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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Natural Resources, National Income, and Economic Growth in Africa
Author:Winter-Nelson, AlexISNI
Year:1995
Periodical:World Development
Volume:23
Issue:9
Period:September
Pages:1507-1519
Language:English
Geographic terms:Subsaharan Africa
Africa
Subjects:natural resources
economic development
economic policy
national accounts
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Development and Technology
Economics and Trade
External link:https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(95)00067-M
Abstract:By failing to account for reductions in the stock of natural resources, standard measures of national income misrepresent actual economic growth. The discrepancy between growth in production and growth in gross domestic product (GDP) can be substantial in the African nations that depend heavily on extractive industries. Consequently, policy analysis based on reported growth rates in Africa may be misleading. National income calculations can be adjusted to account for extraction through relatively simple resource accounting techniques. This paper presents a set of environmentally adjusted income accounts for 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and uses these data to determine whether policies that generated growth in GDP did so through production or through depletion of natural capital. The analysis indicates that one growth strategy, export expansion, has been associated with growth in GDP, but not with growth in measures that account for reduced natural capital stock. This finding suggests that export expansion has often been based on extraction of natural capital without commensurate investment to maintain the total capital stock or generate increased production. Meanwhile, policies that tend to encourage investment are associated with growth in both the conventional and revised income measures. App., bibliogr., notes, ref., sum.
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