“Nigeria is not a poor country”, President Goodluck Jonathan declared earlier this month in response to a World Bank report which listed Nigeria among the five poorest countries in the world. The claim is wrong and misleading says Taiwo Obe, writing for Africa Check.
Recalculating Kenya’s GDP
Nic Cheeseman writes about the new GDP numbers in Kenya. They are not ready yet, viagra and the jump in GDP will not be as big as they were in Nigeria or Ghana. As in Nigeria and Ghana the new numbers will not make...
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World poverty halved?
The implications from the new 2011 PPP benchmarks from the ICP numbers may mean a huge reduction in the poverty head count in the world. Sarah Dykstra, Charles Kenny and Justin Sandefur at the Center for Global Development draw some implications from thethe new...
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Interview with Jeune Afrique
I talk about why I think the emphasis (taken by some journalists) on 'lies, damned lies and statistics' can distract us from simple but real knowledge problem. Read it here.
Towards a new history of economic growth in Africa
Is it only me who thinks it is a bit strange that the most read book on African economic growth, the Bottom Billion, focuses on explaining why African economies are stuck in chronic failure of growth - while African economies on average has been...
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Someone robbed the databank (at the World Bank)
More specifically, Justin Sandefur (with Sarah Dykstra and Benjamin Dykstra) at the Center for Global Development have been running a script to get full access to the data in the Povcalnet database maintained at the World Bank (by Shaohua Chen; Prem Sangraula and Martin...
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Reviews of Poor Numbers
It takes a little while, about a year, between publication and when academic reviews start appearing. Andrew Jack at the Financial Times was early with a review of the book before it was published, and Bill Gates similarly asked for a pre-publication copy of...
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David Roodman on the Data Revolution
I like David Roodman's post on the Data revolution. He points out one of the obvious reasons why it is hard to make sense of what it is supposed to mean: “Data,” understood broadly, is like “documents”: inarguably important, but not a good organizing...
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History of Capitalism and Economic Growth in Africa
I read that Chris Blattman does not recommend young academics to write book chapters. That might be good advice for some, pill but a piece of advice that I happily ignore. Particularly if you are invited to take part in prestigious projects with colleagues...
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Measuring African Development: Past and Present – Special Issue
In 2013 the chief economist for the World Bank's Africa region, Shanta Devarajan, delivered a devastating assessment of the capacity of African states to measure development and declared “Africa's Statistical Tragedy”. Is there a “statistical tragedy” unfolding in Africa now?If so then examining the...
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