Industrial Policy and Economic Transformation in Africa

The revival of economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is all the more welcome for having followed one of the worst economic disasters--a quarter century of economic malaise for most of the region--since the industrial revolution. Six of the world's fastest-growing economies in the first decade of this century were African. Yet only in Ethiopia and Rwanda was growth not based on resources and the rising price of oil. Deindustrialization has yet to be reversed, and progress toward creating a modern economy remains limited.

This book explores the vital role that active government policies can play in transforming African economies. Such policies pertain not just to industry. They traverse all economic sectors, including finance, information technology, and agriculture. These packages of learning, industrial, and technology (LIT) policies aim to bring vigorous and lasting growth to the region. This collection features case studies of LIT policies in action in many parts of the world, examining their risks and rewards and what they mean for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Akbar Noman teaches at Columbia University, where he is a senior fellow at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, cochair of its Africa Task Force, and adjunct associate professor at the School of International and Public Affairs. He has also worked at Oxford University; the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex; a number of international organizations, including the World Bank; and senior governmental positions.

Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University, former chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank, and former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton. His books include Making Globalization Work; Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy; The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future; Fair Trade for All (with Andrew Charlton), Creating a Learning Society: A New Approach to Growth, Development, and Social Progress (with Bruce C. Greenwald) and The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them. In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics.

About the Authors

Ha-Joon Chang
Course Director
Cambridge Advanced Programme on Rethinking Development Economics (CAPORDE)

Ha-Joon Chang is Course Director for the Cambridge Advanced Programme on Rethinking Development Economics (CAPORDE), and is a Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge. He has taught at the Institute of Developing Economics Advanced School, the Korea Development Institute School of International Development and Management, and Korea University. Dr. Chang has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, UN organizations, national financial organizations, private sector organizations and NGOs.

Akbar Noman
Senior Policy Fellow
Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD)

Akbar Noman is Senior Fellow at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. His other academic appointments include Oxford University, and the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. Dr. Noman has spent over 25 years at the World Bank, where he held a variety of assignments. His regional foci included Africa, Asia and the transition economies in Europe and Central Asia. He has served as Economic Adviser to Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance and on the Prime Minister’s Committee on Economic Policy. He has also worked for the ILO’s Asian Regional Team for Employment Promotion based in Bangkok and as a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University.

Joseph Stiglitz
President
Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD)

Joseph E. Stiglitz is President of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, and Chairman of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. He is University Professor at Columbia, teaching in its Economics Department, its Business School, and its School of International and Public Affairs. He chaired the UN Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System, created in the aftermath of the financial crisis by the President of the General Assembly. He is former Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President of the World Bank and Chairman of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2001.

Akio Hosono
Senior Research Advisor
Research Institute, Japan International Cooperation Agency

Dr. Hosono focuses his research in the experiences of development and Japanese cooperation through projects that explore revisiting the capacity development approach through comparative case analysis. He received his PhD in Economics from the University of Tokyo in 1984 and has extensive experience in the academic and consulting industries. Since 2008, he has served as a professor to the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies; since 2007, he has served as a Senior Adviser to Japan International Cooperation Agency; in 2002, he was appointed Ambassador of Japan in El Salvador; he has also taught at both Kobe University in their Research Institute of Economics and Business Administration department, as well as at the University of Tsukuba in their Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences.

Major publications include:

Homi Kharas, Koji Makino and Woojin Jung (eds.), Catalyzing Development: A New Vision for Aid, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2011; Saavedra, Neantro, Akio Hosono and Barbara Stallings (eds.), Regional Integration and Economic Development, London and New York, Palgrave, 2001; Hosono, A. and N. Saavedra (eds.), Development Strategies in East Asia and Latin America, London: Macmillan Press. 1998；Hosono, Akio y Japan Echo (ed.), La Economia Japonesa en Una Época de Transición, Madrid (Spain): Japan Echo Inc., 1996, Landau, George W. , Julio Feo and Akio Hosono(eds.), Latin America at a Crossroads: The Challenge to the Trilateral Countries, New York: The Trilateral Commission, (A Report to the Trilateral Commission: 39), 1990
 

Go Shimada
Senior Research Fellow
Research Program Division
JICA Research Institute

Go Shimada is Senior Research Fellow at JICA and formely the Director of the Research Program Division at JICA Research Institute. Since joining JICA in 1992, he has served in various positions at JICA. These include: Director, Trade and Investment, Division, Dept. of Industrial Development (2008-2011); Special Assistant to the President, Office of the President (2007-2008); First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations, New York (2005-2007); Personal Division, Personnel Department (2002-2005); and Assistant Resident Representative, India Office.

Florian Tomas Schaefer
phD candidate
Department of Development Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London

Annalisa Primi
Economist
Development Centre
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Annalisa Primi is an economist at the OECD Development Centre. She has worked in the OECD Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development, and the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry. She previously worked with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Stephany Griffith-Jones
Financial Markets Program Director
Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD)

Stephany Griffith-Jones is an economist specialising in international finance and development, with emphasis on reform of the international and national financial system, especially in relation to financial regulation and global governance. She is Financial Markets Director at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University. Previously she was Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University. She was Director of International Finance at the Commonwealth Secretariat and worked at UN DESA and ECLAC. She was senior consultant to governments in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa and many international agencies, including the World Bank, the IADB, the European Commission, UNDP and UNCTAD. She was a member of the Warwick Commission on financial regulation. She currently is theme leader on finance in the ESRC /DFID growth programme for LICs, especially African ones. She has published over 20 books and many scholarly and journalistic articles. Her books include Time for the Visible Hand, Lessons from the 2008 crisis, edited jointly with José Antonio Ocampo and Joseph Stiglitz.

Shahid Yusuf
Chief Economist
Growth Dialogue

Shahid Yusuf is Chief Economist of the Growth Dialogue. Dr. Yusuf brings many decades of economic development experience to the Dialogue, having been intensively involved with the growth policies of many of the most successful East Asian economies during key periods of their histories. Dr. Yusuf has written extensively on development issues, with a special focus on East Asia and has also published widely in various academic journals. He spent more than 35 years at the World Bank tackling issues confronting developing countries. During his tenure at the World Bank, Dr. Yusuf was the team leader for the World Bank-Japan project on East Asia’s Future Economy from 2000-2009. He was the Director of the World Development Report 1999/2000, Entering the 21st Century. Prior to that, he was Economic Adviser to the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, Lead Economist for the East Africa Department and Lead Economist for the China and Mongolia Department.

Danny Leipziger
Managing Director
The Growth Dialogue

Danny Leipziger is a professor of International Business and International Affairs at George Washington University, and is the Managing Director of the Growth Dialogue. He has taught at the University of Rhode Island, Roger Williams College, City College of New York, Brandeis University, and Brown University. Dr. Leipziger was Vice President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) and Head of the PREM Network for the World Bank between 2004 and 2009. In 2006, Dr. Leipziger started serving as the Vice-Chair of the Commission on Growth and Development. He has also served as Chairman of the World Bank Sanctions Board, and as the Director of Finance, Infrastructure and Private Sector Group, Latin America and the Caribbean Region at the World Bank.

Julia Cage
Doctoral Candidate
Economics Department
Harvard University and The Paris School of Economics

Julia Cage is a Ph.D. candidate at both Harvard University and the Paris School of Economics. She has worked as a teaching assistant at IEP Paris, the Paris School of Economics, and Harvard University. She was also a teaching assistant at the Advanced Graduate Workshop on Poverty, Development and Globalization at the University of Manchester. Ms. Cage has worked as a consultant for the World Bank and the French Agency for Economic Development. She has also held positions at the French Ministry for the Foreign Affairs and at the OECD Development Centre.

Ewa Karwowski
Lecturer
Faculty of Economics
Kingston University

Ewa is a lecturer in Economics at Kingston University, United Kingdom. 

Girum Abebe
Researcher
Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI)

Girum Abebe is a researcher at the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI). He obtained his Ph.D. in Development Economics in September 2011. His main research interest is the application of field experiments in development economics to study the constraints that face enterprises in developing countries. He has been actively engaged in field experiment designs, particularly in the implementation and impact evaluation of business and management skills training to young entrepreneurs, as well as the impact evaluation of job-search-assistance schemes to young unemployed job-seekers. He has also been studying the mechanisms firms employ to gain new knowledge from technology leaders at home and abroad, and the roles human capital and agglomeration economies play in the learning process.