Is There a Separate Economics for Africa?

On my mind today, perhaps because I am doing some proposal writing, is something that has been nagging me for years, and perhaps explains a lot of the economics I do.  Is there a separate economic theory for poor, different from the rich?  Is there a separate economics for Africans, different from that of Europeans and Americans?

            Of course there have been many who have said that economics is different for different people.  I just finished reading the many volume book by Gibbons “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” the classic written in 1776 – great but extremely belittling of people of darker skin. I remember when I was at the University of Ghana doing my undergraduate work in Economics, I would browse through our Economics library, which had mainly very old books, and which seemed to suggest that economics is different for Africans.  Because of the heat of the sun, I recall reading, elasticities of supply of labor for Africans are lower than that of other people – wages simply do not get Africans off their hammocks I recall

Congratulations to Tom Sargent

I just came back from the New York University dinner gala celebration for Tom Sargent in recognition of his award of the Nobel Prize.  It was a really grand affair in the Plaza Hotel - a wonderful old style New York Hotel with an elegant ballroom.  In his speech, Tom gave an interesting comparison of the crisis in Europe to the founding of the US. (Click here for paper.)   This probably has some insights for the African Union.  Tom spoke about the founding of the United States, the debts held by states versus the central government and the very formation of the United States.  Like Europe, the US at Independence had a weak central government and strong states.  At some point the states had lots of debts, many went belly up, and in negotiations over