Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Growth, Incomes, and Development, c. 1940–Present

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Botswana – A Modern Economic History

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Economic History ((PEHS))

  • 1312 Accesses

Abstract

Botswana has become known as an African growth miracle. During the independence era the country experienced spectacular economic growth, based on a blessed combination of exceptional diamond resources and prudent financial management. However, the diamond-led growth period was not the first growth period of the territory. During the colonial era Botswana experienced a much more modest cattle-led growth period starting in 1940 after the establishment of the cattle export sector. Hillbom and Bolt take a broad historical perspective and analyse both growth periods in depth, focusing on identifying the main mechanisms driving the processes and understanding what growth has meant for the development of economic structures. In the absence of national accounts they produce unique data on income levels and occupational structures for the colonial era.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Real GDP per capita growth, WDI (2017). The Maddison Project database (2018) suggests growth rates of 10 and 8 per cent for those decades, respectively (Maddison Project database, version 2018, Bolt et al., 2018).

  2. 2.

    These numbers do not add up to total rural population, as these are rough estimates based on anthropological sources. We treat the rest of the population as ‘unspecified’ and do not assign an income to this group. See Bolt and Hillbom (2016) for more details.

  3. 3.

    For a more detailed presentation of our methods and data we refer to Bolt and Hillbom (2015).

References

  • Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S., & Robinson, J. (2001). The colonial origins of comparative development: An empirical investigation. The American Economic Review, 91(5), 1369–1401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S., & Robinson, J. A. (2002). Reversal of fortune: Geography and institutions in the making of the modern world income distribution. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117(4), 1231–1294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S., & Robinson, J. A. (2003). An African success story: Botswana. In D. Rodrik (Ed.), In search of prosperity: Analytic narratives on economic growth (pp. 80–119). Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J. A. (2010). Why is Africa poor? Economic History of Developing Regions, 25(1), 21–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albouy, D. Y. (2012). The colonial origins of comparative development: An empirical investigation: Comment. The American Economic Review, 102(6), 3059–3076.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, R. C. (2001). The great divergence in European wages and prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War. Explorations in Economic History, 38(4), 411–447.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, R. C. (2009). The British industrial revolution in global perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Austin, G. (2008). Resources, techniques, and strategies south of the Sahara: Revising the factor endowments perspective on African economic development, 1500–2000. The Economic History Review, 61(3), 587–624.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Auty, R. M. (2001). The political economy of resource-driven growth. European Economic Review, 45(4), 839–846.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumol, W. J. (1967). Macroeconomics of unbalanced growth: The anatomy of urban crisis. The American Economic Review, 57(3), 415–426.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bloom, D. E., Sachs, J. D., Collier, P., & Udry, C. (1998). Geography, demography, and economic growth in Africa. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1998(2), 207–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bolt, J., & Hillbom, E. (2015). Potential for diversification? The role of the formal sector in Bechuanaland Protectorate’s economy, 1900–65. Economic History of Developing Regions, 30(2), 95–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bolt, J., & Hillbom, E. (2016). Long-term Trends in Economic Inequality: Lessons from colonial Botswana, 1921–1974. Economic History Review, 69(4), 1255–1284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bolt, J., Inklaar, R., de Jong, H., & van Zanden, J. L. (2018). Rebasing ‘Maddison’: new income comparisons and the shape of long-run economic development, GGDC Research Memorandum 174, Maddison Project Database, version 2018.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowden, S., Chiripanhura, B., & Mosley, P. (2008). Measuring and explaining poverty in six African countries: A long-period approach. Journal of International Development, 30(8), 1049–1079.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colclough, C., & McCarthy, S. (1980). The political economy of Botswana: A study of growth and distribution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collier, P., & Gunning, J. W. (1999). Why has Africa grown slowly? The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 13(3), 3–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, F. (2002). Africa since 1940: The past of the present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • De Haas, M. (2016). Measuring rural welfare in colonial Africa: Did Uganda’s smallholders thrive? The Economic History Review, 70(2), 605–631.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Vries, G., Timmer, M., & de Vries, K. (2015). Structural transformation in Africa: Static gains, dynamic losses. The Journal of Development Studies, 51(6), 674–688.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Easterly, W., & Levine, R. (1997). Africa’s growth tragedy: Policies and ethnic divisions. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112(4), 1203–1250.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faye, M., McArthur, J. W., Schmidt-Traub, G., Kruk, M., Bahadur, C., Sachs, J., et al. (2004). Ending Africa’s poverty trap. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2004(1), 117–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frankema, E. (2015). The biogeographic roots of world inequality. Animals, disease and human settlement patterns in Africa and the Americas before 1492. World Development, 70, 274–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frankema, E., & Van Waijenburg, M. (2012). Structural impediments to African growth? New evidence from real wages in British Africa, 1880–1965. The Journal of Economic History, 72(4), 895–926.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frankema, E., & van Waijenburg, M. (2014). Metropolitan blueprints of colonial taxation? lessons from fiscal capacity building in british and french africa, c. 1880–1940. The Journal of African History, 55(3), 371–400.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freund, C. L., & Rocha, N. (2010). What constrains Africa’s exports? Policy Research Working Paper Series 5184. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallup, J. L., Sachs, J. D., & Mellinger, A. D. (1999). Geography and economic development. International Regional Science Review, 22(2), 179–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaolathe, B. (1997). Development of Botswana’s Mineral sector. In J. S. Salkin, D. Mpabanga, D. Cowan, J. Selwe, & M. Wright (Eds.), Aspects of the Botswana economy (pp. 401–431). Gaborone, Botswana: Lentswe La Lesedi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garner, P. (2006, January). Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. Retrieved from SSRN https://ssrn.com/abstract=853184 or https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.853184

