Is per capita real GDP stationary in African countries? Evidence from panel SURADF test

This note uses the newly developed panel SURADF tests advanced by Breuer et al . (2001) to investigate the time-series properties of real GDP for 47 African countries for the period 1980 to 2004. While the other Panel-based unit root tests are joint tests of a unit root for all members of the panel and are incapable of determining the mix of I(0) and I(1) series in the panel setting, the Panel SURADF tests a separate unit-root null hypothesis for each individual panel member and, therefore identifies how many and which series in the panel are stationary processes. The empirical results from several panel-based unit root tests indicate that the per capita real GDP for all the countries studied are non-stationary, however, when Breuer et al .'s Panel SURADF tests are conducted, one finds unit root in per capita real GDP only exist in two-third of countries studied. These results have important policy implications for African countries.