Abstract
Is sub-Saharan Africa’s growth a quality growth (Quality growth implies growth that creates a dynamic economy while enhancing health, being good stewards of natural resources, and fostering equal opportunity to reduce poverty.)? Does the growth engender sustainable development? In a panel of 40 sub-Saharan African countries over thirty years, the study investigated the quality of SSA’s growth along different sectors to reduce the level of poverty. The preliminary results indicate that the poverty-reducing effectiveness of growth varies considerably across sectors, across space, and over time. The study found that the services sector has a more poverty-reducing effect than growth in the agriculture or manufacturing industries. The result is tenable since these sectors (manufacturing and agricultural sectors), particularly in develo** countries, are characterized by the excessive utilization of non-renewable sources of energy (such as wood fuels, petroleum, coal, and biofuel) in their operations, thereby increasing carbon emissions. The increase in carbon emissions creates extreme weather, which in turn damages homes and businesses. This can prevent the poor from esca** poverty, and it is often the trigger that tips the vulnerable into poverty. The results suggest that to engender sustainable development, reduce poverty, and promote green growth economy in the region, governments, and policymakers in SSA must redirect the economy toward a knowledge-based economy by expanding the services sector.
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Notes
- 1.
Danquah et al. (2022) defined structural transformation as the shift from an agrarian economy to a more industrialized economy as well as the redistribution of income to the poor households. The authors concluded that structural transformation is crucial to inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction through creation of jobs and improving labor productivity.
- 2.
We log-transformed some of the variables to give the variables a constant variance and control for potential heteroskedasticity.
- 3.
The New Institution Economic (NIE) theory emphasizes the role of institutions as the fundamental determinant of economic and political development.
- 4.
By service sector, we refer to the economic sector that produces and offers services (such as travel, Internet and information technology, media and entertainment, financial services, and the healthcare industry). This sector is also referred to as the knowledge-based economy.
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Olusegun, O.O. (2023). Channeling Growth for Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Do Sectoral Patterns of Growth Matter?. In: El Amine Abdelli, M., Shahbaz, M. (eds) Digital Economy, Energy and Sustainability. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22382-2_1
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