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on Africa |
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Issue of 2006‒11‒18
twelve papers chosen by Suzanne McCoskey Foreign Service Institute, US Department of State |
| By: | Denis Cogneau (DIAL, IRD, Paris); Thomas Bossuroy (EHESS, DIAL, IRD, Paris); Philippe De Vreyer (Université de Lille II, DIAL); Charlotte Guénard (DIAL); Victor Hiller (DIAL, Université Paris-I); Phillippe Leite (EHESS, DIAL, Paris); Sandrine Mesplé-Somps (DIAL, IRD, Paris); Laure Pasquier-Doumer (DIAL, IEP-Paris); Constance Torelli (DIAL) |
| Abstract: | A new analysis of large-sample surveys in five comparable Sub-Saharan African countries allows measuring for the first time inequality of opportunity in Africa, aside inequality of resources and of living standards. We confirm the prevalence of high levels of inequality among the region’s countries. Yet we also find considerable differences in the structures of this inequality. Furthermore, intergenerational educational and occupational mobility and the equality of opportunity for income between social origins are quite definitely greater in countries where income inequality is lower, such as Ghana and Uganda, than in higher-inequality countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Madagascar. _________________________________ Une exploitation nouvelle d’enquêtes à large échantillon concernant cinq pays d’Afrique subsaharienne permet pour la première fois de mesurer l’inégalité des chances en Afrique, à côté des inégalités de ressources et de conditions de vie. Nous confirmons l’existence d’inégalités prononcées au sein des pays de cette région, mais nous révélons aussi de fortes différences dans les structures de ces inégalités. L’essentiel de ces différences provient des écarts de revenu entre l’agriculture et les autres secteurs, et de l’échelle des rémunérations non agricoles. Au Ghana ou en Ouganda, la mobilité intergénérationnelle scolaire et professionnelle et l’égalité des chances devant le revenu entre les différentes origines sociales sont nettement plus fortes que dans les pays plus inégalitaires que sont la Côte d’Ivoire, la Guinée et Madagascar. |
| Keywords: | Inégalités de revenu, Égalité des chances, Mobilité intergénérationnelle, Afrique, Income inequality, equality of opportunity, intergenerational mobility, Africa. |
| JEL: | D63 J62 O15 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt200611&r=afr |
| By: | Alberto Chong; Mark Gradstein |
| Abstract: | With efforts across the industrial countries to increase the amount of foreign aid mounting, it is important to understand its determinants. This paper examines the factors affecting the support for foreign aid among voters in donor countries. A simple theoretical model, which considers an endogenous determination of official and private aid flows, relates individual income to aid support through the elasticity of substitution and also suggests that government efficiency is an important factor in this regard. The empirical analysis of individual attitudes, based on the World Values Surveys, reveals that satisfaction with own government performance and individual relative income are positively related to the willingness to provide foreign aid. Furthermore, when using donor country data we find that aid is adversely affected by government inefficiency and income inequality. |
| Keywords: | foreign aid, donors, perceptions, development, corruption |
| JEL: | H41 O10 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1833&r=afr |
| By: | Elise Huillery (Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques (PSE), DIAL, Paris) |
| Abstract: | (english) To what extent did the colonial public policy influence the current regional inequalities in the Frenchspeaking West Africa? This paper uses the differences in development outcomes across the areas of the former French West Africa to show the existence of colonial long term effects on development paths. To correct from potential biases, I take carefully into account the geographical and pre-colonial characteristics of the districts and use the spatial discontinuities of the colonial public policy to control for unobservable districts’ characteristics. Results show that colonial history is a strong determinant of current development of the districts of the former French West Africa. First, the African chiefs’ association to the colonial administration played a discriminating role between districts but its effects are ambiguous, positive on educational performances and negative on the health performances. Secondly, the colonial public investments in education, health and public works explain much of the current regional development inequalities. The nature of the public investment also matters: each type of current performance has been specifically determined by the corresponding colonial investment. The colonial public policies had thus very persistent effects and played a strong spatial discriminating role. _________________________________ (français) Dans quelle mesure les inégalités spatiales en Afrique de l’Ouest francophone ont-elles été influencées par la politique publique menée par les Français pendant la période coloniale ? Ce papier utilise les différences de développement entre les cercles de l’ancienne Afrique Occidentale Française (AOF) pour mettre en évidence des effets de long terme de la colonisation sur les trajectoires de développement. Les caractéristiques géographiques ainsi que l’histoire précoloniale des cercles ont été prises en compte pour corriger l’éventuelle endogénéité de la politique coloniale. J’utilise ensuite les