Is That a Dragon or Elephant on Your Ladder

The success of the East Asian countries in obtaining rapid growth from an export-led strategy is often used as an example of the potentials of that approach. This model is often prescribed for Africa—but what has not been examined is how African nations can compete with India and China. This paper examines the effect of the large populations of China and India on their ability to out-compete African countries in labor intensive production. Most African countries face substantial...
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The success of the East Asian countries in obtaining rapid growth from an export-led strategy is often used as an example of the potentials of that approach. This model is often prescribed for Africa—but what has not been examined is how African nations can compete with India and China. This paper examines the effect of the large populations of China and India on their ability to out-compete African countries in labor intensive production. Most African countries face substantial competition from exports from India and China. This competition, however, does depend on the market for the goods, and where African countries have long trading relationships with a market, they face less competition from China or India.