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on Africa |
| By: | Mireille NTSAMA ETOUNDI; Christian EBEKE |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether the exam success rate in Africa increases significantly in the months prior to the occurrence of the presidential elections. It hypothesizes that the incumbent is tempted to increase the exam success rate to retain a form of social cohesion and to ‘buy' votes. A sample of 15 francophone African countries observed from 1990 to 2009 yields three findings. First, post-exam presidential elections significantly increase the exam success rate by six percentage points. Second, the manipulation of the exam success rate is positively correlated with the re-election of the incumbent. Third, these results do not hold when elections occur before the exam dates or when the incumbent or a member of his/her party do not run for the presidential seat. |
| Keywords: | Sub-Saharan Africa, Exam success rate, Presidential elections |
| JEL: | O15 I2 D72 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdi:wpaper:1261&r=afr |
| By: | Christian Ebeke (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Mireille Ntsama Etoundi (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether the exam success rate in Africa increases significantly in the months prior to the occurrence of the presidential elections. It hypothesizes that the incumbent is tempted to increase the exam success rate to retain a form of social cohesion and to 'buy' votes. A sample of 15 francophone African countries observed from 1990 to 2009 yields three findings. First, post-exam presidential elections significantly increase the exam success rate by six percentage points. Second, the manipulation of the exam success rate is positively correlated with the re-election of the incumbent. Third, these results do not hold when elections occur before the exam dates or when the incumbent or a member of his/her party do not run for the presidential seat. |
| Keywords: | Sub-Saharan Africa;Exam success rate;Presidential elections |
| Date: | 2011–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00597521&r=afr |
| By: | Amoah, Philip; Keraita, Bernard; Akple, Maxwell; Drechsel, Pay; Abaidoo, R. C.; Konradsen, F. (International Water Management Institute (IWMI)) |
| Keywords: | Urban agriculture / Consumers / Public health / Health hazards / Risk management / Vegetable growing / Wastewater irrigation / Irrigation methods / Irrigation practices / Wastewater treatment / Filtration / West Africa / Ghana |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwt:rerpts:h043829&r=afr |
| By: | Stephen Taylor (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch); Servaas van der Berg (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch); Vijay Reddy (Human Sciences Research Council); Dean Janse van Rensburg (Human Sciences Research Council) |
| Abstract: | School retention in South Africa and performance in the major school-leaving matric examination are characterised by significant inequalities on the basis of race and socio-economic status. In order to know at what point in the educational trajectory policy interventions and school improvement programmes will be most effective, it is necessary to trace the development of these educational inequalities to earlier phases of schooling and before. This paper reports on findings from a unique dataset that tracks individuals who participated in TIMSS in 2002 as grade 8 students to matric in 2006 and 2007. This permits an investigation into the extent to which educational inequalities are already evident by the eighth grade, and what if anything is achieved by secondary schools to reduce them. Several noteworthy findings emerge. The overall level of achievement, at both grade 8 and matric, differs widely across the historically different parts of the school system. There are also intriguing differences in the abilities of different parts of the system to convert grade 8 achievement into matric outcomes. What is clear is that inequalities in the cognitive ability of students at the outset of secondary school persist and that there is no observable evidence of a closing of these gaps by matric. This points to the importance of interventions prior to secondary school – at the primary school level and even at the level of early childhood development. Finally, it is also demonstrated that the decision to take mathematics in matric is characterised by a high degree of randomness within the historically black part of the school system. This points to the value of meaningful assessment practices and feedback to students, which serve as an important signal as to whether or not to choose mathematics as a matric subject. |
| Keywords: | South Africa, Socio-economic Status, Education, Educational Achievement, Educational Inequality |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I30 O15 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers141&r=afr |
| By: | Bichaka Fayissa; Christian Nsiah |
