The Cost of Doing Business in Africa : Evidence from the World Bank’s Investment Climate Data

This paper looks at firm-level evidence on the African business environment from surveys undertaken for Investment Climate Assessments by the World Bank in 2000-2004. These surveys confirm a pattern of generally low "factory-floor" productivity, and show that this is partly due to business environment-related losses. The surveys also show the importance of high indirect costs in further depressing the "net" productivity of African firms relative to those in other regions. Reforms are moving forward but more slowly than is needed to accelerate growth; this raises the possibility that countries settle into a low-level political equilibrium sustained partly by structural and ethnic cleavages.

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	World Bank
Language:	English en_US
Published:	Washington, DC 2005-11
Subjects:	ACCOUNT, ACCOUNTS, ADVERSE EFFECT, ANNUAL SALES, BENCHMARK, BUSINESS COMMUNITIES, BUSINESS COMMUNITY, BUSINESS INDICATORS, BUSINESS LOSSES, BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, BUSINESS SERVICES, CAPITAL FLIGHT, COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE, COMPETITIVENESS, CONSTANT RETURNS TO SCALE, COST ACCOUNTING, COST OF CAPITAL, DEFLATORS, DEPRECIATION, DOMESTIC MARKET, ECONOMETRIC ANALYSES, ECONOMIC OUTCOMES, ECONOMIES OF SCALE, ELASTICITY, ELASTICITY OF SUBSTITUTION, EXCHANGE RATES, EXPORTS, EXTERNALITIES, FINANCIAL SECTOR, FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT, FOREIGN INVESTMENT, GDP, GROSS VALUE, HIGH TRANSPORT, HUMAN CAPITAL, INCOME, INVESTMENT CLIMATE, INVESTMENT RATES, LATIN AMERICAN, MARKET COMPETITION, MARKET POTENTIAL, MARKET POWER, MARKET PRICES, MARKET SHARE, MARKETING, NATURAL RESOURCES, NET VALUE, POLITICAL ECONOMY, PRICE DIFFERENTIAL, PRICE LEVEL, PRICE LEVELS, PRODUCT MARKET, PRODUCTION FUNCTION, PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS, PRODUCTIVITY, PROFIT MARGIN, PROFIT MARGINS, PROFITABILITY, PURCHASING, PURCHASING POWER, RATES OF RETURN, REGULATORY BURDEN, ROAD, ROAD IMPROVEMENTS, SALES, SECURITY COSTS, SMALL BUSINESS, SPREAD, SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, TOTAL COSTS, TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY, TRANSPORT, TRANSPORT COSTS, TRANSPORT SYSTEMS, TRAVEL COSTS, TRUE, UNDERESTIMATES, VALUE ADDED, WAGES,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/11/7033876/cost-doing-business-africa-evidence-world-banks-investment-climate-data https://hdl.handle.net/10986/8769
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