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on Africa |
| By: | Vallejo, Bertha |
| Abstract: | Despite the interest in African industrialization, sub-Saharan Africa’s path towards science, technology and innovation (STI)-led development has been slow. The underdeveloped capacity for dynamic interactions among the actors in the innovation system (i.e., firms, knowledge centers, governments, and civil society) has contributed to this slow development. Innovation capacity results from technological efforts by firms over time, but these efforts should align with the firms’ characteristics and environment. The large pool of small and medium firms in African manufacturing should be considered when designing STI policies. The context within which these policies are implemented is critical for the evolution of the innovation system and the dynamism of its actors. |
| JEL: | O14 O39 O55 |
| Date: | 2024–08–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2024019 |
| By: | Hirvonen, Kalle; Machado, Elia; Simons, Andrew M. |
| Abstract: | Violent conflict and political instability are escalating worldwide, with Africa experiencing some of the most severe challenges. The region, home to 60% of the world’s poor (World Bank 2023), saw statebased armed conflict events nearly triple between 2007 and 2023 (Rustad 2024), while protests more than quadrupled from 2007 to 2019 (OECD 2021). Over this period, poverty reduction in Africa has been particularly sluggish in fragile and conflict-affected areas (Beegle et al. 2018a), likely due to the substantial economic losses associated with violent conflict and civil unrest. |
| Keywords: | conflicts; public works; risk assessment; violence; Ethiopia; Africa; Eastern Africa |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:cgiarp:163420 |
| By: | Prince P. Asaloko (Yaoundé, Cameroon); Simplice A. Asongu (Johannesburg, South Africa); Cédrick M. Kalemasi (Yaoundé, Cameroon); Thomas G. Niyonzima (Yaoundé, Cameroon) |
| Abstract: | Purpose – The role of renewable energy is increasingly seen as a means of promoting women's economic participation and improving their health by rebalancing climate degradation. Design/methodology/approach – To shed light on this relationship, we assess the capacity of renewable energy to reduce the negative impact of climate vulnerability on women's economic empowerment and health, using the GMM estimator for 36 African countries over the period 1990-2021. Findings – The empirical results show that: (i) climate vulnerability reduces economic empowerment and (ii) climate vulnerability increases child mortality. These results are mitigated by the use of renewable energy. (iii) The use of renewable energy mitigates the negative impact of climate vulnerability on women's economic empowerment. (iv) Renewable energy use also reduces the pressure of climate vulnerability on child mortality. In addition, we take into account regional heterogeneities and find distinct effects. Our results remain stable after further robustness testing. Originality/value – Renewable energy thresholds are provided at which climate vulnerability no longer reduces women’s socio-economic wellbeing. |
| Keywords: | Renewable energy, climate vulnerability, women's economic empowerment, women's health, infant mortality and Africa |
| Date: | 2024–01–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aak:wpaper:24/016 |
| By: | Alanda Venter (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa); Roula Inglesi-Lotz (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa) |
| Abstract: | For most developing countries, energy reliability has remained a persistent challenge throughout the last few decades. Energy reliability challenges - loadshedding, in this case, has been a phenomenon since 2008 in South Africa and peaked in 2023 when the country experienced 6950 hours of load shedding in a single year. Like many developing countries, South Africa's government uses foreign direct investment to increase development within their economies; however, electricity supply challenges hinder the country's attractiveness to foreign direct investment. Adequate institutional quality conditions can assist in both improving electricity supply and market attractiveness. This study assesses the relationship between electricity supply and inward foreign direct investment in the presence of good institutional quality conditions. A structural Bayesian VAR is used in the study to obtain impulse response functions that indicate the presence of favourable institutional conditions initially has a positive effect on the electricity supply. The improvement in electricity supply then results in a positive impact on inward foreign direct investment. |
| Keywords: | Institutional Quality, Foreign Direct Investment, Inward- Foreign Direct Investment, Electricity supply, Electricity generation shortages |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:202505 |
| By: | Mukashov, Askar; Mbuthia, Juneweenex; Omune, Lensa; Jones, Eleanor; Thurlow, James |
| Abstract: | This study explores Kenya’s vulnerability to economic and climatic shocks and identifies those contributing most to economic uncertainty. The Kenyan Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model was employed to simulate a range of potential economic outcomes under various sampled shock scenarios developed using historical data to capture domestic agricultural yield volatilities and world market prices uncertainty for traded goods. Data mining and machine learning methods were applied to quantify the contribution of each shock to the uncertainty of economic outcomes (gross domestic product [GDP], private consumption, poverty, and undernourishment). Key findings suggest that domestic yield volatility is the key risk factor for GDP and urban consumption and poverty, while external risks, particularly world beverage crop prices, are more significant for rural consumption and poverty. As the majority of those below the poverty line are rural farmers, world beverage price volatility is the top risk for national poverty levels. Finally, for undernourishment outcomes, domestic cereal yield volatility is the dominant risk factor for all household types. Understanding how possible shocks would impact various segments of the Kenyan economy and population is a critical first step in facilitating discussions on relevant risk mitigation strategies, such as increasing average crop yields, adopting technologies and practices that narrow yield uncertainties, or diversifying production away from risky crops and sectors. |
| Keywords: | climate; shock; market prices; computable general equilibrium models; agriculture; crop yield; poverty; nutrition; machine learning; risk assessment; Kenya; Africa; Eastern Africa |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ewracb:2 |