Arbeitspapier

Can cities or towns drive African development? Economy-wide analysis for Ethiopia and Uganda

Rapid urbanization is an important characteristic of African development and yet the structural transformation debate focuses on agriculture's relative merits without also considering the benefits from urban agglomeration. As a result, African governments are often provided conflicting recommendations on the importance of rural agriculture or urban industry. We develop dynamic economy-wide models for Ethiopia and Uganda that capture both traditional aspects of the debate (growth linkages and foreign trade) and benefits from urbanization (internal migration and agglomeration effects). Simulations suggest that urban agglomeration is an important source of long-term growth and structural transformation, but that investing in cities does not greatly reduce national poverty over the short-term. In this regard, agricultural growth is more effective, albeit with slower national growth. Given these trade-offs, we conclude that the urbanization's benefits argue against an agro-fundamentalist approach to African development, but the short-term imperative of reducing poverty necessitates further agricultural investment.

ISBN
978-92-9230-513-0
Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: WIDER Working Paper ; No. 2012/50

Classification
Wirtschaft
Computable and Other Applied General Equilibrium Models
Economic Development: Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics
Subject
urbanization
rural development
growth
poverty
CGE model
Africa
Urbanisierung
Entwicklung
Ländliche Entwicklung
Armut
CGE-Modelling
Allgemeines Gleichgewicht
Äthiopien
Uganda

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Dorosh, Paul
Thurlow, James
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
(where)
Helsinki
(when)
2012

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Dorosh, Paul
  • Thurlow, James
  • The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)

Time of origin

  • 2012

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