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on Africa |
| By: | Marlène GUILLON; Jacky MATHONNAT (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur le Développement International(CERDI)) |
| Abstract: | Chinese health official development assistance (ODA) to Africa has largely increased since the beginning of the 2000’s. Even if China now ranks among the top ten bilateral donors for health aid in Africa very little is known about the determinants of Chinese health ODA to African countries. Our objective is to study the factors associated with Chinese health ODA to sub-Saharan Africa in the 2000-2013 period. We investigate the role of three types of factors that might influence the allocation of Chinese health aid: the needs of recipient countries, their merits and the self-interest of China. Chinese health ODA is measured using the 1.2 version of the AidData database constructed by the William & Mary University, the Brigham Young University and the non-governmental organization Development Gateway. In total, 389 health aid projects were financed by China in Africa between 2000 and 2013, accounting for a total amount of 2011 US$789 million. On these 389 projects, 194 (59%) correspond to the dispatch of medical teams, 109 (24%) to the sending of medical equipment or drugs and 77 (16%) to health infrastructure construction or rehabilitation. The annual number of health projects financed by China in Africa has increased sharply after the 3rd Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2006. We study the factors associated with the number of health projects and the amount of ODA received each year by African countries between 2000 and 2013. We stratify the analysis by types of projects (medical team dispatches/infrastructure and medical equipment or drugs projects) and by sub-periods (2000-2006/2007-2013). We use Poisson regressions to estimate both the number of projects and the amount of ODA received as Poisson regressions were shown to outperform OLS and Tobit models in the presence of heteroskedasticity and many zero observations. Pooled regressions, rather than fixed effect regressions, are used in order to exploit both inter and intra-country heterogeneity for the identification of factors associated with the allocation of Chinese health aid. We replicate the analysis using the shares of health projects and health ODA amount received by African countries each year using the fractional probit method relevant for the case of proportions as dependent variables Our results show that the motives of Chinese health aid have changed over the 2000-2013 period. In particular, Chinese political and economic interests, as measured by recipient countries’ UNGA voting alignment with China and openness rate to China, were less important in Chinese health aid allocation decisions over the 2007-2013 period that followed the 3rd FOCAC compared to the 2000-2006 period. On the contrary, taking into consideration health needs of recipient countries became more visible in Chinese health aid allocation decisions after 2006. Then, Chinese health diplomacy seems to have evolved from a rather “selfish” aid focused on political and economic self-interests to a more altruistic aid focused on health needs of recipient countries. The empirical analysis also highlights the complementarity of Chinese health ODA with its ODA in other sectors and that the allocation of Chinese health aid in African countries does not appear to be heavily related to health aid provided by traditional bilateral donors, suggesting that health aid cannot be seen as a way for China to promote its international visibility. |
| Keywords: | Health aid, Aid allocation, China, Africa. |
| JEL: | I18 I15 F35 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdi:wpaper:1876&r=afr |
| By: | Graham von Maltitz |
| Abstract: | Southern African countries’ interest in biofuel is due of its rural development potential. Finding models to optimize this benefit is therefore paramount. High-energy-density crops with low perishability allow farmers to grow small quantities on existing lands. Highly perishable, lowdensity crops such as sugarcane require tight integration between growers and mills. Models where growers have full ownership in the feedstock production facilities are possible, but this normally means that smallholder farmers need to work as a unit to achieve benefits of scale. Finding marketbased mechanisms to ensure sound and equitable returns for land and labour inputs is critical. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2017-100&r=afr |
| By: | Martin Abel (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | Using a unique data set of classified ads in South Africa, I explore whether employers discriminate against immigrants in the hiring process. I develop a quasi-experimental method to estimate discrimination exploiting variation in the applicant pool composition due to the timing of postings. Consistent with a tournament models in which immigrants are penalized, I find that both foreigners and natives benefit from being pooled with foreign job seekers. Next, I test whether discrimination affects search behavior. Controlling for location fixed effects, I find suggestive evidence for sorting: immigrants search further away and higher discrimination in the residential area is positively correlated with the decision to search in different suburbs. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ldr:wpaper:205&r=afr |
| By: | Adel Ben Youssef (University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis); Mohamed Arouri; Cuong Viet Nguyen |
| Abstract: | In this study, we examine the effect of extreme weather events on migration among governorates in Egypt using migration gravity models and data from the 1996 and 2006 Population and Housing Census. We find that low or high temperature and precipitation does not affect the migration of people. Instead, people are considering the weather in destination areas to decide where they should migrate. The number of months with temperature below the five percentiles the distribution of monthly temperature of destination governorates strongly increases in-migration. An additional month with low temperature increases the number of in-migrants by 9.98 percent. For the elderly, they also avoid a governorate with more months of high temperatures. One additional month with temperature above the 95 percentile reduces in the destination governorates the number of old migrants by 8.15 percent. |
| Date: | 2017–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1099&r=afr |
| By: | Onil Banerjee (Inter-American Development Bank); Martin Cicowiez (FCE-UNLP); Thomas Ochuodho (University of Kentucky); Michel Masozera (Wildlife Conservation Society); Bernabas Wolde (Montclair State University); Pankaj Lal (Montclair State University); Sebastian Dudek (RMGEO); Janaki R.R. Alavalapati (Project Principal Investigator - Auburn University) |
| Abstract: | Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park is a biodiversity hotspot with the most endemic species in the ecoregion as well as the highest number of threatened species internationally. In addition to great biological diversity, Nyungwe National Park supplies significant ecosystem services to the Rwandan population including water provisioning and tourism services. Tourism in the Park has strong potential for improving the sustainable management of the Park for continued provision of natural habitat and critical ecosystem services. This paper explores quantitatively the economic impacts of adjustment in Park visitation fees and tourism demand as a source of revenues to improve Park tourism opportunities and ongoing operations and maintenance where budgetary restrictions are particularly acute. The methods developed in this paper are novel in integrating the results of stated preference techniques with regional economy-wide modelling approaches to capture multi-sectoral, direct, indirect and induced impacts. Such methods have strong potential for assessing revenue generation alternatives in other contexts where Park Managers are faced with the need to generate additional revenue for sustainable park management while facing diminishing budget allocations. |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0211&r=afr |