Quantitative assessment of sustainable development and growth in sub-Saharan Africa

The relatively weak performance of African countries compared to countries in other world regions in all development aspects (economic, social and environmental) suggests that these aspects are not independent. The central research question is: How are the different aspects of sustainable development inter-related? This thesis develops and applies diverse quantitative economic methods to comprehensively analyze the interdependencies between different aspects of development: living standards/income, education and health. The main finding is that there is a positive mutual reinforcement between education and health outcomes. Furthermore, decent education and good health are necessary conditions for economic development and, hence, for overall sustainable human development.