concerns about the outcomes and nature of economic growth have given way to a new emphasis on its quality. This volume brings together prominent international contributors to consider a range of interrelated questions concerning the quality of growth in Africa, with a primary focus on sub-Saharan countries.
Contributors discuss the measurement of growth, the transformations necessary to sustain it, and issues around equity and well-being. They consider topics such as the distribution of income gains from growth; the extent to which economic growth has resulted in improvements in employment, poverty, and security; structural transformations of the economy and diversification of the sources of growth; environmental sustainability; and management of urbanization. Offering both diagnoses and prescriptions, The Quality of Growth in Africa helps envision a future that goes beyond increasing GDP to ensuring that growth translates into advancements in well-being. Although the book focuses on sub-Saharan Africa, much of the contributors' incisive analysis has implications for countries outside the region.
About the Author
Ravi Kanbur is T. H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, and professor of economics at Cornell University. He has served on the senior staff at the World Bank, including as chief economist for Africa.
Akbar Noman is senior fellow at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue and teaches as an adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He has worked at the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and at senior levels of government. He is coeditor, with Joseph E. Stiglitz, of Efficiency, Finance, and Varieties of Industrial Policy: Guiding Resources, Learning, and Technology for Sustained Growth (Columbia, 2016).
Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University and is founding president of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue. A recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, he is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank, a former member and chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, and chair of the international Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress. He is the author of Globalization and Its Discontents (2002), The Price of Inequality (2012), Creating a Learning Society (Columbia, 2014, with Bruce Greenwald), and most recently, People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent (2019).
Reviews
How can so many decades of economic growth yield so little equity, so few decent jobs, and only limited and disorderly structural transformation? Ravi Kanbur, Akbar Noman, and Joseph E. Stiglitz, some of the leading economists of our time, have assembled a dream team of contributors to break new ground on the diagnostic. This sparkling book provides a practical roadmap to prosperity and a blueprint to help Africa reclaim its rightful place in the world. -- Celestin Monga, vice president and chief economist, African Development Bank Group
The Quality of Growth in Africa provides timely and authoritative reviews of the challenges, opportunities, and approaches for achieving inclusive and sustainable growth in Africa-a continent with a burgeoning young population and significant difficulties for realizing the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. It is essential reading for scholars and policy makers in Africa and the global development community. -- Justin Yifu Lin, Peking University and former chief economist of the World Bank
In this timely and welcome volume, the contributors bring a myriad of crucial issues-levels of inequality, the quality and quantity of employment, the structural transformation of the African economy, the diversification of exports, and the quality of life in a rapidly industrializing continent-to the front of the policy agenda. Adept and refreshing, this book should be widely disseminated and read. -- Thandika Mkandawire, London School of Economics and former director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development
African countries have pursued economic reforms to attain more rapid growth in the last three decades. They have also been driven to reduce poverty and income inequality. This book provides good explanations of the countries' varied successes. It is an excellent indication of the challenges that Africa faces as it considers structural transformation. -- Ernest Aryeetey, secretary general, African Research Universities Alliance
Book Information
ISBN 9780231194761
Author Akbar Noman
Format Hardback
Page Count 480
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
Contributors discuss the measurement of growth, the transformations necessary to sustain it, and issues around equity and well-being. They consider topics such as the distribution of income gains from growth; the extent to which economic growth has resulted in improvements in employment, poverty, and security; structural transformations of the economy and diversification of the sources of growth; environmental sustainability; and management of urbanization. Offering both diagnoses and prescriptions, The Quality of Growth in Africa helps envision a future that goes beyond increasing GDP to ensuring that growth translates into advancements in well-being. Although the book focuses on sub-Saharan Africa, much of the contributors' incisive analysis has implications for countries outside the region.
About the Author
Ravi Kanbur is T. H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, and professor of economics at Cornell University. He has served on the senior staff at the World Bank, including as chief economist for Africa.
Akbar Noman is senior fellow at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue and teaches as an adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He has worked at the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and at senior levels of government. He is coeditor, with Joseph E. Stiglitz, of Efficiency, Finance, and Varieties of Industrial Policy: Guiding Resources, Learning, and Technology for Sustained Growth (Columbia, 2016).
Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University and is founding president of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue. A recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, he is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank, a former member and chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, and chair of the international Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress. He is the author of Globalization and Its Discontents (2002), The Price of Inequality (2012), Creating a Learning Society (Columbia, 2014, with Bruce Greenwald), and most recently, People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent (2019).
Reviews
How can so many decades of economic growth yield so little equity, so few decent jobs, and only limited and disorderly structural transformation? Ravi Kanbur, Akbar Noman, and Joseph E. Stiglitz, some of the leading economists of our time, have assembled a dream team of contributors to break new ground on the diagnostic. This sparkling book provides a practical roadmap to prosperity and a blueprint to help Africa reclaim its rightful place in the world. -- Celestin Monga, vice president and chief economist, African Development Bank Group
The Quality of Growth in Africa provides timely and authoritative reviews of the challenges, opportunities, and approaches for achieving inclusive and sustainable growth in Africa-a continent with a burgeoning young population and significant difficulties for realizing the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. It is essential reading for scholars and policy makers in Africa and the global development community. -- Justin Yifu Lin, Peking University and former chief economist of the World Bank
In this timely and welcome volume, the contributors bring a myriad of crucial issues-levels of inequality, the quality and quantity of employment, the structural transformation of the African economy, the diversification of exports, and the quality of life in a rapidly industrializing continent-to the front of the policy agenda. Adept and refreshing, this book should be widely disseminated and read. -- Thandika Mkandawire, London School of Economics and former director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development
African countries have pursued economic reforms to attain more rapid growth in the last three decades. They have also been driven to reduce poverty and income inequality. This book provides good explanations of the countries' varied successes. It is an excellent indication of the challenges that Africa faces as it considers structural transformation. -- Ernest Aryeetey, secretary general, African Research Universities Alliance
Book Information
ISBN 9780231194761
Author Akbar Noman
Format Hardback
Page Count 480
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
