Final Recommendations of the International Panel on ASGISA

CID Working Paper No. 161

Ricardo Hausmann
May, 2008

A publication of the CID South Africa Growth Initiative

Core Team: Philippe Aghion, Jeffrey Frankel, Bailey Klinger, Robert Lawrence, Jim Levinsohn, James A. Robinson, Dani Rodrik, and Federico Sturzenegger
Contributors: Daron Acemoglu, Matthew Andrews, Abhijit Banerjee, Matias Braun, Lawrence Edwards, Johannes Fedderke, Sebastian Galiani, Stephen Gelb, Laurence Harris, Steven Kelman, Asim Khwaja, Jonathan Leape, Alberto Ortiz, Stanley du Plessis, Roberto Rigobon, Ben Smit, Charles Sabel, Christopher Stone, Lynne Thomas, and Ingrid Woolard

Abstract

As part of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative (ASGI-SA), the National Treasury of the Republic of South Africa convened an international panel of economists through Harvard's Center for International Development. This panel spent two years analyzing the South African economy and its growth prospects, and composed 20 papers spanning all aspects of economic policy. The present paper synthesizes this body of work. We summarize the panel's assessment of the binding constraints to growth in South Africa and provide specific policy recommendations to help achieve the goal of accelerated and shared growth.

Keywords: South Africa, economic growth

JEL codes: O50