Technology, skills and industrial development in Africa

How does the availability of skills shape the relationship between technology and industrial development?

The evidence

Our study uses data from 36 African countries, 1996–2021, with fixed-effects and GMM models. Technology alone had a negative association with the industrial productivity measure. Human capital and its interaction with technology had positive associations. The competitiveness results were positive for both factors and their interaction.

This suggests a reason to consider education and skills alongside technology investment.

Reading the results carefully

The study uses manufacturing value added as a share of GDP as its productivity proxy, patent applications for technology, and tertiary enrolment for human capital. These are country-level indicators, not direct measures of workers’ output or firms’ capabilities. The findings should be read with those limits in mind.