How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it cornell studies in political economy jerven, morten on. How we are mislead by african development statistics and. How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it, is unfortunate. Contemporary africa s growth and development download. Morten jervens research shows how the statistical capacities of subsaharan african economies have fallen into disarray. Because of the lack of data on food production, the best a statistician can do is to infer food production based on the caloric needs of the population. Evaluating the data base for african economic development, journal of development studies 51, 2 2015, pp.
Feb 01, 20 one of the most urgent challenges in african economic development is to devise a strategy for improving statistical capacity. How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it by morten jerven download pdf 411 kb. How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it cornell studies in political economy. On the accuracy of trade and gdp statistics in africa.
The international data is sown together by different series. Morten jerven s poor numbers sheds light on the acute fragility of african statistics, itself linked to the precarious conditions in which aggregates are produced. Pdf, epubs, mobi, emagazines, epaper, ejournal and more. I wanted to examine how national income estimates were made in african countries. Reliable statistics, including estimates of economic growth rates and percapita income, are basic to the operation of governments in developing countries and vital to nongovernmental organizations and other entities that provide financial aid to. Few countries illustrate his case more starkly than rwanda. Africa by assistant professor morten jerven overdrive. Transcript of development drums episode 46 morten jerven. Poor numbers how we are misled by african development statistics morten jerven pdf poor numbers. African trade statistics suffer from errors of commission and omission. A couple of years ago morten grabbed the worlds attention with his book poor numbers, which argued that we are being mislead by bad development statistics. Welcome,you are looking at books for reading, the contemporary africas growth and development, you will able to read or download in pdf or epub books and notice some of author may have lock the live reading for some of country. Jerven, poor numbers, and morten jerven and deborah johnston, statistical tragedy in africa. Jan 24, 20 poor numbers is the first analysis of the production and use of african economic development statistics.
Here, detailed elaborations on the impact of, for example, the setting of base years for gdp. In his book entitled poor numbers, morten jerven cautioned against taking african development statics at face value, given the high political and financial stakes attached to these numbers, as well as the lack of institutional mechanisms to prevent political interference in many countries. How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it cornell studies in political economy book by morten jerven. You say that there are a litany of reasons for thinking that the economic statistics that we work with are misleading. How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it, by morten jerven. Many of the observations in the datasets are not even data in the strictest sense of the word because so much of the data are guesstimates or adjustments that filled in gaps in data. The author goes on to emphasize the challenges and considerable shortcomings posed by low quality data. Jerven argues that the inconsistency of the numbers and methodology.
I was struck by the derelict state of the central statistical office in lusaka. View enhanced pdf access article on wiley online library html view download pdf for offline viewing. When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Morten jervens conclusion to the question how good are africas national account estimates. How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it, ithaca, ny. The pdf to numbers conversion are often performed to help improving the efficiency and creativity on our work, there are 4 incredibly simple ways to convert pdf to numbers, no matter you want to export native pdf, scanned pdf, even images into iwork numbers.
Morten jervens poor numbers sheds light on the acute fragility of african statistics, itself linked to the precarious conditions in which aggregates are produced. Therefore it need a free signup process to obtain the book. He is an economic historian, publishing widely on patterns of african economic development including a recent book, poor numbers. The 9th symposium on statistical development in africa assd, held in the end of last month in gaborone, botswana, took an intense turn when participants, mainly african statisticians and policy makers, took turns to criticize morten jervens 20 book poor numbers. Mar 31, 2016 jerven, poor numbers, and morten jerven and deborah johnston, statistical tragedy in africa. The fight for africas statistics narrative addis standard. Politics of development visible in the data before 1987. What do we know about income and growth in subsaharan africa. Admittedly, poor numbers is not a typical book about statistics. Despite all of the problems, and the risks of garbage in, garbage out, jervens conclusion stresses the importance of numbers, calling for qualitative rigor and interdisciplinary approaches, and defends the concept of gdp as too important to be ignored, even if the numbers are too poor to be trusted blindly. Poor numbers by morten jerven pdf, ebook read online perlego. The numbers substantially misstate the actual state of affairs. How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it is forthcoming with cornell university press in 20, and is now available on preorder.
