nep-afr New Economics Papers
on Africa
Issue of 2019‒08‒26
five papers chosen by
Sam Sarpong
The University of Mines and Technology

  1. What makes economic empowerment programmes successful? Experimental evidence from Malawi By Francesco Burchi; Christoph Strupat
  2. Financial Reforms and Industrialisation: Evidence from Nigeria By Oludele E. Folarin
  3. Gender Equality and Electoral Violence in Africa: Unlocking the Peacemaking Potential of Women By Rasmané Ouedraogo; Idrissa Ouedraogo
  4. The impact of civil society and governance on poverty: Are there differences between the North and East Africa region? By Aloui, Zouhaier
  5. Voter behavior and government performance: Empirical application in Ghana By Henning, Christian H. C. A.; Diaz, Daniel; Lendewig, Andrea

  1. By: Francesco Burchi (IPC-IG); Christoph Strupat (IPC-IG)
    Abstract: "Since the beginning of the 21st century we have witnessed a proliferation of social protection schemes in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Recent empirical evidence points to the effectiveness of these policies?in particular, cash transfers?in improving the ability of beneficiaries to meet their basic needs. However, it seems that cash transfers alone do not reduce poverty in a sustainable manner, and this is usually not even their explicit aim. Cash transfer beneficiaries do not manage to exit poverty by their own means; therefore, they remain dependent on social assistance". (...)
    Keywords: economic empowerment, programmes, successful, experimental, evidence, Malawi
    Date: 2019–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opager:423&r=all
  2. By: Oludele E. Folarin (University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria)
    Abstract: Nigeria adopted the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1986 after the crash in world oil price in the early 1980s. Financial reforms are part of the reforms implemented during the SAP. Since, industrialisation is seen as an engine of growth, we conduct an empirical assessment of the effects of financial sector reforms on industrialisation in Nigeria using an annual time series data over 1981 - 2015. Using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, our findings show that financial reforms have a positive and significant impact on industrialisation.
    Keywords: Financial reforms, Financial repression, Industrialisation, ARDL bounds test
    JEL: C32 E44 O14 O55
    Date: 2019–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:abh:wpaper:19/014&r=all
  3. By: Rasmané Ouedraogo; Idrissa Ouedraogo
    Abstract: We examine the impact of gender equality on electoral violence in Africa using micro-level data from the sixth round of Afrobarometer surveys. The sample covers 30 countries. We find that gender equality is associated with lower electoral violence. Quantitatively, our estimates show that an increase in female-to-male labor force participation ratio by 1 percentage point is correlated with a reduction of the probability of electoral violence across the continent by around 4.2 percentage points. Our results are robust to alternative ways to measure electoral violence and gender equality, as well as to alternative specifications. The findings of this paper support the long-standing view that women empowerment contributes to the reduction of violence and underscore the urgency of addressing gender inequality in Africa.
    Date: 2019–08–16
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:19/174&r=all
  4. By: Aloui, Zouhaier
    Abstract: This article attempts to study the impact of civil society and governance on poverty. In this work, we have tried to answer the following questions: what is the effect of civil society and governance on poverty in the region of North and East Africa? In this framework, the basic assumption was the existence of a direct and indirect effect of civil society and the quality of governance in reducing poverty. The study of this hypothesis was formulated in a static model applied to data available on the region of North and East Africa between 1996-2016. The results of our regressions show that civil society, has a positive effect in reducing poverty in East Africa, but negative in North Africa and the political and legal indicators, has a positive effect on poverty in the East African countries and administrative indicators, has a positive effect in North Africa. This result implies that civil society and governance quality factors play an important role in reducing poverty in East Africa as North Africa. The relationship between civil society, governance and poverty varies according to the stage of development. But notes significant differences between the region of North Africa and East. This supports our contention that civil society and governance has more impact on poverty in the East African region, the poorest than in the rich region of North Africa. For example, the relationship between civil society and poverty is positive and significant for East Africa, is negative and significant in North Africa. The relationship between governance (policy and legal indicators) and poverty is positive and significant for East Africa, but in North Africa only administrative indicators have a positive effect on poverty. This supports our claim that governance has more impact on poverty than civil society.
    Keywords: civil society, governance, poverty, Regional Economic Integration, North Africa, East Africa.
    JEL: H55 H75 I32
    Date: 2019–07–30
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:95377&r=all
  5. By: Henning, Christian H. C. A.; Diaz, Daniel; Lendewig, Andrea
    Abstract: Electoral competition is a democratic mechanism to guarantee high governmental performance. In reality, however, it often leads to policy failure due to Government Capture and Government Accountability. An understanding of both phenomena has to be based on voter theory and nowadays the probabilistic voter model is the workhorse model applied in voter studies. In this paper we first proceeded to derive a theoretical model to estimate voter behavior including three voting motives: non-policy oriented, policy oriented and retrospective oriented. Then, we derived government performance indicators to estimate Capture and Accountability based on marginal effects and relative importance of the three components. Subsequently, we tested our theory estimating a probabilistic voter model for Ghana using own election survey data. In particular, we calculated different mixed logit model specifications and, to allow heterogeneity, we followed the latent class approach. Using the results of the estimations, we were able to calculate marginal effects and relative importance of each voting motive and we found that the non-policy component is the most important whereas the retrospective component is the less relevant. Finally, the government performance indicators were estimated and they suggest that, although the political weights are unequally distributed in Ghana, the government is partially accountable towards the voter and elections provide an effective mechanism to promote democracy.
    Keywords: probabilistic voter model,capture,accountability,agricultural policy,Ghana,Africa
    JEL: Q18 C31 C35 C38
    Date: 2018
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cauapw:wp201804&r=all

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