African Economies In Transition

An authoritative assessment of the reform efforts in African economies during the 1980s and early 1990s, with the focus on economic liberalization in those socialist countries which began from a position of pervasive state intervention. A companion theoretical volume (0-333-66545-7) examines the changing role of the state during the period of transition. This volume examines the important debate on agricultural reforms in the period, and provides in-depth country studies of the transition economies, covering Congo, Madagascar, Tanzania and the impact of war on transition in Angola and Mozambique. These books are the first in an important new series in association with the Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.

An authoritative assessment of the reform efforts in African economies during the 1980s and early 1990s. The focus is on the reform process in the socialist countries which began from a position of pervasive state intervention. The impact of the subsequent economic liberalization and the changing role of the state during the period of transition is the focus of this theoretical overview, with particular coverage of macroeconomic management and the privatization of state enterprises. A companion volume (0-333-71237-4) contains in-depth country studies. These books are the first in an important new series in association with the Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.

First published in 1998, this volume focuses on the special category of countries popularly referred to as ‘transition economies’ through an analysis of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and their role in Asian economies, with a view to assessing whether they could or should provide a model for African countries. The present volume explores the institutional peculiarities displayed by ‘transition economies’. These are economies which are undergoing a comprehensive and fundamental societal transformation with a view to creating a utopian communist society within the frame of a centrally administered economy, then a pluralistic society based on a market economy and the rule of law. Much of the debate on the economic performance of African LCD's has focused on informal sector activities or on the imperative to achieve structural adjustment. By highlighting instead the challenges facing two of the least successful among the African economies - Ethiopia and Tanzania, both of which share a socialist past - this book moves beyond the above issues. It argues that institutional adjustment is critical to the prospects for success in developing transition economies. As such the book investigates the transaction costs environment within which small-scale industrial activities are set. By drawing extensively on the Asian experience, (predominantly China and Vietnam but also India and Taiwan), it identifies sources of transaction costs by examining not only the transactional disadvantages of small-scale production, but also the past and present sources of institutional inefficiency.

In the first twenty-five years of African independence the behaviour of the African state elites has not been, with a few notable exceptions, conducive to self-sustained development. What are the reasons for this sorry state of affairs? What can be done to reverse that unfortunate trend? These are the two overarching questions with which this book attempts to grapple.

An authoritative assessment of the reform efforts in African economies during the 1980s and early 1990s, with the focus on economic liberalization in those socialist countries which began from a position of pervasive state intervention. A companion theoretical volume (0-333-66545-7) examines the changing role of the state during the period of transition. This volume examines the important debate on agricultural reforms in the period, and provides in-depth country studies of the transition economies, covering Congo, Madagascar, Tanzania and the impact of war on transition in Angola and Mozambique. These books are the first in an important new series in association with the Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.