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on Africa |
| By: | Johannes Gräb; Michael Grimm |
| Abstract: | Empirical evidence suggests that regional disparities in incomes are often very high, that these disparities do not necessarily disappear as economies grow and that these disparities are itself an important driver of growth. We use a novel approach based on multilevel modeling to decompose the sources of spatial disparities in incomes among households in Burkina Faso. We show that spatial disparities are not only driven by the spatial concentration of households with particular endowments but to a large extent also by disparities in community endowments. Climatic differences across regions do also matter, but to a much smaller extent. |
| Keywords: | spatial inequality, poverty, multilevel modeling, decomposition, Sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | C21 I32 O12 R12 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iss:wpaper:468&r=afr |
| By: | Sylviane GUILLAUMONT JEANNENEY (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur le Développement International); Sampawende Jules TAPSOBA |
| Abstract: | The devaluation of the CFA Francs in 1994 has highlighted the relevance of fiscal coordination in African monetary unions. After 1994, African monetary unions have adopted a fiscal rule which prescribes a permanent nil or positive budgetary balance. This article studies how this fiscal rule affects the cyclicality of fiscal policies. The results show that compared to other African states, such a fiscal rule creates a pro cyclical bias in public expenditure during recessions. The bias justifies a modification of the rule in order to impose a fiscal surplus during expansions. |
| Keywords: | Africa., Fiscal policies, Fiscal rules, Pro cyclicality, currency union |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdi:wpaper:1038&r=afr |
| By: | Tregenna, F. |
| Abstract: | Unemployment and earnings inequality have moved closely together in South Africa in recent years, suggesting that there may not be a trade-off between them as the literature generally suggests. This article explores the relationship between unemployment and earnings inequality in South Africa, specifically investigating the extent to which changes in unemployment can account for changes in earnings inequality. Decomposing overall income inequality by factor source shows the overwhelming importance of earnings in income inequality more generally. Decomposing earnings inequality by employment status reveals the centrality of unemployment in accounting for the level and trend of earnings inequality. The distribution of employment in the formal and informal sectors is found to be of lesser importance in explaining earnings inequality, as is wage dispersion within each of these categories. The findings point to the critical importance of reducing unemployment in South Africa if the extremely high levels of inequality are to be addressed. |
| Keywords: | Inequality, earnings distribution, unemployment, labour market, South Africa. |
| JEL: | D30 E24 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:0907&r=afr |
| By: | Tregenna, F. |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a methodology and uses household and labour survey data to analyse the extent of intersectoral outsourcing of the employment of specific labour-intensive activities in South Africa from 1997-2007. It is shown that the relatively high growth in services employment is driven by an expansion of employment of cleaners and security guards and an outsourcing-type reallocation of these activities from manufacturing and the public sector towards private services. These activities have limited scope for cumulative productivity increases. The analysis has implications for understanding changes in the sectoral structure of middle income economies. |
| Keywords: | Outsourcing, employment, manufacturing, services, public sector, South Africa |
| JEL: | J21 L24 L33 L60 L80 M55 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:0906&r=afr |
| By: | Toto Same, Achille |
| Abstract: | Oil and mineral revenues raise national savings and hence facilitate investment, capital accumulation, and sustained growth; thus, there are benefits of owning large natural resources. There can be a significant spillover effect from the oil sector to the non-oil sector particularly if governments are committed to bridge the infrastructure gap and promote the non-oil economy and foremost the non-oil tradable sector. Consequently, the capacity for coordinated policy formulation and execution is fundamental as well as sound windfall management mechanisms and institutions. This conceptual framework uses the case of Indonesia and the example of Norway to argue that the resource paradox is avoidable. Abundance should not be a curse, but rather a blessing for Sub-Saharan Africa's oil and mineral exporting countries. The country context and political economy matter a great deal but should not be the main driving forces behind windfall management, to avoid excessive rent-seeking activities, inefficiency, and wasteful spending. The EITI++ implementation can contribute to make a difference, mostly through capacity building, implementation assistance, and coordination support. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory&Research,Debt Markets,Currencies and Exchange Rates,,Access to Finance |
| Date: | 2009–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4852&r=afr |
| By: | Pareto, Vittorio Emmanuel |
| Abstract: | Southern Sudan - the ten southern provinces of Sudan - has attained autonomy and may soon achieve total independence from Sudan. Yet decades of civil war not only prevented development but destroyed the infrastructure left over from the colonial period. While Southern Sudan is fortunate to have oil resources that can finance building up the new nation, the task is enormous - there are no cities, there is no established industrial base, there are no means of transport, agriculture is incipient and cattle raising still follows ancient nomadic traditions. To aggravate the situation, millions of returning refugees and internally displaced persons are returning to their homelands and need to be settled. This paper, by outlining a simple, pragmatic strategy to setup the 10 state capitals, is a response to the effort of the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) in solving these issues. The establishment of a basic urban system - even with minimal services and infrastructure - is critical to support the establishment of initial economic activities, provide a base for the provincial administrations, supply basic human needs to the existing population and organize the resettlement effort. This effort would complement the works to recover the national road system and the development of Juba as the national capital and main base of operations of GOSS. After discussing the current issues and conditions, available resources and expected demand, a three phase urban development strategy is suggested to jump start the transformation of the existing settlements into operational urban centres. The development proposal is completed by a brief discussion on urban standards and design recommendations to be adopted. |
| Keywords: | urban; regional; development; planning; strategy; sudan; africa |
| JEL: | R58 O18 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:13988&r=afr |
| By: | Nathan Nunn; Leonard Wantchekon |
