Geographical features vs. institutional factors : new perspectives on the growth of Africa and Middle-East

Abstract EN

This paper examines Africa’s and Middle East’s growth performance for the period 1990-2005.

It employs a Bayesian Model Averaging method that constructs estimates as a weighted average of Spatial Autoregressive estimates for every possible combination of included variables.

One of the results of the paper is that the inclusion of spatial dependencies has a direct impact on the determinants of growth in Africa and Middle-East.

Indeed, the methodology used in the paper offers an interesting response to the institution/geography debate on the explanation of growth and development.

In particular, our methodology allows a selection of the institutional variables that count to explain low development since the geographical variables are partially integrated in the spatial dependence effect.