From Primary Commodity Dependence to Diversificationand Growth Buchkatalog

From Resource Dependence to GrowthThe continuous capital accumulation process in EastAsian countries between the 1960s and 1990s has gonehand in hand with a spectacular economic growth, anequally impressive poverty reduction and asignificant technological catch up. Over the sameperiod, Sub-Saharan Africa has been falling furtherbehind the rest of the world in terms of bothtechnology adoption and per capita income. Parallelto this difference between Asia's economic take-offand Africa's stagnation, an astounding differencecould be observed between the dramatic change in theexport composition of Asian countries and theconstant reliance on the export of raw materials formost African countries. The author attributes thisdifference to the absorptive capacity.This book examines the mechanisms by which absorptivecapacity, as a prerequisite for change in exportcomposition, can explain the transition from thereliance on primary commodity to a diversifiedexport. The growth experiences of Mauritius andBotswana are used for illustration.