discontinuités spatiales de la politique coloniale pour contrôler également certaines caractéristiques inobservables des cercles. Les résultats montrent que l’histoire coloniale fut un déterminant important du développement des cercles de l’ancienne AOF. La première source de discrimination spatiale fut la politique d’association des chefs africains dans l’administration coloniale, mais son effet reste ambigu : elle a joué positivement sur les performances éducatives mais négativement sur les performances de santé. La deuxième source de discrimination entre les cercles, plus importante que la première, fut la politique d’investissement en biens publics (éducation, santé, infrastructures), qui explique une part importante des inégalités de développement actuelles entre les cercles. On observe enfin que la nature des investissements importe, même à long terme : les performances actuelles dans les domaines de l’éducation, de la santé et des infrastructures sont chacune spécifiquement expliquées par l’investissement colonial « correspondant ». La politique coloniale française a donc créé des discriminations spatiales très persistantes dont les marques sont encore nettement visibles aujourd’hui. |
| Keywords: | Colonisation, West Africa, Spatial inequalities, Development, Public goods,Public policy, Colonisation, Afrique de l’Ouest, Inégalités spatiales, Développement, Biens publics,Politique publique. |
| JEL: | I18 I28 N47 O11 O15 O18 P16 R12 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt200612&r=afr |
| By: | Nejat Anbarci (Department of Economics, Florida International University); Monica Escaleras (Department of Economics, Florida Atlantic University); Charles Register (Department of Economics, Florida Atlantic University) |
| Abstract: | Cholera and other diarrheal diseases are the second leading cause of death among the poor globally. The tragedy of this statistic is that it need not be the case. Unlike many afflictions, the impact of cholera can be greatly reduced, if not eliminated, through the collective action of clean water services. This begs the question of why such collective action is absent in much of the world. To address this, we first develop a theoretical model which indicates that the required collective action is an increasing function of both a country’s level of income and income equality. We test these predictions by analyzing 1,032 annual observations arising from 17 relatively poor countries between the years 1980 and 2002. The countries come from the Americas, Africa, and Asia. In the first part of the analysis, we find that the collective action of providing clean water is, as predicted, an increasing function of income and equality. Following this, we find that both the numbers of cases and deaths resulting from a given cholera outbreak are strongly and negatively related to the collective action. |
| Keywords: | Cholera, diarrheal diseases, pandemics, per capita income, inequality |
| JEL: | D31 H41 I10 |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fal:wpaper:05003&r=afr |
| By: | Bandyopadhyay, Sushenjit; Shyamsundar, Priya; Baccini, Alessandro |
| Abstract: | In this paper, the authors seek to answer three questions about poverty and forests in Malawi: (1) What is the extent of biomass available for meeting the energy needs of the poor in Malawi and how is this distributed? (2) To what extent does fuelwood scarcity affect the welfare of the poor? (3) How do households cope with scarcity? In particular, do households spend more time in fuelwood collection and less time in agriculture in response to scarcity? The authors attempt to answer these questions using household and remote-sensing data. They find that 80 percent of rural poor households in Malawi are likely to benefit from an increase in biomass per hectare in their community. Rural women respond to biomass scarcity by increasing the time they spend on fuelwood collection. But the actual decrease in consumption expenditure and increase in time in fuelwood collection are small and biomass scarcity is not associated with a reduction in agricultural labor supply. |
| Keywords: | Renewable Energy,Crops & Crop Management Systems,Wildlife Resources,Climate Change,Ecosystems and Natural Habitats |
| Date: | 2006–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4068&r=afr |
| By: | Hertel, Thomas W.; Keeney, Roman; Ivanic, Maros; Winters, L. Alan |
| Abstract: | Rich countries ' agricultural trade policies are the battleground on which the future of the WTO ' s troubled Doha Round will be determined. Subject to widespread criticism, they nonetheless appear to be almost immune to serious reform, and one of their most common defenses is that they protect poor farmers. The authors ' findings reject this claim. The analysis uses detailed data on farm incomes to show that major commodity programs are highly regressive in the United States, and that the only serious losses under trade reform are among large, wealthy farmers in a few heavily protected subsectors. In contrast, analysis using household data from 15 developing countries indicates that reforming rich countries ' agricultural trade policies would lift large numbers of developing country farm households out of poverty. In the majority of cases these gains are not outweighed by the poverty-increasing effects of higher food prices among other households. Agricultural reforms that appear feasible, even under an ambitious Doha Round, achieve only a fraction of the benefits for developing countries that full liberalization promises, but protect U.S. large farms from most of the rigors of adjustment. Finally, the analysis indicates that maximal trade-led poverty reductions occur when developing countries participate more fully in agricultural trade liberalization. |