  • Gerschenkron, A. (1962). Economic backwardness in historical perspective: In economic backwardness in historical perspective (pp. 5–30). Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gulbrandsen, Ø. (1996). Poverty in the midst of Plenty: Socio-economic marginalization, ecological deterioration and political stability in a Tswana society (No. 45). Bergen: Norse Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gylfason, T., Herbertsson, T. T., & Zoega, G. (1999). A mixed blessing. Natural Resources and Economic Growth. Macroeconomic Dynamics, 3(2), 204–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Habakkuk, H. J. (1962). American and British technology in the nineteenth century. London: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, C., & Lewis, S. R., Jr. (1990). Policy choice and development performance in Botswana. London: Macmillan in association with the OECD Development Centre.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hillbom, E. (2010). Agricultural development and the distribution of water resources in Kgatleng District, Botswana. Development Southern Africa, 27(3), 413–427.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hillbom, E. (2014). Cattle, diamonds and institutions: Main drivers of Botswana’s economic development, 1850 to present. Journal of International Development, 26(2), 155–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins, A. (2009). The new economic history of Africa. Journal of African History, 50, 155–177.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ismail, K. (2010). The structural manifestation of the ‘dutch disease’: The case of oil exporting countries. IMF Working Paper WP/10/103,New York: The International Monetary Fund.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jerven, M. (2010). Accounting for the African growth miracle: The official evidence–Botswana 1965–1995. Journal of Southern African Studies, 36(1), 73–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Katz, L. F., & Murphy, K. M. (1992). Changes in relative wages, 1963–1987: Supply and demand factors. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 107(1), 35–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuznets, S. (1973). Modern economic growth: findings and reflections. The American Economic Review, 63(3), 247–258.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landes, D. S. (1998). The wealth and poverty of nations: Why some countries are so rich and some so poor. New York: WW Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawry, S. W. (1983). Land tenure, land policy, and smallholder livestock development in Botswana (No. 78). Madison: Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leite, C. A., & Weidmann, J. (1999). Does mother nature corrupt? Natural resources, corruption, and economic growth. IMF Working Paper 99/85. Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leith, C. (1997a). Growth and structural transformation in Botswana. In J. S. Salkin, D. Mpabanga, D. Cowan, J. Selwe, & M. Wright (Eds.), Aspects of the Botswana economy (pp. 21–35). Gaborone, Botswana: Lentswe La Lesedi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leith, C. (1997b). Botswana’s international trade policies. In J. S. Salkin, D. Mpabanga, D. Cowan, J. Selwe, & M. Wright (Eds.), Aspects of the Botswana economy (pp. 529–548). Gaborone, Botswana: Lentswe La Lesedi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leith, J. C. (2005). Why Botswana prospered. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, W. A. (1954). Economic development with unlimited supplies of labour. The Manchester School, 22(2), 139–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McMillan, M., Rodrik, D., & Verduzco-Gallo, Í. (2014). Globalization, structural change, and productivity growth, with an update on Africa. World Development, 63, 11–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mellor, J. W. (1986). Agriculture on the road to industrialization. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institue l.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mikesell, J. L. (1997). Is the retail sales tax really inferior to the value-added tax? The sales tax in the 21st century. In M. Murray & W. Fox (eds.), The Sales Tax in the 21st Century. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milanovic, B. (2016). Global inequality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Moss, T. J. (2007). African development: Making sense of the issues and actors. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mpabanga, D. (1997). Constraints to industrial development. In J. S. Salkin, D. Mpabanga, D. Cowan, J. Selwe, & M. Wright (Eds.), Aspects of the Botswana economy (pp. 369–387). Gaborone, Botswana: Lentswe La Lesedi.