| Abstract: | We investigate the historical origins of mistrust within Africa. Combining contemporary household survey data with historic data on slave shipments, we show that individuals whose ancestors were heavily raided during the slave trade today exhibit less trust in neighbors, relatives, and their local government. We confirm that the relationship is causal by using the historic distance from the coast of a respondent's ancestors as an instrument for the intensity of the slave trade, while controlling for the individual's current distance from the coast. We undertake a number of falsification tests, all of which suggest that the necessary exclusion restriction is satisfied. Exploiting variation among individuals who live in locations different from their ancestors, we show that most of the impact of the slave trade works through factors that are internal to the individual, such as cultural norms, beliefs, and values. |
| JEL: | N00 O1 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14783&r=afr |
| By: | David Bailey; Helena Lenihan; Ajit Singh |
| Abstract: | When comparisons in terms of industrial policy lessons to be learned have taken place, it has tended to be solely vis-a-vis the 'development state' East Asian experience. This paper broadens the analysis and considers lessons which African countries can learn fro other so-called 'tiger' economies including Ireland and the East and South Asian countries. The Irish model is relevant not least because of its emphasis on corporatism rather than simply relying on state direction in the operation of industrial policy. The Irish model is also more democratic in some senses and has protected workers' rights during the development process. Overall we suggest that some immediate actions are needed, notably with regard to the financial system in small African economies. Without such changes, a poorly functioning financial system will continue to keep investment at low levels. In relation to the small size of the African economies, the paper recommends regional integration and sufficient overseas development assistance (ODA) for infrastructural development. |
| Keywords: | industrial policy, developmental state, small African economies |
| JEL: | O1 O2 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp374&r=afr |
| By: | Ferre, Celine |
| Abstract: | Completing additional years of education necessarily entails spending more time in school. There is naturally a rather mechanical effect of schooling on fertility if women tend not to have children while continuing to attend high school or college, thus delaying the beginning of and shortening their reproductive life. This paper uses data from the Kenyan Demographic and Health Surveys of 1989, 1993, 1998, and 2003 to uncover the impact of staying one more year in school on teenage fertility. To get around the endogeneity issue between schooling and fertility preferences, the analysis uses the 1985 Kenyan education reform as an instrument for years of education. The authors find that adding one more year of education decreases by at least 10 percentage points the probability of giving birth when still a teenager. The probability of having one's first child before age 20, when having at least completed primary education, is about 65 percent; therefore, for this means a reduction of about 15 percent in teenage fertility rates for this group. One additional year of school curbs the probability of becoming a mother each year by 7.3 percent for women who have completed at least primary education, and 5.6 percent for women with at least a secondary degree. These results (robust to a wide array of specifications) are of crucial interest to policy and decision makers who set up health and educational policies. This paper shows that investing in education can have positive spillovers on health. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Adolescent Health,Primary Education,Education For All |
| Date: | 2009–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4833&r=afr |
| By: | de Walque, Damien; Verwimp, Philip |
| Abstract: | There is an extensive literature on violent conflicts such as the 1994 Rwandan genocide, but few papers examine the profiles of victims and perpetrators, or more broadly the micro-level dynamics of widespread violence. This paper studies the demographic consequences of the Rwandan genocide and how the excess mortality due to the conflict was distributed in the population. Data collected by the 2000 Demographic and Health Survey indicate that although there were more deaths across the entire population, adult males were the most likely to die. Using the characteristics of the survey respondent as a proxy for the socio-economic status of the family dead, the results also show that individuals with an urban or more educated background were more likely to die. Over and above the human tragedies, a long-term cost of the genocide is the country's loss of productive skills. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Demographics,,Adolescent Health |
| Date: | 2009–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4850&r=afr |
| By: | Bosc, P.M.; Dabat, M.H.; Maitre d'Hotel, E. |
| Abstract: | Ideas and values of "sustainable development" are transfered from the international to the national level in policy-making processes and give way to a recomposition of rural development policies : we study that policy transfert. In Mali and Madagascar, sustainable development policies are quite different. We give an interpretation of these differences by a comparative analysis of strategies of actors involved in policy-making processes. We show that these strategies are related to historical processes. In Mali and Madagascar, the long run analysis of agricultural and rural policy making allows us a better understanding of current sustainable development policies. ...French Abstract : Nous étudions le processus de transfert politique selon lequel les idées et valeurs du " développement durable ", mûries et véhiculées au niveau international, donnent lieu au niveau national à une recomposition des modes publics d'intervention en milieu rural. Au Mali et à Madagascar, les politiques de développement durable recouvrent des expressions différentes. Nous interprétons ces différences par une analyse comparative des stratégies des acteurs intervenant dans le jeu politique. Nous montrons que ces stratégies renvoient à des processus historiques. L'analyse sur le temps long des processus de construction et de mise en oeuvre des politiques agricoles et rurales dans ces pays permet de mieux comprendre les expressions qu'y revêt aujourd'hui le développement durable. |
| Keywords: | POLICIES; RURAL DEVELOPMENT; SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT; DEVELOPPEMENT RURAL; DEVELOPPEMENT DURABLE; MALI; MADAGASCAR |
| JEL: | B52 Q10 Q18 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umr:wpaper:200902&r=afr |
| By: | Terry McKinley (International Poverty Centre) |
| Abstract: | Alcanzar los ODM en África Subsahariana requiere un drástico aumento de la Asistencia Oficial de Desarrollo. Sin embargo, los gobiernos se ven limitados a gastar la mayor parte de la ayuda recibida en los últimos años. Si no se puede gastar la asistencia, donadores podrían preguntarse: ¿Por qué darla? Una pregunta aún mejor es: ¿qué es lo que impide ese gasto? (...) |
| Keywords: | Por qué África se ve Limitada a Gastar la AOD? |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opespa:34&r=afr |