International records / OpenAlex research

West African industry and the debt crisis

Abstract Focused on six West African countries, this paper examines the specific ways in which the foreign exchange and debt crises of the past decade have been linked to the structure and performance of the manufacturing sectors. Informed by the correlation between commercial disruption and Third‐World industrialization in the past, it suggests that the current crisis, too, may stimulate industrial development – at least in some cases, and in the longer run. Tendencies to deindustrialization still prevail in some of the weaker economies of the region. In others, however, and particularly Nige…