52 pages • 1 hour read
Ha-Joon ChangA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Some economists characterize African countries as virtually doomed economically due to factors such as climate, geography, political conflicts, excessive natural resources, cultural factors, and more—despite many African countries adopting free-market reforms since the 1980s. Dismissing these explanations for the lack of growth in Sub-Saharan Africa as scapegoats designed to serve the views of free-market economists, Chang suggests that none of these factors is unique to Africa. In fact, several of today’s rich countries share similar climates, landlocked geography, propensity for ethnic conflicts, and so on. Chang adds that the growth rate in African countries was decent before they implemented free-market policies at the behest of the IMF, which have only stalled growth.
The author’s placing this essay immediately after the one that discusses the US living standard seems deliberate: While the previous essay seeks to humble those with lofty views of the US’s status in the world, this essay serves as a rejoinder to those dismissive of countries on the other end of the international economic spectrum, foregrounding the theme of The Path Forward for Developing Countries. Although Chang’s analysis may not be thorough enough to fully establish the true causes of some African countries’ economic struggles, it does fulfill its purpose of provoking readers to question whether full-scale free-market policies are truly the best policy prescription for that region of the world.