Mark Thoma's Blogs
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Political Centralization in Africa
"Maybe Africa needs a different theory of political centralization": From "Roots of Political Centralization in Africa" by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson: "Seen from a wider perspective, the development of the strong central state we described in our previous post in Rwanda is anomalous in African history. Though states did form in pre-colonial Africa, for example around the Niger bend in the late middle ages, and in many parts of West, Central and East Central Africa after the 17th century, it is clear that these processes lagged those which took place in Eurasia. One can get some quantitative picture of this via the data coded by Louis Putterman and his collaborators (see this paper). "The lagged development of political centralization in Africa is an important part of the puzzle about why Africa developed less slowly than the rest of the world (see also...
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Elephant Underpass
Elephant populations are becoming increasingly fragmented: From "Road to Recovery?" in National Geographic: "An African elephant approaches an underpass beneath the busy Nanyuki-Meru road in northern Kenya... "The first of its kind for elephants, the underpass will ideally provide a safe corridor for the large mammals to move throughout the Mount Kenya region (map), where highways, fences, and farmlands have split elephant populations, according to Geoffrey Chege, chief conservation officer of the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, a Kenya-based nonprofit. "Without the underpass, animals that try to move between isolated areas often destroy fences and crops—leading to conflicts with people. "Since its completion in late 2010, the underpass has been a "tremendous success"—hundreds of elephants have been spotted walking through the corridor... "At first, only adult male elephants ventured through the underpass, and then only at night. "But before long whole family groups were...
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Africa Progress Report
A progress report on jobs, justice, and equity for Africa: "The Africa Progress Panel Report — Jobs, Justice and Equity for Africa" by Kevin Watkins, Brookings: "In the bullish environment at last week’s World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa in Addis Ababa, the launch of the Africa Progress Panel report stood out as an island of balanced reflection and cautious optimism. "Chaired by the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the Africa Progress Panel (APP) includes leaders from government, business and civil society. This year’s report, focused on jobs, justice and equity. The panel takes a long, hard look at Africa’s recent record on economic growth, democracy and governance. It provides a hefty dose of good news. More than any other region, Africa’s economies have demonstrated great resilience in withstanding the worst effects of the global recession....
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Kenya in Transition
An interview with Kenya’s Vice President and Minister for Home Affairs Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka: From Kenya in Transition: A Conversation with Vice President Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka: "Few countries have experienced transitions as dramatic as those occurring now in the Republic of Kenya. Just in the past year, Kenyans have adopted a new national constitution, deployed security forces to Somalia in pursuit of al-Shabaab militants, and discovered commercially-viable oil deposits. Amid these developments, Kenya is preparing for its first presidential elections since the 2008 election disputes." • Audio (MP3) of interview • Uncorrected transcript "On May 22, the Africa Growth Initiative (AGI) at Brookings hosted Kenya’s Vice President and Minister for Home Affairs Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka for a discussion on these dramatic transitions and current national challenges and opportunities. Vice President Musyoka was appointed by President Mwai Kibaki in 2008, and previously served as...
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Africa Specializing in Capital Exodus?
This is from Léonce Ndikumana: "Africa Specializing in Capital Exodus?": "Even as Africa faces severe shortages of skilled labor at home, it experiences large and increasing outflows of highly-skilled labor migration to industrialized economies in search of better job opportunities. The investments made in the training of these professionals are losses to African countries but translate into hefty gains for receiving countries. Thus resource-starved African nations are subsidizing developed countries’ industries and social services. ... "Parallel to this exodus of human capital is the illicit export of financial capital from African countries – or capital flight. This is not a new phenomenon, and it shows no signs of abating. "Over the past four decades, sub-Saharan Africa has lost a staggering $700 billion due to capital flight. In addition to trade misinvoicing, smuggling, and embezzlement of revenues from natural resource exports, a substantial part...
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“Kenya’s Forever War”
Dayo Olopade does not believe Kenya's “Operation Linda Nchi”—its war against terrorism—is worth the cost: From "Kenya’s Forever War" by Dayo Olopade, Commentary, The New York Times: "A bomb exploded in downtown Nairobi on Monday [May 28] — the eighth such attack in as many months. It was a far more sophisticated operation than the makeshift grenades that have been tossed from moving cars and into small churches and bars in the recent past. This bomb was big enough to send at least 30 Kenyans to the hospital. ... "Al Shabab, the Somalia-based terrorist group, has claimed responsibility for previous attacks in Kenya. But there are other culprits closer to home: Odinga, President Mwai Kibaki and the Kenyan military brass who last year unilaterally declared open-ended war against Al Shabab, with unacceptable side effects. “'Operation Linda Nchi' ('Protect...
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Kenya: Oil and Isolation
Will the discovery of oil in the Turkana region of Kenya lead to civil conflict that rips the country apart? "Oil and Isolation" by Juliet Torome, Commentary, Project Syndicate: "In Kenya, there is a running gag that sums up how far away the Turkana people live from the rest of us. When a Turkana man leaves for the capital, Nairobi, the joke goes, he tells his family, “I’m going to Kenya.” ... "The Turkana people are, as the joke suggests, as far away from Nairobi as one can be without being foreigners. For this reason, we know very little about them. In schools, we learned about them only within the context of the Leakey family’s decades-long work excavating the Lake Turkana basin in search of fossils of humans’ ancestors. This could be one reason why Kenyans have historically looked...
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Africa and the Great Recession
"In previous global downturns, sub-Saharan Africa has usually been badly affected—but not this time around": From "Africa and the Great Recession: Changing Times" by Antoinette Sayeh at IMF Direct: "The world economy has experienced much dislocation since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008. ... But in sub-Saharan Africa, growth for the region as a whole has remained reasonably strong (around 5 percent)... "Of course,... not all economies have fared equally well. The more advanced economies in the region (notably South Africa) have close links to export markets in the advanced economies, and have experienced a sharper slowdown, and weaker recovery, than did the bulk of the region’s low-income economies. Countries affected by civil strife (such as Cote d’Ivoire, and now Mali) and by drought have also fared less well... "So why has most of sub-Saharan Africa continued to...
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Have Blog, Will Travel
Just a quick note. I have a somewhat brutal travel schedule the next few days, and when all is said and done, I ought to be in Nairobi, Kenya, for IRP’s international bloggers' trip to Kenya. They know that I am not an expert on women's reproductive health issues, though I will talk about related economic issues, but my main focus will be on economic problems in Kenya (I already have around 10 background posts set to go). And no, you aren't the first person to make an Obama joke. After that, I'm going to this year's Nobel meetings in Lindau, Germany (the meetings bring Nobel laureates together with 500-600 graduate students from around the world). I'll stop over in Zurich for three days first, but since I was going through Zurich anyway on the way back from Kenya,...
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