    Google Scholar 

  • North, C. D. (1981). Structure and change in economic history. New York: Norton, 5, 33–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • North, D. C. (1990). Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • North, D. C. (2005). Understanding the process of economic change. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nurkse, R. (1953). Problems of capital formation in underdeveloped countries. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owusu, F., & Ismail Samatar, A. (1997). Industrial strategy and the African State: The Botswana experience. Canadian Journal of African Studies, 31(2), 268–299.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parson, J. (1984). Botswana: Liberal democracy and labor reserve in Southern Africa. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parsons, N. (1993). A new history of Southern Africa (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan Education Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parsons, N., & Crowder, M. (Eds.). (1988). Monarch of all I survey: Bechuanaland diaries 1929–37. Gaborone, Botswana: The Botswana Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, P. E. (1994). Dividing the commons: Politics, policy, and culture in Botswana. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prados de La Escosura, L. (2012). Output per head in pre-independence Africa: Quantitative conjectures. Economic History of Developing Regions, 27(2), 1–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Psacharopoulos, G. (1984). Assessing training priorities in developing countries: Current practice and possible alternatives. International Labour Review, 123, 569.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ranis, G., & Fei, J. C. (1961). A theory of economic development. American Economic Review, 51, 533–558.

    Google Scholar 

  • Republic of Botswana. (2003). National development plan 9. Gaborone, Botswana: Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.

    Google Scholar 

  • Republic of Botswana. (2004). Labour statistics 2002. Gaborone, Botswana: Government Printer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roe, E. (1980). Development of livestock, agriculture and water supplies in Eastern Botswana before independence: A short history and policy analysis. Gaborone, Botswana: Ministry of Agriculture.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rostow, W. W. (1960). The stages of growth: A non-communist manifesto. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sachs, J. D., & Warner, A. M. (1995). Natural resource abundance and economic growth. Development Discussion Paper No. 517a, October, Harvard Institute for International Development, Harvard University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sachs, J. D., & Warner, A. M. (1999). The big push, natural resource booms and growth. Journal of Development Economics, 59(1), 43–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salkin, J. (1987). Research on employment and unemployment in Botswana. In R. Hitchcock, N. Parsons, & J. Taylor (Eds.), Research for development in Botswana (pp. 142–171). Gaborone, Botswana: The Botswana Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Samatar, A. I. (1999). An African miracle: State and class leadership and colonial legacy in Botswana development. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schapera, I. (1994). A handbook of Tswana law and custom. Münster: LIT Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schapera, I., & Comaroff, J. L. (1991). The Tswana (Revised ed.). London: Kegan Paul International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silitshena, R. M. K., & McLeod, G. (1998). Botswana: A physical, social, and economic geography (2nd ed.). Gaborone, Botswana: Longman Botswana Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siwawa-Ndai, P. D. (1997). Industrialisation in Botswana: Evolution, performance and prospects. In J. Salkin et al. (Eds.), Aspects of the Botswana economy (pp. 335–367). Gaborone, Botswana: Lentswe La Lesedi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Timmer, C. P. (2009). A world without agriculture. Cambridge, MA: AIE Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Timmer, M. P., de Vries, G. J., & de Vries, K. (2015). Patterns of structural change in developing countries. In J. Weiss & M. Tribe (Eds.), Routledge handbook of industry and development (pp. 65–83). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Ploeg, F. (2011). Natural resources: Curse or blessing? Journal of Economic Literature, 49(2), 366–420.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Zanden, J. L. (2003). Rich and poor before the Industrial Revolution: A comparison between Java and the Netherlands at the beginning of the 19th century. Explorations in Economic History, 40(1), 1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Zanden, J. L. (2009). The skill premium and the ‘Great Divergence’. European Review of Economic History, 13(1), 121–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weil, D. N. (2013). Economic growth. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

Internet Sources

Archive Material

  • Annual Report of the Bechuanaland Protectorate. Issues 1921–1938; 1946–1965. London School of Economics Library.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blue Books of Statistics. Issues 1904–1925. UK National Archives, CO/567.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blue Books of Statistics. Issues 1926–1947. UK National Archives, DO/26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bechuanaland Protectorate Government Census 1946, London School of Economics Library. 

    Google Scholar 

  • CSO (Central Statistics Office). 1965. Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Population and Housing Census 1964. Gaborone, Botswana.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Lund, Lund, Sweden

    Ellen Hillbom

  2. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Jutta Bolt

  3. University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Jutta Bolt

Authors
  1. Ellen Hillbom
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jutta Bolt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Hillbom, E., Bolt, J. (2018). Growth, Incomes, and Development, c. 1940–Present. In: Botswana – A Modern Economic History. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73144-5_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73144-5_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73143-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73144-5

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation