Introduction

This concluding chapter serves to summarize the findings of the various chapters. The main conclusion that can be drawn is that when countries engage with policies and practices that deepen ST in ways that foster economic and industrial diversification, the broad outcome is quantitative improvements in TFP. This in turn lead to socioeconomic development and a rise in living standards. In this book, we analyze the relationships between SC, industrialization, urbanization and the resulting socioeconomic outcomes in African countries.

The central theoretical underpinning of the book is ST while the analytical subthemes, making up the book, can be identified as key variables of productivity growth, industrialization, urbanization, poverty and employment. When capital and labor move from low- productivity to high- productivity sectors, SC fuels economic growth and raises productivity. African countries with “dual” economies, this being both modern and traditional sectors, have the potential to significantly increase their productivity and growth through these movements and see resulting gains in resource allocation efficiency, even when within-sector productivity is not changing much. The book employs labor productivity as the measure of productivity, because TFP could not be used due to the lack of data.

The main sources of productivity growth are either in the main the adoption of advanced technologies or upgradation of skill of the workforce. Both inputs are expected to result in higher productivity. In other words, productivity growth could be treated as an outcome of technology transfer or the development of endogenous skills through training and learning.

In the narrative of ST, two dynamics take place: “the rise of new industries (i.e. economic diversification) and the movement of resources from traditional industries to these newer ones. Without the first, there is little that propels the economy forward. Without the second, productivity gains don't diffuse in the rest of the economy.” The study is concerned with understanding SC dynamics and the resulting effects on job creation, living standards and the efficiency of productive cities through manufacturing productivity growth that benefit majority of citizens. We did not treat SC as an endogenous factor as it has bidirectional relationship with many indicators of economic development but also has unidirectional relationship with few. For instance, poverty is expected to influence SC and not the other way around.