Assessing Liberia’s Economic Performance and its Impact on Mano River Union Members: 1960-1992

This paper examines the performance of Liberia’s economy relative to the economies of Sierra Leone and Guinea over the period 1960-1992. Multivariate growth models are used to investigate external and internal shocks to the Liberian economy and to examine whether these shocks affected the other two countries. External shocks represented the impact of the two oil shocks of the 1970s on the Liberian economy. The internal shock emerged from the antecedents of Liberia’s civil conflict, beginning in 1980. Since economic integration under the Mano River Union (MRU) should be a positive stimulus that strengthens the interdependence between regions, it should also be the case that conflict in any member economy or among MRU members should have an adverse impact on each member and the surrounding region. App., bibliogr. (ASC Leiden abstract)