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on Africa |
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Issue of 2014‒02‒21
twelve papers chosen by |
| By: | Manoel Bittencourt (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria) |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether primary school completion has played any role on total fertility rates in all fifteen members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) between 1980 and 2009. The evidence, based on panel time-series analysis, suggests that primary education has indeed reduced fertility rates in the region, or that the community is already trading-off quantity for quality of children. The results are important not only because lower fertility, caused by education, implies more capital per worker, higher productivity and therefore higher growth rates, but also because - in accordance to the unified growth theory - they suggest that southern Africa, like other countries in the past, is experiencing its own transition from the Malthusian epoch into a sustained growth regime. |
| Keywords: | Education, fertility, Africa |
| JEL: | I20 J13 O55 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:201404&r=afr |
| By: | Rulof P. Burger (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch); Francis J. Teal (Centre for Studies of African Economics, University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | Schooling is typically found to be highly correlated with individual earnings in African countries. However, African firm or sector level studies have failed to identify a similarly strong effect for average worker schooling levels on productivity. This has been interpreted as evidence that schooling does not increase productivity levels, but may also indicate that the schooling effect cannot be identified when using a schooling measure with limited variation. Using a novel South African industry-level dataset that spans a longer period than typical firm-level panels, this paper identifies a large and significant schooling effect. This result is highly robust across different estimators that allow for correlated industry effects, measurement error, heterogeneous production technologies and cross-sectional dependence. |
| Keywords: | Returns to schooling, human capital, labour demand, panel data econometrics, South Africa |
| JEL: | J24 D24 C23 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers209&r=afr |
| By: | Remi Jedwab (Department of Economics/Institute for International Economic Policy, George Washington University); Alexander Moradi (University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | What is the impact of modern transportation technology on economic change in poor countries? Rail construction in colonial Africa provides a natu-ral experiment. Using new data on railroads and cities over one century within one country, Ghana, and Africa as a whole, we ï¬nd large permanent effects of transportation technology on economic development. First, railroads had strong effects on agriculture and urbanization before independence. Second, using the fact that railroads collapsed post-independence, we show they had a persistent impact. Evidence suggests that railroad cities persisted because their emergence served as a mechanism to coordinate investments for each subsequent period. Historical shocks can thus trigger an equilibrium in which cities will emerge to facilitate the accumulation of factors, which promotes long-term development. |
| Keywords: | Transportation Technology; Development; Path Dependence; Africa |
| JEL: | O1 O3 O18 R4 R1 N97 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2014-03&r=afr |
| By: | Ali, Daniel Ayalew; Deininger, Klaus |
| Abstract: | Whether the negative relationship between farm size and productivity that is confirmed in a large global literature holds in Africa is of considerable policy relevance. This paper revisits this issue and examines potential causes of the inverse productivity relationship in Rwanda, where policy makers consider land fragmentation and small farm sizes to be key bottlenecks for the growth of the agricultural sector. Nationwide plot-level data from Rwanda point toward a constant returns to scale crop production function and a strong negative relationship between farm size and output per hectare as well as intensity of labor use that is robust across specifications. The inverse relationship continues to hold if profits with family labor valued at shadow wages are used, but disappears if family labor is rather valued at village-level market wage rates. These findings imply that, in Rwanda, labor market imperfections, rather than other unobserved factors, seem to be a key reason for the inverse farm-size productivity relationship. |
| Keywords: | Wetlands,Labor Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Climate Change and Agriculture,Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems |
| Date: | 2014–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6770&r=afr |
| By: | Heinrich R. Bohlmann (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria); Martin C. Breitenbach (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a dynamic CGE model to help explain some apparent contradictions between changes in the structure of the South African economy and movements in related variables over the 2006 to 2013 period. Most notably, an increase in the capital-labour ratio was identified, despite a relative increase in the price of capital rentals. To calibrate this result with conventional economic theory suggests that a change in the preferred capital-labour ratio of industries must have occurred. We quantify this change and comment on what this means for policymakers trying to reduce the country’s high level of unemployment. Other changes to the economy over this period are also quantified and explained. |
