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The Development of Liberia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

Unlike many other African countries, Liberia is endowed with an impressive capacity for rapid economic development. Not only are her natural resources rich enough to finance this, but in relation to her population they are, indeed, capable of ensuring unimpeded growth in her output per capita.1 This article deals with Liberia's development during the last two decades. It shows the marked and rapid growth in the product of her economy, and how this has yielded a subtle and gradual improvement in the life of her people.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

Page 43 note 1 Clower, Robert W.et al., Growth without Development: an economic survey of Liberia (Evanston, 1966), p. 3.Google Scholar Moreover, ‘the economic development of Liberia is not likely to be inhibited by relative scarcities of land or other natural resources for at least the next half-century’.

Page 43 note 2 The United Nations Development Decade: proposals for action (New York, 1962), p. 2,Google Scholar and Morris, Bruce R., Economic Growth and Development (New York, 1967), p. 23.Google Scholar

Page 43 note 3 Adelman, Irma, Theories of Economic Growth and Development (Stanford, 1961), p. 1.Google Scholar

Page 44 note 1 Buchanan, Norman S. and Ellis, Howard S., Approaches to Economic Development (New York, 1955), P. 74.Google Scholar

Page 44 note 2 Adelman, op. cit. p. 14.

Page 44 note 3 Myrdal, Gunnar, Asian Drama: an inquiry into the poverty of nations (New York, 1968), vol. III, p. 1868.Google Scholar

Page 44 note 4 Hagen, Everett E., The Economics of Development (Homewood, Ill., 1968), p. 40Google Scholar: economic growth and social change ‘occur concomitantly, interwoven’. See also Colm, Gerhard and Geiger, Theodore, ‘Country Programming as a Guide to Development’, in Asher, Robert E.et al., Development of the Emerging Countries: an agenda for research (Washington, 1962), p. 47.Google Scholar

Page 45 note 1 Wilson, Charles M., Liberia: black Africa in microcosm (New York, 1971), pp. 97–8.Google Scholar The author lucidly shows how European capital and skills constructed the infrastructure in other African Countries, while ‘Liberia was not able to build even the direly needed harbors and riverside piers made crucially necessary for effective trade where natural harbors were virtually nonexistent’.

Page 45 note 2 Clower, op. cit. p. 49. See also Abraham, William I., National Income and Economic Accounting (Englewood Cliffs, 1969), p. 108.Google Scholar

Page 46 note 1 Sources: adapted from Clower, op. cit. p. 24, and Department of Planning and Economic Affairs, National Income of Liberia (Monrovia), 04 1968, p. 159.Google Scholar The adjustment was made ‘in order to make the Northwestern estimates comparable with the present set of accounts’, which includes estimates for the subsistence economy.

Page 46 note 2 Clower, op. cit. p. 23.

Page 46 note 3 Ibid. p. 47. The May 1962 issue of the United Nations Monthly Bulletin of Statistics (New York) reported that in the 1950s Liberia achieved the largest increase in G.N.P. per capita in the world. In real terms, her G.N.P. growth for that period was surpassed only by Japan.

Page 47 note 1 Qureshi, Moeen A., Mizoe, Yoshio, and Collings, Francis d'A., ‘The Liberian Economy’, in International Monetary Fund Staff Papers (Washington), XI, 2, 07 1964, pp. 286 and 302.Google Scholar

Page 47 note 2 Brown, George W., The Economic History of Liberia (Washington, 1941), pp. 186 and 210–11.Google Scholar It is interesting to note that the receipts for 1962 were more than 100 times larger than the receipts for 1932, which totalled a mere $353,387·81. With a deficit of $125,405·29 in 1931, and rising to $164,009·16 in 1932, the Government of Liberia was unable to meet both the cost of administration and the charges of its loan commitments. Brown also records the terrible financial and other repercussions that ensued from the loan made under the 1926 agreement which had to be amended in 1931 and 1935.

Page 47 note 3 Clower, op. cit. p. 23. It should be noted that gross money income increased by more than two and a half times between 1954 and 1960.

Page 48 note 1 Sources: U.N. Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, May 1962; and Clower, op. cit. p. 24.

Page 48 note 2 Roberts, T. D.et al., Area Handbook for Liberia (Washington, 1964), pp. 270–1.Google Scholar

Page 48 note 3 Department of Planning and Economic Affairs, Economic Survey of Liberia, 1968 (Monrovia, 1969), pp. 71 and 89.Google Scholar

Page 49 note 1 Source: adapted from Department of Planning and Economic Affairs, Quarterly Statistical Bulletin of Liberia (Monrovia), 11 1971.Google Scholar

Page 49 note 2 The distinction between G.D.P. and G.N.P. is of greater importance in some countries than in others. The national income accounts of the United States, for instance, make no mention of the gross domestic product. This is because the two figures are within 1 per cent of each other. But in the case of Liberia, for example, in 1970 the net factor payments abroad amounted to $98·5 million, i.e. about 30 per cent of her gross national product of $319 million for that year.

Page 49 note 3 Shoup, Carl S.et al., The Tax System of Liberia: report of the Tax Mission (New York, 1970), pp. 3841.Google Scholar There are two extreme interpretations of the term ‘inhabitants’, ranging from a very strong to a very weak definition. Liberia tends towards the strong, and thus deducts the ‘maximum amount that could conceivably be deducted from GDP to arrive at GNP’.

