Political Economy of Underdevelopment in Sub-Saharan Africa

This book provides a unique combination of history, politics, and economics to rationalize the progression of underdevelopment in Sierra Leone, and the challenges of economic growth and development confronting some Sub-Saharan African countries. It concisely presents the internal frictions that are most responsible for the underdevelopment of Sierra Leonean since 1961, while also benchmarking the performance of the country with some countries in the subregion, Europe, the US, Latin America, and Asia. It highlights the external threats that are highly capable of stifling the economic growth and sustainable development of the country, including sovereign debt, the paucity of human capital, the use of natural resources, and external shocks.

The central concepts of analysis include the premise for underdevelopment, contexts for business strategies and rivalry in an underdeveloped economy, economic growth, productivity, sustainable development, international trade, and threats to macroeconomic stability in the form of volatile commodity prices, loss of competitiveness, inaccessible foreign markets, deficient healthcare infrastructure, the cost of unsustainable sovereign debt, and the viability of long-term investments.

The book has been intentionally developed for all those who are strongly interested in the political economy of Sub-Saharan Africa (with particular emphasis on Sierra Leone), empirical work on economic growth and development, academic instruction on international political economy, international organizations, and policymakers.

Christopher E.S. Warburton is an international economist with a PhD in international economics from Fordham University. He also holds dual MA degrees in Economics, and International Political Economy and Development (IPED) from Fordham University in New York. As a graduate of Fourah Bay College (FBC), University of Sierra Leone, he holds a BA (Hons) in History. He has extensively published peer-reviewed papers in economics and authored multiple books on Economics and law. Two of his most recent publications by Routledge are The Development of International Monetary Policy (2018) and Economic Analysis and Law (2021). He currently teaches Economics and Business courses for the MBA program at Berkeley College in New Jersey, USA.