ABSTRACT
Improving Global Value Chains has been widely viewed as a key way to develop African economies. This literature on value chains provides a rich resource for learning about how global production processes and development outcomes can go hand in hand. In this chapter we examine the lesser-known concept of Global Wealth Chains (GWCs) to examine if global financial processes assist or hamper African economic development. Attiya Waris and Leonard Seabrooke examine the attempts by different African states to create complex GWCs through the establishment of international financial centers, and discuss how these attempts can be characterized as a case of arrested development.