| Abstract: | This study estimates the macroeconomic impact of remittances and some control variables such as openness of the economy, capital/labor ratio, and economic freedom on the economic growth of African, Asian, and Latin American-Caribbean countries using newly developed panel unit-root tests, cointegration tests, and Panel Fully Modified OLS (PFMOLS). We use annual panel data from 1985- 2007for 64 countries consisting of 29 from Africa, 14 from Asia, and 21 from Latin America and the Caribbean region, respectively. We find that remittances, openness of the economy, and capital labor ratio have positive and significant effect on economic growth for all regions as a group and in each of the three in study. While the economic freedom index also has a positive and significant effect on growth in Africa and Latin America, however, its effect on the economic growth of Asia is mixed. |
| Keywords: | Workers’ Remittances, Economic Growth, Unit-Root tests, Error Correction Model, PFMOLS, Panel Data, Africa, Asia, Latin America/Caribbean |
| JEL: | E21 F21 G22 J61 O16 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mts:wpaper:201103&r=afr |
| By: | Akpan, Usenobong F.; Chuku, Agbai |
| Abstract: | The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is a presumption that environmental degradation follows an inverted U-shaped trajectory in relation to economic growth. The thorny question of whether economic growth could provide a cure to environmental degradation has sparked off a large body of empirical studies in the last decade. The conclusions have been mixed. This study contributes to the debate on the existence and policy relevance of the EKC for Nigeria by applying autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework to annual time series data from 1960 to 2008. The traditional EKC model is extended by including (in addition to the level, square and cubed values of the income variable), trade openness as well as the shares of manufacturing, agriculture and service sectors in Nigeria’s GDP. Using Co2 emissions per capita to proxy environmental degradation, our findings do not support the existence of the EKC hypothesis. Rather our results show that Nigeria’s situation when confronted with data is exemplified by an N-shaped relationship with a turning point at $77.27 that lies below the data set used for the study. Based on these findings, the paper posit that the hypothesized EKC serves as a dangerous policy guide to solving environmental problems in Nigeria. The conclusion is that to ensure sustainability, there exist an urgent need to look beyond the EKC by adopting courageous policy measures of environmental preservation in Nigeria irrespective of the country’s level of income. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Degradation; ARDL; Environmental Kuznets Curve; Nigeria |
| JEL: | C32 O43 Q24 |
| Date: | 2011–04–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:31241&r=afr |
| By: | Yin-Wong Cheung (University of California, Santa Cruz and Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research); Jakob de Haan (De Nederlandsche Bank); XingWang Qian (SUNY, Buffalo State College); Shu Yu (University of Groningen) |
| Abstract: | We examine the empirical determinants of China's outward direct investment (ODI) in Africa using an officially approved ODI dataset and a relatively new OECD-IMF format ODI dataset. China's ODI is found responding to the canonical economic determinants that include the market seeking motive, the risk factor, and the resources seeking motive. It is also affected by the intensity of trade ties and the presence of China¡¦s contracted projects. A host country's natural resources have an impact on China's decision on how much to invest in the country rather than on whether to invest in the country or not. China's drive for Africa's natural resources is mainly a recent phenomenon and, probably, became prominent after the "Going Global" policy adopted in 2002. |
| Keywords: | Market Seeking, Resources Seeking, Risk, Trade Relationship, Contracted Projects, Going Global Policy, Energy Procurement |
| JEL: | F21 F36 O53 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hkm:wpaper:132011&r=afr |
| By: | Florence Kondylis; Marco Manacorda |
| Abstract: | Is improved school accessibility an effective policy tool for reducing child labor in developing countries? We address this question using micro data from rural Tanzania and a regression strategy that attempts to control for non-random location of households around schools as well as classical and non-classical measurement error in self-reported distance to school. Consistent with a simple model of child labor supply, but contrary to what appears to be a widespread perception, our analysis shows that school proximity leads to a rise in school attendance but no fall in child labor. |
| Keywords: | Distance to school, child labor, school enrolment |
| JEL: | J22 J82 O12 O55 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1035&r=afr |
| By: | Mussa, Richard |