| Keywords: | Rural Poverty Reduction,Economic Theory & Research,Population Policies,Pro-Poor Growth and Inequality |
| Date: | 2006–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4060&r=afr |
| By: | Goedhuys, Micheline (UNU-MERIT); Janz, Norbert (UNU-MERIT); Mohnen, Pierre (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | Using the rich micro data set of the World Bank Investment Climate Survey, this paper examines the determinants of productivity among manufacturing firms in the context of a least developed country, Tanzania. In particular it seeks to evaluate the importance of technological variables - such as R&D, education and training, innovation, foreign ownership, licensing and ISO certification - and institutional variables – such as access to credit, health of the workforce, regulation and business support services. Among the technological variables, R&D, and innovations in the form of new products or processes fail to produce any significant impact, and only foreign ownership, ISO certification and high education of the management appear to affect productivity. Some of the institutional variables on the contrary are highly significant and robust to different specifications of the model. As such, formal credit constraints, administrative burdens related to regulations and a lack of business support services seem to depress productivity, while membership of a business association produces the opposite effect. The results of a quantile regression further indicate that the educational level of the managers and access to formal credit are significant for the less productive firms only, whereas for the more productive firms it is having an ISO certification or being a member of a business association that are the significant determinants. |
| Keywords: | Development, Productivity, Innovation, Institutions |
| JEL: | O12 D24 C21 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2006037&r=afr |
| By: | Galasso, Emanuela; Yau, Jeffrey |
| Abstract: | Monitoring data are generally collected as a by-product of the process of monitoring program implementation. Yet this rich source of data have not been exploited to assess the effectiveness of the program. In this paper the authors use detailed administered data from a large-scale, community-based nutrition program in Madagascar to argue that this data can be used to estimate the differential effect of increased exposure to the program and study how these returns to exposure evolve over time. They find that the returns to exposure are positive: communities exposed for an additional one or two years display on average lower malnutrition rates of around 7-9 percentage points. And they find that the returns decrease as time and duration increase, although they do not dissipate to zero. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the returns to the program reflect learning effects from the intervention. Finally, the results show higher differential returns to the program in poorer areas and areas more vulnerable to diseases. These findings have important implications for how such programs should be scaled-up within a country. |
| Keywords: | Poverty Monitoring & Analysis,Early Child and Children ' s Health,Nutrition,Rural Poverty Reduction,Primary Education |
| Date: | 2006–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4058&r=afr |
| By: | Sophia du Plessis (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch) |
| Abstract: | Research has shown a positive correlation between extractive colonisation and low post-colonial economic growth. This paper provides case study research to explore the possibility that post-colonial extractive institutions were already present in pre-colonial times. In Zambia’s case this is indeed true. Extractive institutions existed in Zambia before colonisation, and colonisation certainly did not improve on them. The question whether countries like Zambia are doomed for failure is also considered, and it is concluded that an environment that allows experimentation is supportive of economic growth and development. With an authoritative regime during the Second Republic, feedback on policy decisions was limited and may provide more of an answer to bad post-colonial economic performance than extractive colonisation. |
| Keywords: | Institutions, Institutional Change, Colonisation, Zambia |
| JEL: | N4 N9 O1 O2 O5 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers30&r=afr |
| By: | de Luna Martinez, Jose |
| Abstract: | Despite the deep financial sector reforms undertaken in Zambia in the early 1990s, the expected benefits of establishing a market-based banking system has not materialized. In 2005 the banking system continued to be small and underdeveloped. Credit to the private sector by banks represented only 8 percent of GDP in 2005, which is slightly lower than the level registered in 1990. As in the early 1990s, only large corporations and a few small- and medium-size enterprises have access to credit in 2006. Moreover, less than 8 percent of Zambia ' s adult population had a bank account in 2005. And despite the open door policy to foreign financial institutions, which has been in place since Zambia ' s independence, only a few new banking products have been introduced by foreign banks to serve the needs of households and firms. This paper analyzes the factors that have prevented the development of a large and inclusive banking system in Zambia and highlights possible actions that may help improve access to finance in Zambia in both the short and long terms. |
