Boosting Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa

This report documents the productivity trends in Sub-Saharan Africa at three different dimensions; namely, the aggregate level, the sectoral level, and the establishment level. It characterizes the evolution of productivity in the region vis-à-vis other countries and regions as well as country groups in Africa classified by their degree of natural resources abundance and condition of fragility. The core of this volume rests upon the assessment of the implications on aggregate productivity of production decisions across agricultural farms and manufacturing firms in Sub-Saharan Africa. It produces and gathers evidence on aggregate productivity from the perspective of production units, using recent household surveys for farmers and firm-level surveys for select African countries, and frontier estimation techniques. The empirical work presented in this volume can provide further guidance for productivity analysis and the design of a policy agenda for the region.