Page 49 note 4 Inhabitants, as Liberia's accounts define them, ‘are citizens who must be African-born, plus other West Africans working in Liberia’. Ibid. p. 39.

Page 50 note 1 Source: adapted from Economic Survey of Liberia, 1970 (Monrovia, 1971,), pp. 83–4.Google Scholar

Page 50 note 2 Weeks, Rocheforte L., ‘Address to the Sixth Annual General Meeting of the Rubber PlantersAssociation of Liberia, Inc., 25 03 1971,Google Scholar in Rubber Planters' Bulletin (Monrovia), VII, 2, 03/04 1971, p. 5Google Scholar and Economic Survey of Liberia, 1970 pp. 83–5.Google Scholar

Page 51 note 1 Africa (London), 8, 04 1972, p. 47Google Scholar; interview with President William Tolbert.

Page 51 note 2 Myrdal, op. cit. pp. 1868–9.

Page 51 note 3 Clower, op. cit. p. 43; and I.B.R.D., The Current Economic Position and Prospects of Liberia (Washington, 1971), p. 2,Google Scholar where the G.D.P. per capita in 1969Google Scholar was estimated to have been as high as $263.

Page 52 note 1 The Tax Mission states that ‘since zero marginal productivity of labor is widespread in Liberia, movement of labor into even low productivity jobs would increase the G.D.P.’. Shoup, op. cit. p. 29.

Page 52 note 2 United Nations, World Economic Survey, 1969–1970 (New York, 1971), p. 26.Google Scholar

Page 52 note 3 Ibid. pp. 32, 34, and 189. On this score, Liberia's performance for the years 1960–7 averaged 1·5 per cent per year. In total consumption, the average annual rate of growth was 2·9 per cent for the years 1960–7, and 6·7 per cent for 1967–8.

Page 53 note 1 Source: Department of Education, Annual Report, 1971 (Monrovia), p. 66.Google Scholar

Page 53 note 2 Brown, William A., The Foundation for Curriculum Development: the rationale for the review of the Liberian curriculum (Monrovia, 1969), pp. 23–5.Google Scholar

Page 53 note 3 The Liberian Star (Monrovia), 28 02 1972, p. 1,Google Scholar quoted the President of Liberia — in his nation-wide radio statement announcing tuition-free education – as saying that he ‘planned to establish at least one government elementary school in every town in Liberia with a population more than 600, one junior high school in every clan, and a high school in every chiefdom’.

Page 53 note 4 Clower, op. cit. p. 85.

Page 54 note 1 Department of Treasury, Annual Report, 1971 (Monrovia), p. 93.Google Scholar

Page 54 note 2 Economic Survey of Liberia, 1970, pp. 155–7.

Page 55 note 1 Source: U.N. World Economic Survey, 19691970Google Scholar, table A. 13. The following variations in dates should be noted as regards electricity generating capacity: 1961 for Liberia and Togo, 1965 for Mauritania; 1965 for Dahomey and Niger, and 1967 for Gambia and Togo.

Page 55 note 2 Clower, op. cit. p. 24. Eonomic Survey of Liberia. 1969. p. 39.

Page 56 note 1 Source: Department of Planning and Economic Affairs, Quarterly Statistical Bulletin of Liberia, 11 1971, p. 2.Google Scholar

Page 56 note 2 Maynard, Geoffrey, ‘Economic Irrelevance of Monetary Independence: the case of Liberia’, in The Journal of Development Studies (London), VI, 2, 01 1970, p. 115.Google Scholar It is mainly these two activities in the enclave or exchange Sectors that gave the liberian economy its dual character.

Page 57 note 1 Liebenow, J. Gus, Liberia: the evolution of privilege (Ithaca, 1969), p. 171.Google Scholar

Page 57 note 2 Ibid. p. 175.

Page 57 note 3 Hagen, op. cit. p. 42.

Page 57 note 4 Clower, op. cit. p. 5.

Page 58 note 1 Myrdal, op. cit. p. 1860.

Page 58 note 2 Clower, op. cit. p. 118.

Page 58 note 3 See de Vries, Egbert, Essays on the Economic Development of Africa (The Hague, 1968), p. 28.Google Scholar

Page 59 note 1 Sources: adapted from I.B.R.D., The Current Economic Position and Prospects of Liberia, 04 1975,Google Scholar table 3; Economic Sarvey of Liberia, 1970, p. 7Google Scholar; and other data obtained from the Department of Planning and Economic Affairs.

Page 59 note 2 Sources: Economic Survey of Liberia, 1970, p. 18.Google Scholar

Page 60 note 1 Mumford, Lewis, Technics and Civilization (New York, 1934), p. 183.Google Scholar

Page 60 note 2 Greene, Graham, Journey without Maps (London, 1935), p. 235.Google Scholar

Page 60 note 3 Clower, op. cit. p. 4.

Page 60 note 4 Survey of International Development (New York), VIII, 9, 11 1971, p. 3.Google Scholar The classification was embodied in the United Nations General Assembly Resolution No. 2768 (XXVI). The countries listed are: Afghanistan, Botswana, Bhutan, Burundi, Chad, Dahomey, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Laos, Lesotho, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Sikkim, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Upper Volta, Western Samoa, and the Yemen.

Page 60 note 5 Hagen, op. cit. p. 31.