In Market Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, Marcel Fafchamps                  synthesizes the results of recent surveys of indigenous market institutions in                  twelve countries, including Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, and Zimbabwe,                  and presents findings about economics exchange in Africa that have implications both                  for future research and current policy. Employing empirical data as well as                  theoretical models that clarify the data, Fafchamps takes as his unifying principle                  the difficulties of contract enforcement. Arguing that in an unpredictable world                  contracts are not always likely to be respected, he shows that contract agreements                  in sub-Saharan Africa are affected by the absence of large hierarchies (both                  corporate and governmental) and as a result must depend to a greater degree than in                  more developed economies on social networks and personal trust. Fafchamps considers                  policy recommendations as they apply to countries in three different stages of                  development: countries with undeveloped market institutions, like Ghana; countries                  at an intermediate stage, like Kenya; and countries with developed market                  institutions, like Zimbabwe.Market Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa caps ten years                  of personal research by the author. Fafchamps, in collaboration with such                  institutions as the Africa Division of the World Bank and the International Food                  Policy Research Institute, participated in the surveys of manufacturing firms and                  agricultural traders that provide the empirical basis for the book. The result is a                  work that makes a significant contribution to research on the continuing economic                  stagnation of many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and is also largely accessible to                  researchers in other fields and policy professionals.

Market Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Theory and Evidence (Comparative Institutional Analysis) PDF

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