Publications

This paper, by Dr. Francis Mulangu, evaluates the impacts of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) on firm-level employment and productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Thus far, evidence suggests that AGOA has had positive effects on unilateral exports from Sub-Saharan Africa to the US. Depending on the sectors, AGOA increased SSA exports to the US from 8% to 42%, with petroleum oil exports surpassing 100%. However, less is known about its second order effects – i.e., the impacts on f....

By Professor Douglas Gollin In this essay Douglas Gollin, Professor of Development Economics at Oxford University and Visiting Scholar at ACET makes the point that while Africa’s cities are undergoing remarkable growth, rural areas remain poor and large numbers of farmers continue to produce primarily for their subsistence. But if urban growth is not sufficient to drive an economic transformation in rural areas, then what kind of rural or agricultural transformation is needed? You can wat....

The African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) has been part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Searchlight Programme since 2011, and has produced monthly editions of the West Africa Trends newsletter since January 2011. The Rockefeller Foundation started the Searchlight Programme in 2009, to provide an on-the- ground, regionally focused view of the world, with a particular emphasis on monitoring the economic, societal and political trends which may affect the lives of poor and vulner....

ACET Occasional Papers analyze and make recommendations on issues or comment on important developments in the international arena and how they affect Africa. By Nicolas Depetris Chauvin and Guido Porto Cash crops, such as cocoa, cotton, coffee and tobacco, are a major source of export revenue for a large number of Sub-Saharan African countries and the livelihood basis for millions of rural households who grow those crops. Generally speaking, poor farmers in the cash crop sector shou....