Determinants of economic growth in the sub-saharan countries for the period 1990-2019

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the determinants of economic growth in the Sub-Saharan Countries. To do this, two econometric models based on a panel of 9 countries over the period from 1990 to 2019 was used. The research employs fixed effects model and FGLS estimation in Stata 17. We use the Secondary data from World Bank and PWT 10.01, and the chosen variables basing on the existing literature are; GDP per capita as a proxy for economic growth, and a dependent variable, human capital depending on the average number of years of schooling, gross fixed capital formation as a proxy for physical capital, exports and imports, all four as independent variables. All variables are in logarithm form. The results emphasize the importance of investments in human capital and gross fixed capital formation as the factors that play a positive and significant role in driving economic growth in the Sub-Saharan Countries. Also exports are a significant determinant and influence positively the growth in the SSCs, therefore the need for promoting export oriented strategies such as trade diversification, market access facilitation, while imports were found to significantly affect economic growth negatively in this region, thus the need for cautious management of imports policies, in order for this countries to maintain a sustained economic growth.