|
on Africa |
| By: | Kalwij,A.S.; Verschoor,A. (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Using panel data of 58 developing countries for the period 1980-1998, this study shows that the responsiveness of the $2 a day poverty headcount measure to changes in mean income and inequality significantly decreases with initial inequality and the ratio poverty line over mean income - taken as proxies for the initial density of income near the poverty line. Variations in these proxies account for the large crossregional differences in the income elasticity of poverty during the 1980s and 1990s. We find that the income elasticity of poverty in the mid 1990s equals -1.31 on average and ranges from -0.71 for Sub-Saharan Africa to -2.27 for the Middle East and North Africa, and that the Gini elasticity of poverty equals 0.80 on average and ranges from 0.01 in South Asia to 1.73 in Latin America. While variation in income growth accounts for most of the variation in poverty reduction across regions, the impact of variations in inequality and in elasticities of poverty is almost always too large to be ignored, and in particular in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. |
| JEL: | C23 I32 O15 |
| Date: | 2004 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:2004115&r=afr |
| By: | Elbehri, Aziz; Hertel, Thomas |
| Abstract: | An applied general equilibrium model with oligopoly and scale economies, based on detailed plant-level data, is used to contrast the impacts of the Morocco-EU free trade area (FTA) to multilateral trade liberalization on Morocco’s economy. Simulation results show that the FTA agreement is likely to have adverse effects on Morocco due to: (a) deteriorating terms of trade, (b) reductions in output per firm in industries dominated by scale economies, (c) diversion of imports away from non-EU suppliers, and (d) potentially adverse effects on the aggregate demand for labor. We contrast this FTA with a multilateral liberalization scenario along the lines of those proposed under the Doha Development Round and find this more beneficial to Morocco, with overall welfare gains due to: (a) lesser terms of trade losses, (b) positive scale effects, (c) non-preferential liberalization of imports into Morocco, and (d) a positive impact on aggregate labor demand. We conclude that Morocco would be better off pursuing trade liberalization in the multilateral arena. |
| Date: | 2004 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gta:workpp:1643&r=afr |
| By: | Hildegunn Ekroll Stokke (Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology); Jørn Rattsø (Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | South Africa offers an interesting case study of the effects of openness because of the experiences with international sanctions and active trade policy. Shifts in productivity growth and income distribution before, under and after sanctions indicate the importance of foreign trade. The economic adjustment mechanisms involved are investigated in an intertemporal Ramsey growth model with endogenous skill-bias in technology and separating between labor and household types. Openness in particular affects the balance between innovation and adoption in the productivity growth. Economic growth under sanctions has been slow, but with an increase in the relative wage of unskilled labor. The model allows for counterfactual analysis of no-sanctions and offers a calibrated tariff-equivalence measure of the sanction effect. Openness is shown to imply technology adoption with skill bias that improves growth, but worsen income distribution. Demand-side responses, shifts in the consumption pattern, strengthen the distributive effects. The tradeoff between foreign spillover driven productivity growth and income distribution obviously is a challenge for growth policy. |
| Date: | 2004–12–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nst:samfok:4604&r=afr |
| By: | Andrew Dabalen; Stefano Paternostro; Gaelle Pierre |
| Abstract: | Dabalen, Paternostro, and Pierre investigate the differences in outcomes (earnings and consumption) between individuals (households) who participate in the nonfarm sector and those who do not. They use propensity score matching methods where they create appropriate comparison groups of individuals and households. First the authors find that nonfarm self-employed individuals in rural Rwanda have significantly higher earnings than farm workers and nonfarm formal employees. Second, they show that the benefits to nonfarm self-employment are much higher among the nonpoor than among the poor. Third, the authors show that diversified households—those with a farm and a nonfarm enterprise—are less likely to be poor. Finally, farm households who do not participate in the market have significantly lower consumption levels than households that do. However, the benefits to market participation appear to matter less for the poor than for the nonpoor. The authors find little difference in expenditures between market participants and nonmarket participants for comparable households in the bottom 40 percent of the expenditure distribution. This paper—a product of the Poverty Reduction Group, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network—is part of a larger effort in the network to understand rural nonfarm employment determinants. |
| Keywords: | Labor & Employment; Poverty; Rural Development |
| Date: | 2004–12–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3462&r=afr |
| By: | Anthony J. Venables |
| Abstract: | Spatial inequality in developing countries is due to the natural advantages of some regionsrelative to others and to the presence of agglomeration forces, leading to clustering ofactivity. This paper reviews and develops some simple models that capture these first andsecond nature economic geographies. The presence of increasing returns to scale in citiesleads to urban structures that are not optimally sized. This depresses the return to jobcreation, possibly retarding development. Looking at the wider regional structure,development can be associated with large shifts in the location of activity as industry goesfrom being inward looking to being export oriented. |
