Why is Africa Marginal in the World Economy?

Recent slowdowns aside, the last three decades were good ones for the world economy. The average world economic growth rate—both total and per capita—over this period was higher than at any previous time in history. This growth rate translated into huge improvements in the quality of life everywhere, developing countries included. The world rate of infant mortality in 1990 was one third of the rate in 1960; median life expectancy in all countries rose from 50 years to 65 years. Yet there was one region that was conspicuously left out of the worldwide boom of the last three decades: Africa.2