International Development Policy and Foreign Aid Perspectives - Archibong, Coulibaly and Okonjo-Iweala (2021), Silva (2022)

Question 1

legacy of economic reforms in the 1980s and 1990s

Answer 1

liberalising reforms which weakened agricultural marketing boards, tax reforms, trade reforms, etc.

policy changes were controversial and implemented in part through world bank/IMF supported structural adjustment programs (SAPs)
- did these pro-market/neoliberal reforms further impoverish African economics and undermine national sovereignty?

Question 2

growth since the 1980s

Answer 2

in the 80s and mid-90s, 0 and negative growth
- starting in the mid-90s, gets above 0
- couple decades of steady positive growth

looking at inflation levels also shows that economic growth is higher and there’s more stability in terms of price levels

Question 3

3 major dimensions of economic policy reform across SSA in the 1980s and 1990s

Answer 3

fiscal policy
- more fiscal discipline, less accumulation of debt

domestic markets
- privatisation, deregulation, dismantling agricultural marketing boards

openness to international trade and investment
- fewer tariff and investment barriers

Question 4

main finding

Answer 4

countries that reform more have faster per capita growth from 2000-2019

OVB and endogeneity are big issues here

Question 5

comparing reformers and non-reformers

Answer 5

non-reformers growing faster in 1980-1999 while others were doing poorly

between 2000-2019, growth looks similar across the two groups

DD looks positive since non-reformers started worse-off
- non-reformers get +1.4, reformers get +2.1 so difference is +0.7

Question 6

argument about debt relief

Answer 6

debt relief as a major part of the story of improving African economic performance
- average debt as % of GDP fell from 110% in 2001 to 36% in 2012 through the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) program

less convinced about high commodity prices

Question 7

role of representative political institutions

Answer 7

role that they play in promoting pro-poor public policies (in education and health) and infrastructure investments in the 2000-2019 period

sharp change in Nigerian policy priorities after the end of military dictatorship in 1999
- caveat that one of the authors was finance minister there