The Impact of Urbanization on GDP per Capita : A Study of Sub-Saharan Africa

This thesis examines whether urbanization affects GDP per capita positively in Sub-Saharan Africa. Further investigations are done to study how the size of the prime city affects GDP per capita, as well as how the prime city as a percentage of urban population interacts with GDP per capita. The results show that urbaization and GDP per capita interact positively - that is, increase in urbaization increases GDP per capita. We also find that size of the prime city as a percentage of total population is insignificant, though we do see that when the degree of centrality ( measured by prime city as a percentage of urban population) increases there is a negative impact on GDP per capita. This would suggest that while urbaization is economically positive for the region, concentrated urbaization can dampen the effect