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The Societal Metabolism and Resource Curse of Developing Economies: a Comparative Study of Ghana and Ivory Coast

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The Societal Metabolism and Resource Curse of Developing Economies: a Comparative Study of Ghana and Ivory Coast The societal metabolism and resource curse of developing economies: a comparative study of Ghana and Ivory Coast Arturo Alfred Andersen Chinbuah Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The University of Leeds School of Earth and Environment Sustainability Research Institute November 2016 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Arturo Alfred Andersen Chinbuah to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. © 2016 The University of Leeds and Arturo Alfred Andersen Chinbuah. ii Acknowledgements Writing this PhD thesis has been a long and difficult process in which I have learned a lot not only about my topic, but also about myself. However, this four year long journey has been possible thanks to a number of people. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisors Julia Steinberger and James Van Alstine for the excellent feedback on my work and for their great comments which made this work possible. Their feedback really helped this thesis become feasible as well as providing me with insights that permitted me to take this thesis beyond my own expectations. Additionally, I would also like to thank John Barrett for his supervision and advice during the first year of my PhD. I would like to thank my family, especially my father and his fiancée (Allan and Kirsten), as well as my aunt Mary, for supporting me financially and emotionally during these years in Leeds. Without their support, I would not have been able to embark in this journey. Moreover, I would like to thank my mother, may she rest in peace, for instilling me to become the best version of myself, which led me into the pace of pursuing a PhD. Finally, I would like to thank all the friends I have made in Leeds throughout the years, as well as my lifetime friends from Valencia. They have all supported me through these years by providing me with many evenings full of laughs while enjoying all sorts of cuisine and putting the world to right. iii Abstract This thesis proposes a new analytical framework to analyse the relationship between material and energy use with indicators of well-being and economic growth in developing countries, conducted in the context of debates around the resource curse and development theories. By combining the societal metabolism approach with a historic and political context, this methodology explores the social metabolism and resource curse over time, relying on biophysical indicators of resource abundance. The analytical framework developed in this thesis identifies different aspects that have shaped the development trajectories of currently developing countries. It demonstrates that in order to understand present and future development paths of developing countries, a holistic approach that can combine different sets of data is needed, as it can inform about possibilities and trade- offs of development pathways such as those envisioned by the Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, the approach developed in this thesis provides the basis to carry out developmental research utilizing a metabolic approach in developing countries where data issues prevent societal metabolism research. In this thesis two case studies are presented to test the methodology, finding that: (1) socio-political stability plays an important role shaping the metabolism of an economy and avoiding the resource curse; (2) well-being can improve without growth in economic activity or resource consumption; (3) international governance has had major impacts shaping the present economic structure of the selected economies. iv Table of Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................1 1.1. Overview of West Africa ............................................................................................2 1.2. Societal-metabolism research background..................................................................8 1.3. Research purpose.........................................................................................................9 1.4. Research aim and research questions........................................................................12 2. Literature review...............................................................................................................13 2.1. Socio-metabolic development and transitions...........................................................14 2.1.1. The metabolism of the three main socio-metabolic regimes .............................17 2.1.2. Industrialization in a globalized era...................................................................19 2.2. Relationship between energy consumption and economic growth ...........................21 2.2.1. Energetic metabolism of societies .....................................................................21 2.2.1.1. Fuel switching in developing countries ......................................................23 2.2.2. Correlation between energy use and economic development............................24 2.2.3. Causality between energy consumption and economic growth.........................25 2.2.4. Externalities of energy use.................................................................................30 2.3. Material consumption and economic performance ...................................................30 2.3.1. Material metabolism ..........................................................................................31 2.3.2. The resource curse .............................................................................................33 2.3.3. Resource use in Africa.......................................................................................38 2.4. Summary ...................................................................................................................40 3. Methodology and framework ...........................................................................................43 3.1. Integrating qualitative and quantitative research, the research onion .......................43 3.2. Interdependencies between the physical economy and socio-economic performance . ...................................................................................................................................46 3.2.1. Indicator selection..............................................................................................47 3.2.1.1. Economic and demographic indicators.......................................................47 v 3.2.1.2. Well-being indicators .................................................................................48 3.2.1.3. Biophysical indicators ................................................................................49 3.2.1.4. Summary of indicators................................................................................53 3.2.2. Analysis of biophysical and socio-economic data.............................................55 3.3. Investigating the resource curse ................................................................................57 3.3.1. Socio-economic indicators relevant to the resource curse.................................58 3.3.1.1. Political indicators ......................................................................................58 3.3.1.2. Raw resources.............................................................................................59 3.3.1.3. Raw resource data collection......................................................................60 3.3.1.4. Data summary.............................................................................................62 3.4. What is the broader context of the links between socio-economic performance and the biophysical economy?..........................................................................................................63 3.4.1. Qualitative approach: historical and political context of Ghana and Ivory Coast’s development......................................................................................................................63 3.5. Similarities and disparities between the results obtained for both countries ............66 3.6. Framework ................................................................................................................69 4. Socio-economic and biophysical metabolism of Ghana...................................................70 4.1. Past dynamics and interdependencies between socio-economic and biophysical metabolism in Ghana............................................................................................................70 4.2. How does qualitative data inform about the evolution of the development path taken by Ghana?.............................................................................................................................83 4.2.1. Energy supply and income.................................................................................83 4.2.2. Food supply........................................................................................................86 4.2.3. Life expectancy..................................................................................................88
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