My friend Doug Muir is in Senegal. He is visiting a city that I am deeply ashamed to admit that I had never heard of. His reports from Kaolack are here and here.
Read the posts. They pose an interesting question, about infrastructure, trade, and prosperity. How much would an improvement to Kaolack's port reduce transport costs? How much would a reduction in transport costs increase peanut production? (In other terms, are there increasing returns in peanut production?) These are unanswered questions; it isn't a sure thing that fixing Kaolack will promote growth. After all, a declining peanut economy could provoked the city's decline, rather than the other way around.
Which isn't to say that Doug is wrong; he probably isn't. Just that any and all development quick-fixes deserve careful stress-testing before they are implemented.
Hopefully we'll hear more from him soon.
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