Introduction to the special issue on African productivity

This Special Issue of the Journal of Productivity Analysis on African Productivity is the result of many years of collaboration and planning that began with Felicity Addo of the Institute for Sustainable Economic Development (Vienna) and her interest in expanding and broadening the scope of the International Society for Efficiency and Productivity Analysis’ (ISEaPA) conferencing venues to encompass the African continent. Although planning for such a conference began with discussions in 2016 at the European Workshop on Efficiency and Productivity in London, it was not until 2021 that formal planning for a virtual conference gained momentum. Almas Heshmati of the Jönköping International Business School (Sweden), whose experience in African higher education and research is quite extensive, and his former student Selamawit G. Kebede of the Poverty and Social Welfare Center (Ethiopia), joined with Christopher Parmeter (University of Miami), Robin Sickles (Rice University), and Felicity Addo to solicit papers and coordinate with then Editor-in-Chief William Greene on a Special Issue for the Journal of Productivity Analysis.