Economic growth without transformation: the case of Uganda

Abstract

This paper argues that Uganda's economic development has been characterised by structural change in production without structural change in employment. This poses dangers to continued growth. Although labour is increasingly abundant, low productivity in agriculture, it is argued, makes labour expensive. This is due to policy failure – lack of investment in agriculture – and ultimately to the evolution of patron–client politics in Uganda. Rapid agricultural growth is required in order to permit labour-intensive growth in manufacturing.

Résumé

Cet article soutient que le développement économique de l'Ouganda est caractérisé par un changement structurel dans la production, sans changement structurel dans l'emploi, ce qui menace la poursuite de la croissance économique. Même si la main d’œuvre est de plus en plus abondante, la faible productivité en agriculture contribue à augmenter les coûts de main-d’œuvre. Cela est dû à l’échec des politiques, soit le manque d'investissement en agriculture, et, en dernier ressort, à l’évolution de la politique ougandaise des relations patron–client. La croissance rapide du secteur agricole est un préalable nécessaire au développement d'un secteur manufacturier à forte intensité de main d’œuvre.

Keywords:

• agricultural productivity
• structural change
• dualistic model
• Uganda
• patron–client politics

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Mary Self for helping me to prepare the manuscript.

Notes

1 International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) is the international reference system for the classification of production activities. The World Bank's Enterprise Survey can be found at www.enterprisesurveys.org

2 Created in 1971, AfricaRice is a pan-African rice research organisation and one of the 15 international agricultural research centres that comprise CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research). AfricaRice's membership today includes 25 countries covering the West, central, East and North African regions. See http://www.africarice.org

Additional information

Biographical note

Richard Grabowski is a professor of economics at Southern Illinois University. His work has been published in a number of journals, including World Development, Journal of Development Studies, Review of Development Economics, Journal of Asian Economics, and Oxford Development Studies.