Throughout his book, the author shows that poor numbers are a combination. With regards to balance of trade and payments, he cautioned that a measure of the balance of trade is an arbitrary and fearfully vague notion. Apr 01, 2014 the title of morten jervens engaging and valuable new book, poor numbers. Jerven demystifies the pro gulf between man and beast. Indeed, they either do not exist in a complete sense or they are not of good quality. Morten jerven s research shows how the statistical capacities of subsaharan african economies have fallen into disarray. Poor numbers is the first analysis of the production and use of african economic development statistics. How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it. How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it cornell studies in political economy 1 by jerven, morten isbn. The lancet vol 383, issue 9917, pages 575668, e12e14 15. Despite all of the problems, and the risks of garbage in, garbage out, jerven s conclusion stresses the importance of numbers, calling for qualitative rigor and interdisciplinary approaches, and defends the concept of gdp as too important to be ignored, even if the numbers are too poor to be trusted blindly. Development economist branko milanovic writing for the world bank, development economist morten jerven, and billionaire philanthropist bill gates have identified the maddison project, the penn world tables, and world bankimf data the world development indicators, as the three main sources of worldwide economic statistics such as gdp data, with the focus of the maddison project. Contemporary africa s growth and development download pdf.
How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it cornell studies in political economy morten jerven isbn. How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it, by morten jerven download download pdf. How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it by morten jervenithaca. How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it by morten jerven. The lancet vol 383, issue 9917, pages 575668, e12e14. Who knew a book about statistics could be so interesting. Morten your first book, lets focus on this question of poor numbers. Development by numbers a primer development research. How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it, by morten jerven find, read and cite all. One of the problems that scholars encounter when conducting research is that data from africa are poor.
Click download or read online button to get chapter 7 numbers policy paradox the art of political decision making book now. Online reading poor economics free download mybookdir. Thereareseriouslimitstowhatcanbeknown,andwhichissues canberesolved,throughcounting. It is time to get past the single story about africa.
Even jerven seems aware that such a title could raise hackles. Unfortunately, this guesstimate is further weakened by its usage of a necessary guesstimate of. Morten jerven is associate professor at simon fraser university. H ow w e ar e m i sl ed by afr i can d evel opm ent stati sti cs and w hat to d o about it. Indeed, they either do not exist in a complete sense or they are not of good quality in the sense of lacking validity and reliability. Morten jerven of simon fraser university, author of poor numbers, talks with econtalk host russ roberts about the quality of data coming out of africa on income, growth, and population.
As patchy and problematic as they are, these numbers are nevertheless ubiquitous as instruments of proof and tools of government. Get your kindle here, or download a free kindle reading app. The statistics of povertyor the poverty of statistics. This awesome book ready for download, you can get this book now for free. Morten jerven teaches at the school for international studies at simon fraser university in vancouver, canada. How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do abou. Poor numbers are too important to be dismissed as just that.
If youre looking for a free download links of poor numbers. How do they even come up with these gross domestic product gdp numbers. Understanding contemporary africa download pdfepub ebook. How we are misled by african development statistics by. The data are unreliable and potentially seriously misleading. Abstract one of the problems that scholars encounter when conducting research is that data from africa are poor. A quartercentury ago, alexander yeats 1990 compared receipts of importers and exporters and concluded that the data could not be used to determine the magnitude, direction, or composition of trade. Welcome,you are looking at books for reading, the understanding contemporary africa, you will able to read or download in pdf or epub books and notice some of author may have lock the live reading for some of country. Understanding contemporary africa download pdfepub. Not enough to download the data from pwt that s what durlauf et al did and in the hand book of growth econometrics the statistical blip in 1987 is reported as the third largest output shocks recorded. Chapter 7 numbers policy paradox the art of political. Poor numbersis the first analysis of the production and use of african economic development statistics.
How we are misled by african development statistics and what to do about it find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate. In poor numbers, morten jerven takes on the issue of inaccurate macroeconomic data in subsaharan africa. It was 2007 and i went to zambia to do fieldwork for my doctoral thesis in economic history. The famous phrase lies, damned lies and statistics should remind us that. As usual, jerven is very critical of taking the measurement and application of gdp for granted, and chapter 4 ultimately looks beneath the statistical surface 102, an endeavour the author undertook and accomplished with poor numbers. In his classic text on the accuracy of economic statistics morgenstern 1963 warned about the problem of misreporting. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. How we are mislead by african development statistics and what to do about it in the presence of the author who stood by.
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