The document is a review of Abdirahman Ahmed's analysis of the article 'The Root Causes of African Underdevelopment' by Sambit Bhattacharyya, which explores the impact of malaria, slavery, and colonial institutions on Africa's development. The reviewer argues that malaria is an outcome rather than a cause of underdevelopment, emphasizing the importance of Africa's institutions. The review concludes with a call for further research into other potential causes of underdevelopment, including cultural factors.

1. Article review on
“The root cause of African
underdevelopment”
Abdirahman Ahmed

2.  The review would look like this:
 Introduction of the article
 Parts of the article
 My review and/or argument
 Empirical evidences
 Strength of the article
 Recommendation for Further studies

3. About the article
 The title of the article under review is ‘Root
causes of African Underdevelopment”.
 This is a working paper published in
Australian national University
 By Sambit Bhattacharyya, from School of
Economics finance and marketing of
Sussex,UK.
 It was published in 2007.
 Empirical article

4. Introduction
 The paper is contains five succinct
and separate sections as follows:
 Introduction about the general
hypothesis and theories pertaining to
Africa’s underdevelopment.
 There are three main argument cited
In the paper: The Disease hypothesis;
The Slavery hypothesis and the
Legacy of colonial institutions.

5. Methods
 The second section of the paper the
author introduces the empirical model.
 The author used simple regression
model.
 GDP: Dependent variable
 Malaria, total number of slaves
exported and Colonia Institutions were
taken as explanatory variables.

6. Cont…
 log yi = λ +αMALi +β INSi +γ SLVXi
+εi
 where i y , MALi, INSi, and SLVXi are
per capita income in country i,
measure of malaria, measure of
institutions, and measure of slave
exports respectively. i
 ε is the random error term.

7. Results
 In the third section, the researcher
presents his empirical results.
 The result of the paper shows that
malaria matters the most and all other
variables were statistically
insignificant.

8. Discussion
 In section 4 the author present
regression results showing strong
negative conditional correlation
between savings and malaria.
 The result shows that both mortality
and morbidity, resulting from malaria,
slows down the economic progress
and capital accumulation.
 High incidence of malaria over time
can large scale result persistence of
poverty

9. Implications
 In the fifth and last section, the author
concludes his analysis and point out
implications or recommendations for
African policy makers and planners.

10. My Review/Argument
 There is plenty of literature and
theories about the topic.
 My argument is that malaria is not the
cause of underdevelopment but a
consequence of it.
 Africa’s institutions matters the most
not the malaria.

11.  The author uses in appropriate
variables.
 The researcher could have focused on
the root cause of Africa’s
underdevelopment.

12. Empirical evidences
 The geographic hypothesis:
environments and diseases are hurdles
to development. But contradictions were
found in hot areas of Singapore,
Malaysia and Botswana.
 According to the author’s result Egypt
was found to have no malaria rate which
depicts its development. But the recent
situations contradict the findings. In
2011, 40% of its population lived less
than 2$ per day.

13.  Daron Acemoglu and John Robinson
in their article “Why Africa is poor”
(2010) has painstakingly explained
that the geographic hypothesis of
African under development have not
so far withstood an empirical scrutiny.

14.  Attempts to examine wither poor
health outcomes are responsible for
meager economic development found
no significant impact on the economy,
rather poor health outcome as a
consequence of poor economic
development (Acemoglu and
Robinson 2007)

15.  Other studies reviewed on the course
of this article review suggest my
argument that the extractive economic
and political institutions are the cause
of Africa’s underdevelopment (e g
Greg Mills 2010; Awojabi and Oladayo
2014; Laust Jacobson 2014; Manuel
Branco 2008; Acemoglu 2001, 2005;
Acemoglu and Robinson; 2007, 2010,
2012)

16.  Overall the author is putting the cart
before the horse.
 Africa’s extractive political and
economic institutions were and are
responsible for the underdevelopment
of Africa
 Malaria is a consequence of lack of
interventions and response programs
at macro or micro level.

17. Strength of the article
 Worthy to mention is the logical
coherence of the research.
 The research perfectly watched a
flawless methodology.
 In addition, the author agrees that the
other factors such as the slave trade
and institutions are also significant
(though his analysis focused on
malaria) in talking about African
underdevelopment

18. Further studies
 Issue of African underdevelopment
and the rationale behind it goes far
beyond a single article, article review,
books and/or thesis discussions.
 Other causes are thought to exist.
Cultural hypothesis was not
mentioned in the review. All these are
area of interest for further researches.

19. Thanks