| Keywords: | cities, spatial disparities, urbanisation, developing countries |
| JEL: | R1 R12 O18 |
| Date: | 2003–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0593&r=afr |
| By: | Patrick Leoni; Stéphane Luchini |
| Abstract: | Typical of the AIDS epidemics is that governments in developing countries under-invest in drugs production because of the possible appearance of a curative vaccine. We design a financial tool allowing to hedge against this event. We show that the introduction of this asset increases social welfare, as well as the number of patients treated and the provision of public good. |
| Keywords: | option design, AIDS, social choices |
| JEL: | G13 I12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:iewwpx:214&r=afr |
| By: | Berhanu Abegaz (Department of Economics, College of William and Mary) |
| Abstract: | The paradox of EthiopiaÕs agrarian economy is that, despite underwriting a world civilization, the transition to an industrial economy has eluded it. Using a model of AfroAsiatic tributarism, we attribute this outcome to endemic extractive contests between a predominantly landed peasantry and a titled, prebendary overlord class. The latterÕs strategy of political accumulation inevitably engendered immiserization of overlord and peasant alike by privileging diversion over production. The surplus was then dissipated on unproductive consumption, national defence, and internecine strife. Lacking a strong state to mitigate predation and political instability, the Ethiopian peasant rationally ÔchoseÕ to be efficiently, albeit self-sufficiently, poor. |
| Keywords: | Ethiopia, feudalism, tributarism, overlordship, landlordship, gebbar system |
| JEL: | N57 O55 P52 |
| Date: | 2004–10–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwm:wpaper:6&r=afr |
| By: | Lulama Ndibongo Traub (Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University); Thomas S. Jayne (Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University) |
| Abstract: | This article determines the effect of market reform on the size of maize milling/retail margins in South Africa. Simulations indicate that the deregulation of maize meal prices has caused a 16 to 20% increase in the mean retail price of maize meal since 1997. |
| Keywords: | maize, marketing |
| JEL: | F14 |
| Date: | 2004 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:idpwrk:83&r=afr |
| By: | David Mather (Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University); Cynthia Donovan; T. S. Jayne; Michael Weber; Edward Mazhangara; Linda Bailey; Kyeongwon Yoo; Takashi Yamano; Elliot Mghenyi |
| Abstract: | This paper summarizes and synthesizes across the results of a set of country studies on the effects of prime-age adult mortality on rural households in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Zambia. Each study is based on large representative rural household surveys. These findings have implications for the design of efforts to mitigate some of the most important effects of rural adult mortality, and for key development policies and priorities. |
| Keywords: | HIV/AIDS, sub-Saharan Africa, mortality |
| JEL: | I11 |
| Date: | 2004 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:idpwrk:082&r=afr |
| By: | Duncan Boughton; John M. Staatz; Michael T. Weber |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:polbrf:0011&r=afr |
| By: | T.S. Jayne; Lawrence Rubey; Munhamo Chisvo; Michael T. Weber |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:polbrf:0018&r=afr |
| By: | David L. Tschirley; Michael T. Weber |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:polbrf:0019&r=afr |
| By: | James F. Oehmke; Eric W. Crawford |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:polbrf:0020&r=afr |
| By: | Gem Argwings-Kodhek; T.S. Jayne |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:polbrf:0021&r=afr |
| By: | Thomas Reardon; Valerie Kelly; Eric Crawford; Thomas Jayne; Kimseyinga Savadogo; Daniel Clay |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:polbrf:0022&r=afr |
| By: | Valentina Mazzucato; Samba Ly |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:polbrf:0024&r=afr |
| By: | Duncan Boughton; Bruno Henry de Frahan |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:polbrf:0025&r=afr |
| By: | Julie A. Howard; Catherine Mungoma |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:polbrf:0026&r=afr |
| By: | Rita Laker-Ojok |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:polbrf:0027&r=afr |
| By: | Thomas Reardon; Eric Crawford; Valerie Kelly; Bocar Diagana |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:polbrf:003&r=afr |
| By: | Valerie Kelly; Jane Hopkins; Thomas Reardon; Eric Crawford |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:polbrf:004&r=afr |
| By: | T.S. Jayne; Lawrence Rubey; David Tschirley; Mulinge Mukumbu; Munhamo Chisvo; Ana Paula Santos; Michael T. Weber; Patrick Diskin |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:polbrf:005&r=afr |
| By: | Duncan Boughton; Eric Crawford; Julie Howard; James Oehmke; James Shaffer; John Staatz |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:polbrf:008&r=afr |
| By: | Bocar Diagana; Valerie Kelly |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msu:polbrf:009&r=afr |
| By: | Yochanan Shachmurove (The City College of The City University of New York and the University of Pennsylvania); Uriel Spiegel (Department of Economics, Bar Ilan University) |
| Abstract: | Classical theory of international trade has long advocated trade liberalization and open borders. However, this process is not necessarily beneficial to all countries involved. This paper focuses on two modeled economies that initially share the same technology and per-capita income, but differ in population size. With trade, the profit of the large duopolist is reduced to the benefit of the duopoly in the smaller country, as the large country is no longer able to benefit from its larger population. This may explain why one country would want to open trade with high barriers while another country would prefer low barriers. |
| Keywords: | Duopoly, Free Trade, Protectionism, Population Size, Nash Equilibrium |
| JEL: | D4 F1 L1 |
| Date: | 2004–07–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:04-035&r=afr |