  A fixed effects regression estimator is introduced that can directly identify
and estimate the Africa-Dummy in one regression step so that its correct
standard errors as well as correlations to other coefficients can easily be
estimated. We can estimate the Nickel bias and found it to be negligibly tiny.
Semiparametric extensions check whether the Africa-Dummy is simply a result of
misspecification of the functional form. In particular, we show that the
returns to growth factors are different for Sub-Saharan African countries
compared to the rest of the world. For example, returns to population growth
are positive and beta-convergence is faster. When extending the model to
identify the development of the Africa-Dummy over time we see that it has been
changing dramatically over time and that the punishment for Sub-Saharan African
countries has been decreasing incrementally to reach insignificance around the
turn of the millennium.
