The Empirical Economics Letters
Volume 5, Number 1, Page 37
January 2006
ISSN 1681 8997
Transport Infrastructure and Economic Growth: Evidence from Africa Using Dynamic Panel Estimates
Abstract: Empirical evidences on the importance of transport capital development in fastening productivity and economic development for panel sets, particularly for African countries and island state cases, have been very scarce in the literature. Such type of study is very important as public finance is limited and sustainable transport improvements usually have opportunity costs. Planners need guidance, based on solid empirical grounds, to aid in their decision to improve existing transportation and build new infrastructure. This study analyses the contribution of transport capital to growth for two different data sets namely for a sample of Sub Saharan African (SSA) countries and also for a developing states (SIDS) using both cross sectional and panel data analysis. In both sample cases, the analysis concluded that transport capital has been a contributor to the economic progress of these countries. Analysis further revealed that in the SSA case, the productivity of transport capital stock is superior as compared to that of overall capital. Such is not the case for the SIDS where transport capital is seen to have the average productivity level of overall capital stock.