The Comparative Economics of Knowledge Economy in Africa: Policy Benchmarks, Syndromes, and Implications
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The Comparative Economics of Knowledge Economy in Africa: Policy Benchmarks, Syndromes, and Implications Simplice A. Asongu 1
Received: 20 May 2014 / Accepted: 30 June 2015 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Abstract The paper complements the scarce literature on knowledge economy (KE) in Africa by comparing KE dynamics within Africa in order to assess best and worst performers based on fundamental characteristics of the continent’s development. The five dimensions of the World Bank’s Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) are employed, notably education, information and communication technology, innovation, economic incentives, and institutional regime. The empirical evidence is based on a five-step novel approach with data from 53 African countries for the period 1996–2010. Limitations of the beta catch-up approach are complemented with the sigma convergence strategy. Based on the determined fundamental characteristics, computed dynamic benchmarks, policy syndromes, and syndrome-free scenarios, we establish that landlocked, low-income, conflict-affected, Sub-Saharan African, nonoil-exporting, and French civil law countries are generally more predisposed to lower levels of KE, whereas English common law, openness to sea, absence of conflicts, North African, and middle-income countries are characteristics that predispose certain nations to higher KE. Broad and specific policy implications are discussed in detail. Keywords Knowledge economy . Benchmarks . Policy syndromes . Catch-up . Africa JEL Classification O10 . O30 . O38 . O55 . O57
Introduction The relevance of knowledge economy (KE) in twenty-first century development is now a widely accepted consensus. It has been a dominant discourse in leading development
* Simplice A. Asongu [email protected] 1
African Governance and Development Institute, P.O. Box 8413, Yaoundé, Cameroon
J Knowl Econ
reports (World 2007; Weber 2011). While Europe and North America have remained dominant in the pursuit of KE and Asian and Latin American countries have been witnessing a significant progress (Dahlman 2007; Lee 2009; Chandra and Yokoyama 2011; Kim 2013; Tran 2011), Africa’s knowledge index has dropped in the period 2000 to 2009 (Anyanwu 2012). In critically reviewing African growth and development strategies, Babatunde (2012) has broadly recommended more regional integration and investing in KE. We provide a five-step novel approach to assessing whether African economies are integrated in the latter by first defining the fundamental characteristics of African development; second, presenting benchmarks in KE dimensions corresponding to these fundamental features; third, examining the gaps in KE among various fundamental characteristics; fourth, deriving “policy syndrome” and “syndrome-free” countries 1; and finally, providing policy implications based on the syndromes established. The above five-point positioning is broadly consistent with a strand of recent KE-based studies that has emphasized a greater need for catch-up in the phenomenon (Aubert 2005; Bri
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