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This volumes uses quantitative, qualitative, and institutional analyses to examine capital flight from African countries. The collected chapters reveal the networks of actors that facilitate capital flight and the offshore accumulation of private wealth.
List of contents
- 1: Léonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce: Introduction: Why Care about Capital Flight?
- 2: Léonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce: Capital Flight from Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, and South Africa: An Overview
- 3: Nicholas Shaxson: Angola: Oil and Capital Flight
- 4: Jean Merckaert: Côte d'Ivoire: Bitter Chocolate
- 5: Adam Aboobaker, Karmen Naidoo, and Léonce Ndikumana: South Africa: Capital Flight, State Capture, and Inequality
- 6: Melvin Ayogu: International Trade and Capital Flight: Challenges for Governance
- 7: James K. Boyce and Léonce Ndikumana: Conclusions: Capital Flight in the World Economy
About the author
Léonce Ndikumana is a Distinguished Professor of Economics and Director of the African Development Policy Program at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, a member of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation, and an Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. He held senior positions at the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. His previous books include Africa's Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent (with James K. Boyce, Zed Books, 2011), and Capital Flight from Africa Causes, Effects, and Policy Issues (with S. Ibi Ajay, OUP, 2014)
James K. Boyce is a senior fellow at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His previous books include Economics for People and the Planet (Anthem, 2019), Africa's Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent (with Léonce Ndikumana, Zed Books 2011), Investing in Peace: Aid and Conditionality after Civil Wars (Oxford University Press 2002); The Philippines: The Political Economy of Growth and Impoverishment in the Marcos Era (Macmillan, 1993), and Agrarian Impasse in Bengal (OUP, 1987).
Summary
This volumes uses quantitative, qualitative, and institutional analyses to examine capital flight from African countries. The collected chapters reveal the networks of actors that facilitate capital flight and the offshore accumulation of private wealth.
Additional text
Under the right conditions, external capital can help lift people out of poverty in poor, capital-scarce, places. However, the social benefit from capital inflows can largely vanish if local elites syphon-off the capital and park it elsewhere for themselves. Earlier Ndikumana-Boyce calculations exposed the alarming extent of illicit capital flight from Africa. Their new edited volume provides three detailed country case studies, pointing to better data for monitoring and better policies globally. The volume provides a welcome foundation for both further research and effective action to help assure that global capital flows reduce global poverty.