| Keywords: | CGE Simulation, South African Economy, Analysing changes, Primary Factors |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:201405&r=afr |
| By: | Bénédicte H. Apouey (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - École normale supérieure [ENS] - Paris - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA)); Gabriel Picone (Department of Economics - University of South Florida) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the existence of social interactions in malaria preventive behaviors in Sub-Saharan Africa, i.e. whether an individual's social environment has an influence on the individual's preventive behaviors. We focus on the two population groups which are the most vulnerable to malaria (children under 5 and pregnant women) and on two preventive behaviors (sleeping under a bednet and taking intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy). We define the social environment of the individual as people living in the same region. To detect social interactions, we calculate the size of the social multiplier by comparing the effects of an exogenous variable at the individual level and at the regional level. Our data come from 92 surveys for 29 Sub-Saharan countries between 1999 and 2012, and they cover approximately 660,000 children and 95,000 women. Our results indicate that social interactions are important in malaria preventive behaviors, since the social multipliers for women's education and household wealth are greater than one - which means that education and wealth generates larger effects on preventive behaviors in the long run than we would expect from the individual-level specifications, once we account for social interactions. |
| Keywords: | Social interactions ; Social multiplier ; Malaria preventive behavior |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00940084&r=afr |
| By: | Ali, Daniel Ayalew; Deininger, Klaus; Duponchel, Marguerite |
| Abstract: | Although the potentially negative impacts of credit constraints on economic development have long been discussed conceptually, empirical evidence for Africa remains limited. This study uses a direct elicitation approach for a national sample of Rwandan rural households to assess empirically the extent and nature of credit rationing in the semi-formal sector and its impact using an endogenous sample separation between credit-constrained and unconstrained households. Being credit constrained reduces the likelihood of participating in off-farm self-employment activities by about 6.3 percent while making participation in low-return farm wage labor more likely. Even within agriculture, elimination of all types of credit constraints in the semi-formal sector could increase output by some 17 percent. Two suggestions for policy emerge from the findings. First, the estimates suggest that access to information (education, listening to the radio, and membership in a farm cooperative) has a major impact on reducing the incidence of credit constraints in the semi-formal credit sector. Expanding access to information in rural areas thus seems to be one of the most promising strategies to improve credit access in the short term. Second, making it easy to identify land owners and transfer land could also significantly reduce transaction costs associated with credit access. |
| Keywords: | Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Debt Markets,Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress,Financial Intermediation |
| Date: | 2014–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6769&r=afr |
| By: | Mulatu F. Zerihun (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria); Marthinus C. Breitenbach (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria); Francis Kemegue (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, and Framingham University, USA) |
| Abstract: | The theory of purchasing power parity implies that real exchange rate series should be stationary. However, conventional unit root tests on the Southern African Development community (SADC) real exchange rates confirm the existence of a unit root. Such deficiencies in the investigation of the dynamics of real exchange rates in the region calls for nonlinear methods like the method used in this study to be pursued, which may better explain the dynamics of real exchange rates in SADC. In this paper two nonlinearity tests are employed: the nonparametric test developed by Brock, Dechert, and Scheinkman - known as the BDS test and the Fourier stationarity test. The BDS test detects the independent and identically distribute (iid) assumption of the time series used in the analysis while the Fourier approximation mimics a wide variety of breaks and other types of nonlinearities. Both tests confirm the non-linear nature of real exchange series in SADC. The result from the Fourier stationarity test further provides strong evidence of an OCA among the 11 SADC countries included in the study. |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:201406&r=afr |
| By: | Aguilar, Arturo; Carranza, Eliana; Goldstein, Markus; Kilic, Talip; Oseni, Gbemisola |