| Abstract: | The paper looks at how inequality in household expenditure components affects total inequality and poverty in Malawi. Total household expenditure is disaggregated into four mutually exclusive and exhaustive expenditure items namely; expenditure on food, expenditure on health, expenditure on education, and expenditure on non food and non human capital items. Using data from the second integrated household survey (IHS2), we find that the elasticities of poverty with respect to within-component and between-component inequality are positive, suggesting that an increase within-component and between-component inequality increases overall poverty in Malawi. The results also show that the elasticities of poverty, as measured by the poverty gap and poverty indices, with respect to inequalities in expenditure on food and health are positive and are about the same in magnitude. The results vindicate the exemptions and zero rating of some food, health, and education related goods and services under the Value Added Tax (VAT) system. More importantly, they also suggest that expanding the coverage of zero rating and exemption would have a poverty reducing effect. These findings hold at the national level, as well as when rural and urban areas are treated separately. Additionally, the results are insensitive to choice of poverty line. |
| Keywords: | Inequality; poverty; Malawi |
| JEL: | D30 |
| Date: | 2011–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:31225&r=afr |
| By: | Harold Ngalawa (School of Economics and Finance, University of KwaZulu-Natal); Nicola Viegi (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria) |
| Abstract: | This paper sets out to investigate the process through which monetary policy affects economic activity in Malawi. Using innovation accounting in a structural vector autoregressive model, it is established that monetary authorities in Malawi employ hybrid operating procedures and pursue both price stability and high growth and employment objectives. Two operating targets of monetary policy are identified, viz., bank rate and reserve money, and it is demonstrated that the former is a more effective measure of monetary policy than the latter. The study also illustrates that bank lending, exchange rates and aggregate money supply contain important additional information in the transmission process of monetary policy shocks in Malawi. Furthermore, it is shown that the floatation of the Malawi Kwacha in February 1994 had considerable effects on the country’s monetary transmission process. In the post-1994 period, the role of exchange rates became more conspicuous than before although its impact was weakened; and the importance of aggregate money supply and bank lending in transmitting monetary policy impulses was enhanced. Overall, the monetary transmission process evolved from a weak, blurred process to a somewhat strong, less ambiguous mechanism. |
| JEL: | E52 E58 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:201112&r=afr |
| By: | Titeca, Kristof; Samson Omwa, Samuel |
| Abstract: | In response to the orphan crisis, a number of community initiatives have proliferated to enhance service delivery to OVCs (Orphans and other Vulnerable Children). Part of the literature paints a bleak and pessimistic picture: it believes that community based support interventions anchored on the family are faltering under the weight of increasing number of orphans; while others argue that communities are innovative and resilient to the extent that they have devised new coping strategies. The paper shows how OVC community responses in Northern Uganda are under severe pressure from a range of factors; but how these community initiatives are not collapsing – as the ‘social rupture’ thesis predicts. Instead, these community initiatives are dynamic and constantly evolving through various mechanisms to respond to the challenges of meeting the needs of the orphans. The paper shows how some of these initiatives are more successful than others in doing so. |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iob:dpaper:2011003&r=afr |
| By: | Holvoet, Nathalie; Inberg, Liesbeth |
| Abstract: | With the aim to promote aid effectiveness that ultimately contributes to development, changes in aid policies and instruments have been propagated over the last decade. The 2005 Paris Declaration (PD) and the 2008 Accra Agenda for Action (AAA), which set out a reform agenda around the principles of ownership, harmonisation, alignment, results-orientation and mutual accountability, are illustrations of the growing consensus in this respect. While the rationale for a gender sensitive PD may easily be built upon equality, effectiveness and efficiency arguments, gender is hardly mainstreamed into the PD and its implementation. In a previous study (see Holvoet and Inberg 2009) we explored how the changing aid architecture unfolds opportunities and challenges for gender mainstreaming policies and gender equality and empowerment objectives. This paper zooms in on the case of Tanzania, one of the donor darlings, and studies how opportunities and challenges materialise on the ground. It analyses how various actors, including government, civil society and donors, are handling gender mainstreaming in the realm of ongoing changes in aid policies and instruments. |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iob:wpaper:2011003&r=afr |