Table of Contents

List of figures; List of tables; Preface; Acknowledgements; Overview of the book; 1. A new economic history for Africa?; 2. Seeing like an African state in the twentieth century; 3. New data and new perspectives on economic growth in Africa; 4. State capacity across the twentieth century: evidence from taxation with Thilo Albers and Marvin Suesse; 5. Wages and poverty: from roots of poverty to trajectories of living standards; 6. Conclusion; List of references; Endnotes; Index.

Promotional Information

A new account of economic performance and state development in African countries across the long twentieth century.

About the Author

Morten Jerven has a Ph.D. in Economic History from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. His previous publications include Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics and What to Do about It (2013) and Africa: Why Economists Get It Wrong (2015).