| Abstract: | This paper employs decomposition methods to analyze differences in agricultural productivity between male and female land managers in Ethiopia. It employs data from the 2011-2012 Ethiopian Rural Socioeconomic Survey. An overall 23.4 percent gender differential in agricultural productivity is estimated at the mean in favor of male land managers, of which 10.1 percentage points are explained by differences in land manager characteristics, land attributes, and unequal access to resources (the endowment effect). The remaining 13.4 percentage points are explained by unequal returns to productive components, but cannot be easily tied to specific covariates. These results are mainly driven by non-married female managers (mainly single and divorced). Married female managers do not display such disadvantages. Further analysis along the productivity distribution reveals that gender differentials are more pronounced at mid-levels of productivity and that the share of the gender gap explained by the endowment effect declines as productivity increases. Detailed decomposition of estimates at selected points of the agricultural productivity distribution provides valuable information for policy intervention purposes. |
| Keywords: | Rural Development Knowledge&Information Systems,Gender and Development,Housing&Human Habitats,Labor Policies,Gender and Health |
| Date: | 2014–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6764&r=afr |
| By: | Avdeenko, Alexandra; Gilligan, Michael J. |
| Abstract: | Over the past decade the international community, especially the World Bank, has conducted programs to increase local public service delivery in developing countries by improving local governing institutions and creating social capital. This paper evaluates one such program in Sudan to answer the question: Can the international community change the grassroots civic culture of developing countries to increase social capital? The paper oers three contributions. First, it uses lab-in-the-eld measures to focus on the eects of the program on pro-social preferences without the confounding in uence of any program- induced changes on local governing institutions. Second, it tests whether the program led to denser social networks in recipient communities. Based on these two measures, the eect of the program was a precisely estimated zero. However, in a retrospective survey, respondents from program communities characterized their behavior as being more pro-social and their communities more socially cohesive. This leads to a third contribution of the paper: it provides evidence for the hypothesis, stated by several scholars in the literature, that retrospective survey measures of social capital oer biased evidence of a positive eect of these programs. Regardless of one's faith in retrospective self-reported survey measures, the results clearly point to zero impact of the program on pro-social preferences and social network density. Therefore, if the increase in self-reported behaviors is accurate, it must be because of social sanctions that enforce compliance with pro-social norms through mechanisms other than the social networks that were measured. |
| Keywords: | Social Capital,Community Development and Empowerment,Housing&Human Habitats,Social Cohesion,Governance Indicators |
| Date: | 2014–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6772&r=afr |
| By: | Emla Fitzsimons (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute of Education, University of London); Bansi Malde (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Alice Mesnard (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Marcos Vera-Hernandez (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London) |
| Abstract: | Incorrect knowledge of the health production function may lead to inefficient household choices, and thereby to the production of suboptimal levels of health. This paper studies the effects of a randomised intervention in rural Malawi which, over a six-month period, provided mothers of young infants with information on child nutrition without supplying any monetary or in-kind resources. A simple model first investigates theoretically how nutrition and other household choices including labour supply may change in response to the improved nutrition knowledge observed in the intervention areas. We then show empirically that, in line with this model, the intervention improved child nutrition, household consumption and consequently health. These increases are funded by an increase in male labor supply. We consider and rule out alternative explanations behind these findings. This paper is the first to establish that non-health choices, particularly parental labor supply, are affected by parents’ knowledge of the child health production function. |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:14/02&r=afr |
| By: | Remi Jedwab (Department of Economics/Institute for International Economic Policy, George Washington University); Edward Kerby (London School of Economics and Political Science); Alexander Moradi (University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | Little is known about the extent and forces of urban path dependence in developing countries. Railroad construction incolonialKenyaprovidesanaturalexperimenttostudytheemer- gence and persistence of this spatial equilibrium. Using new data ataï¬nespatialleveloveronecenturyshowsthatcolonialrailroads causally determined the location of European settlers, which in turn decided the location of the main cities of the country at inde- pendence. Railroads declined and settlers left after independence, yet cities persisted. Their early emergence served as a mechanism to coordinate investments in the post-independence period, yield- ing evidence for how path dependence influences development. |
| Keywords: | Path Dependence; Urbanisation; Transportation; Colonialism |
| JEL: | R11 R12 R40 O18 O33 N97 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2014-02&r=afr |