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
