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Belinda Archibongi is assistant professor of economics at Barnard College, Columbia University.
Brahima Coulibalyi is vice president of the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings.
Ngozi Okonjo-lweala is nonresident distinguished fellow with the Global Economy and Development
program at Brookings, chair of the Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, and
formerfinance minister of Nigeria.
JEL classjcation: 010, 043, N37
Keyworads: Washington Consensus, Structural Adjustment Programs, Policy Reform, Africa
iba2207@columbia.edu
ii BCoulibaly@brookings.eduAbstract
Over three decades after marketoriented structural reforms，termed “Washington consensus”
policies, were first implemented, we revisit the evidence on policy adoption and the effects of these
policies on Socio-economic performance in Sub-Saharan African countries. We focus on three key
uUbiquitous reform policies around privatization, fiscal discipline, and trade openness and document
Significantimprovements in economic performance for reformers overthe past two decades. Following
initial declines in per capita economic growth overthe 1980s and 1990s, reform adopters experienced
notable increases in per capita real GDP growth in the post 2000 period. We complement aggregate
analysis with four country case studies that highlight important lessons for effective reform. Notably，
the ability to implement pro-poor policies alongside market oriented reforms played a central role in
SuUCcCcessful policy performance,
Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings 1Washington Consensus reforms and economic performance in sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons from the past four decades
1.iIntroduction
When economist John Williamson coined the term“Washington Consensus\" in 1989, he was referring
toasetoften market-oriented policies that were popularamong Washington-based policy institutions，
particularly as policy prescriptions for improving economic performance in Latin-American countries
(Williamson，1993). These policies centered around fiscal discipline，market-oriented domestic
reforms, and openness to trade and investment. In African countries, the Washington Consensus
inspired marketbased reforms prescribped by international financial institutions (IFls) like the World
Bankandthe International Monetary Fund (IMF), under “structuraladjustment programs” (SAP). These
reforms were often prerequisites for financial assistance to indebted African countries during the
gobal recession and debt crisis of the 1980s, when the external debt rose Sharply to unsustainable
levels (Onyekwena and Ekeruche, 2019; Naiman and Watkins, 1999; Mkandawire and Soludo, 1999).
The Story of how African countries got into a debt crisis that led to the introduction of Structural
adjustment programs is often told as follows: first，expansionary fiscal spending aimed at
economic development spearheaded by newly independent African governments，struggling to
recover from the ravages of European colonialism, increased government spending in the 1960s
and 1970s. Governments also borrowed significantly to finance development expenditures over
this time. Oil price Shocks that significantly decreased the price of oil in 1980s led to declines in
export revenue for many governments. This decline in export revenue, along with a collapse in
world prices of primary agricultural commodities, which made up 88 percent of Africa\'s exports，
resulted in a shortfall in revenue that put enormous pressure on governments\' finances
(Onyekwena and Ekeruche，2019; Mkandawire and Soludo，1999). Additionally，government
featured largely in domestic financial institutions like the banking secton with many African
governments nationalizing foreign banks or creating new state-owned financial institutions
(Mkandawire, 1999).
The global recession in the early 1980s, along with an increase in interest rates in donor countries，
also raised interest payments on previously contracted loans，markedly increasing the debt
burden of African countries and leadingto the debt crisis of the 1980s (Onyekwena and Ekeruche，
2019; Due and Gladwin, 1991). By the early 1980s, African governments were in severe financial
straits and, with Iowered incomes, increasing poverty, and declining welfare, turned to IFlsfordebt
relief.Amongthe conditions for relief countries had tofirstagree to economicand financial reform
policies alongthe lines ofthose outlined in the Washington Consensus to achieve macroeconomic
Stability and efficiency. The expectation was that market-oriented reforms would correct domestic
policy-induced distortions in prices，Such as overvalued exchange rates,， subsidies that led to
artificially low agricultural commodity prices, high wage rates, Iow interest rates and Subsidized
input prices, which introduced inefficiencies in resource allocation, with detrimental effects on the
economyinthe long-run (Due and Gladwin, 1991; Williamson, 1993; Easterly 2019; Chari Henry，
and Reyes, 2020).
The underying assumption, as other Scholars have pointed out, was that competitive markets would
WwWork well to efficiently allocate resources to residents in these African countries suffering under the
burden of debpt and iiperal fiscal and monetary policies (Easterly，2019). Hence，market-based
policies like privatizing public enterprises, removing or relaxing exchange rate controls that biased
export trade towards certain commodities and fiscal adjustment to balance budgets by reducing
2 Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings
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