Arbache, Jorge SabaPage, John2012-06-082012-06-082007-11https://hdl.handle.net/10986/7533Low and highly volatile growth define Africa's growth experience. But there is no evidence that growth volatility is associated to long term economic performance. This result may be misleading if it suggests that volatility is not important for economic and social progress. In this paper we use a variant of the method developed by Hausmann, Pritchett, and Rodrik (2005) to identify both growth acceleration and deceleration episodes in Africa between 1975 and 2005. The authors find that Africa has had numerous growth acceleration episodes in the last 30 years, but also nearly a comparable number of growth collapses, offsetting most of the benefits of growth. Had Africa avoided its growth collapses, it would have grown 1.7 percent a year instead of 0.7 percent, and its GDP per capita would have been more than 30 percent higher in 2005. The authors also find that growth accelerations and decelerations have an asymmetric impact on human development outcomes. Finally, our results suggest that it is easier to identify the likely institutional and policy origins of growth decelerations than of growth accelerations.CC BY 3.0 IGOACCOUNTABILITYACTUAL GROWTHAGGREGATE LEVELAMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEWAVERAGE GROWTHAVERAGE GROWTH RATEAVERAGE GROWTH RATESAVERAGE INCOMECAPITA INCOME GROWTHCONSUMER PRICECONSUMER PRICE INDEXCORRELATION ANALYSISCORRELATION COEFFICIENTCORRELATION COEFFICIENTSCORRUPTIONCOUNTRY DATACOUNTRY LEVELCROSS COUNTRYCROSS COUNTRY EVIDENCEDEPENDENT VARIABLEDETERMINANTS OF GROWTHDEVELOPING REGIONSDEVELOPMENT GOALSDEVELOPMENT INDICATORSDIRECT INVESTMENTECONOMIC CONDITIONSECONOMIC CONTRACTIONSECONOMIC GROWTHECONOMIC LITERATUREECONOMIC OUTLOOKECONOMIC PERFORMANCEECONOMIC REFORMSEFFECTS OF VOLATILITYEMPIRICAL STUDIESESTIMATED COEFFICIENTSEXCHANGE RATEFOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTGOOD GOVERNANCEGOVERNANCE INDICATORGOVERNANCE INDICATORSGOVERNMENT CONSUMPTIONGOVERNMENT EFFECTIVENESSGROWTH ACCELERATIONSGROWTH PATHGROWTH PERFORMANCEGROWTH RATEGROWTH RATESGROWTH SUCCESSESGROWTH VOLATILITYHEALTH OUTCOMESHIGH GROWTHHIGH INFLATIONHIGHER VOLATILITYHUMAN DEVELOPMENTINCOME GROWTHINCOME PER CAPITAINFANT MORTALITYINSTITUTIONAL PERFORMANCEINSTITUTIONAL VARIABLESINTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUNDLINK BETWEEN VOLATILITYLONG RUNMACROECONOMIC MANAGEMENTMEDIUM TERMMEDIUM TERM GROWTHNATIONAL ACCOUNTSNATURAL RESOURCESOIL EXPORTERSOVERALL RATE OF GROWTHPER CAPITA GROWTHPER CAPITA INCOMEPOLICY MAKERSPOLICY RESEARCHPOLITICAL CONDITIONSPOLITICAL STABILITYPOOR GOVERNANCEPOVERTY REDUCTIONPOVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGYPRIVATE SECTORPUBLIC POLICYPURCHASING POWERRAPID GROWTHRATE OF GROWTHREAL EFFECTIVE EXCHANGE RATEREGULATORY QUALITYRICH COUNTRIESRULE OF LAWSHARP REDUCTIONSOCIAL OUTCOMESSOCIAL VARIABLESSTAGNATIONSTRUCTURAL BREAKSTRUCTURAL POLICIESSUB-SAHARAN AFRICASUSTAINABLE GROWTHTHE GAMBIAUNDER 5 MORTALITYWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-4384