| Keywords: | Banks & Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management & Restructuring,Corporate Law,Banking Law |
| Date: | 2006–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4061&r=afr |
| By: | Michael Grimm (University of Göttingen, Department of Economics, DIW and DIAL) |
| Abstract: | The empirical evidence shows that in developing countries illness shocks can have a severe impact on household income. Few studies have so fare examined the effects of mortality. The major difference between illness and mortality shocks is that a death of a household member does not only induce direct costs such as medical and funeral costs and possibly a loss in income, but that also the number of consumption units in the household is reduced. Using data for Indonesia, I show that the economic costs related to the death of children and older persons seem to be fully compensated by the decrease of consumption units. In contrast, when prime-age adults die, survivors face additional costs and, in consequence, implement coping strategies. It is shown that these are quite efficient and it seems that in terms of consumption households even over-compensate their loss, although they may face a higher vulnerability in the longer term. The results suggest that the implementation of general formal safety nets can give priority to the insurance of other types of risks, such as unemployment, illness or natural disasters. _________________________________ Des études empiriques montrent que dans les pays en voie de développement des chocs sanitaires peuvent avoir des effets sévères sur le revenu des ménages. Peu d’analyses ont jusqu’à présent analysé l’impact de la mortalité. La différence majeure entre une période de maladie et la mortalité est qu’un décès d’un membre du ménage n’implique pas seulement des coûts directs comme des coûts funéraires et peut-être une perte de revenu, mais que le nombre des unités de consommation dans le ménage est également réduit. Utilisant des données de l’Indonésie, je montre que les coûts économiques reliés à un décès d’un enfant et d’une personne âgée semblent entièrement compensés par la réduction des unités de consommation. A l´inverse, si des adultes en âge d’activité décèdent, les survivants font face à des coûts supplémentaires et, en conséquence, instaurent des stratégies pour surmonter les difficultés engendrées par ces décès. Il est montré que ces stratégies sont très efficaces et il semble qu’en termes de consommation les ménages surcompensent eux-mêmes leur perte, il est cependant possible qu’ils fassent alors face à une plus forte vulnérabilité dans le long terme. Les résultats suggèrent que l’instauration des filets de sécurité peut donner priorité à l’assurance d’autres types de risques, comme le chômage, la maladie ou des catastrophes naturelles. |
| Keywords: | Mortality, consumption smoothing, risk, micro-model of consumption growth,Indonesia, Mortalité, lissage de consommation, risque, modèle micro-économique de la croissance de consommation, Indonésie. |
| JEL: | D12 I12 J12 O12 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt200613&r=afr |
| By: | Denis Cogneau (DIAL, IRD, Paris); Sylvie Lambert (Fédération Jourdan, LEA-INRA) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies interactions between aid and three other major North-South flows : international trade, FDI and migrations. It mainly focuses on the question of whether aid is allocated to countries that are benefiting from the other flows considered here or the reverse. It appears that aid allocation is increasingly compensatory, while its relative weight among other flows, and hence its compensatory power, has decreased over the past three decades. This paper also addresses whether policies carried out in the other dimensions affect the efficiency of a dollar of aid in terms of the poverty reduction. Nevertheless, it appears that the empirical identification of positive complementarities between aid and other policies is particularly difficult to reach. _________________________________ Cet article s’inscrit dans une réflexion générale sur la cohérence des politiques suivies par les pays du nord dans leurs relations avec les pays du sud. Il s’interroge sur les interactions entre les politiques d’aide, les politiques commerciales, les investissements directs étrangers et les flux de migrations sudnord. Pour l’essentiel, il est consacré à la question de savoir si l’aide est allouée à des pays qui bénéficient ou pâtissent des autres politiques considérées. Il apparaît que, dans un contexte de forte polarisation des échanges commerciaux et des flux de capitaux et de politiques migratoires biaisées en faveur du travail qualifié, l’aide publique au développement revêt de plus en plus un rôle de compensation des autres flux qui relient les pays développés et les pays en développement, alors même que son poids relatif et donc son pouvoir de compensation a diminué. Par ailleurs, cet article s’intéresse également à un deuxième aspect de la question, celui de l’impact des politiques menées dans les autres domaines sur l’efficacité du dollar d’aide à réduire la pauvreté. Cependant l’identification empirique de l’existence d’une complémentarité positive entre l’aide et les autres politiques du Nord apparaît comme particulièrement difficile. |
| Keywords: | Aid, trade, international migration, FDI, Aide publique au développement, commerce international, migrations internationales,investissements directs étrangers. |
| JEL: | O1 F35 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt200609&r=afr |