TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bates,Robert H.
AU  - Coatsworth,John H.
AU  - Williamson,Jeffrey G.
TI  - Lost Decades: Lessons from Post-Independence Latin America for Today's Africa
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12610
PY  - 2006
Y2  - October 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12610
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12610.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Robert H. Bates
Harvard University
E-Mail: robert_bates@harvard.edu

John Coatsworth
Harvard University
David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Study
1730 Cambridge Street, South Building
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 646-707-0889
E-Mail: coatswor@fas.harvard.edu

Jeffrey G. Williamson
350 South Hamilton Street #1002
Madison, WI 53703
Tel: 608-441-0023
Fax: 608-204-0783
E-Mail: jwilliam@fas.harvard.edu
AB  - Africa and Latin America secured their independence from European colonial rule a century and half apart: most of Latin America after 1820 and most of Africa after 1960. Despite the distance in time and space, they share important similarities. In each case independence was followed by political instability, violent conflict and economic stagnation lasting for about a half-century (lost decades). The parallels suggest that Africa might be exiting from a period of post-imperial collapse and entering a period of relative political stability and economic growth, as did Latin America a century and a half earlier.
ER  -