Sub-Saharan Comparative Firm-level Data

Availability

This data is made available by the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford. Permission for use of the data for academic research is given by the Centre. We ask that the use of the data, its sources, and the financing for the surveys be acknowledged.

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Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe

This data set underlies the paper: "Rates of Return on Physical and Human Capital in Africa's Manufacturing Sector". Arne Bigsten et al., Economic Development and Cultural Change 48: 801. An early version of the paper can be found as CSAE Working Paper WPS/98.12 in the CSAE Working Papers Series.

The paper presents standard earnings and production functions for the manufacturing sector of five African countries, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The data set is unusual in having measures of both physical and human capital.

The paper draws on work undertaken as part of the Regional Programme on Enterprise Development (RPED), organised by the World Bank and funded by the Swedish, French, Belgian, UK, Canadian and Dutch governments. Support of the Dutch and UK governments for both data collection and workshops is gratefully acknowledged. 

Correspondence: Dr F J Teal, CSAE, Manor Road, Oxford, OX1 3UQ: francis.teal@economics.ox.ac.uk

Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Nigeria

This data set underlies the paper: “Exporting from manufacturing firms in sub-Saharan Africa”, Journal of African Economies, Vol. 15, No.4, December 2006, pp.671-687. N.Rankin, M.Söderbom and F.Teal.

Using this data set it is possible to run a panel estimation of a production function across five African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Nigeria.

Correspondence: Dr F J Teal, CSAE, Manor Road, Oxford, OX1 3UQ: francis.teal@economics.ox.ac.uk