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on Africa |
| By: | Jaime de Melo (UNIGE - Université de Genève = University of Geneva, FERDI - Fondation pour les Etudes et Recherches sur le Développement International) |
| Abstract: | Ever since their independence, African countries have engaged in a series of treaties creating 8 Regional Economic Communities (RECs) that were (and still are) to pilot this integration starting with a Free Trade Area (FTA) followed by a customs union, a common market, and a monetary union following a ‘variable geometry', along a ‘Minimum Integration Program' at different speeds. This introductory chapter summarizes takeaways from the essays collected in the booklet Essays on Africa's Integration: Prospects and Challenges for Markets and Regional Public Goods. |
| Keywords: | Regional integration - West Africa - ECOWAS - WAEMU - Trade negociations - Common trade policy - External common representation |
| Date: | 2025–08–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05199004 |
| By: | Dohse, Dirk; Fehrenbacher, Sophia |
| Abstract: | African innovators typically suffer from severe resource constraints and need to develop strategies to cope with these constraints. This paper focusses on external knowledge sourcing and, in particular, on the role of cooperation as a means to compensate for missing resources. Findings suggest that domestic inter-firm coop eration is of outstanding importance for firm-level innovation in Nigeria, whereas cooperation with other partners (research institutions, foreign firms, consultants, or the government) has no sizable impact on the innovative performance of Nigerian firms. Moreover, we show that it is in particular young firms and firms suffering from financial constraints that benefit from cooperation, whereas foreign-owned firms benefit less. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the drivers of firm-level innovation in sub-Saharan Africa and have important implications for firm strategies and innovation policy |
| Keywords: | Resource-constrained innovation, Knowledge sourcing, Inter-firm cooperation, Coactive learning, Africa |
| JEL: | D22 L25 O32 O36 O55 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkie:323982 |
| By: | Stender, Frederik; Vogel, Tim; Kornher, Lukas; Olekseyuk, Zoryana; Berndt, Sascha; Edele, Andreas |
| Abstract: | United States (US) trade policy has undergone a series of significant changes introducing far-reaching uncertainty for trading partners in both the short and long term. Among the most vulnerable to these changes are low- and middle-income countries. Anticipating the potential impact of proposed or enacted US trade measures ex-ante is difficult. Therefore, this discussion paper examines the structural vulnerabilities of a selection of African countries - Lesotho, Madagascar, Côte d'Ivoire, South Africa, and Tunisia - to recent shifts. Using descriptive trade data, the paper maps direct and indirect channels of exposure and highlights the structural constraints that amplify vulnerability. While Africa is not among the most directly exposed regions, several countries face significant risks due to concentrated export structures, reliance on a few trade partners, and limited capacity to redirect trade in the short term. This highlights the strategic importance for African countries to strengthen regional integration, industrial upgrading, and reduce external dependencies. |
| Keywords: | US trade policy, trade policy uncertainty, Africa, tariff vulnerability, structural trade exposure |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:diedps:324634 |
| By: | Daniel Tuki; |
| Abstract: | While scholarship on religious tolerance has grown, little is known about how (non)religious identity shapes prejudice in highly religious societies, particularly in the Global South. This study addresses that gap by analyzing Afrobarometer data from 39 African countries (n = 147, 351) to examine the relationship between religious affiliation and willingness to accept neighbors of different faiths. Contrary to expectations drawn from secularization and pluralism theories, I find that individuals without religious affiliation are significantly more likely to express religious prejudice than adherents of Islam, Christianity, traditional religions, and other faiths. I argue that in societies where religion is culturally hegemonic, non-religious individuals may experience symbolic exclusion or anticipate value imposition, fueling outgroup aversion. These findings extend theories of boundary-making and secular minority experience by illuminating how dominant religiosity can structure exclusionary attitudes even among those presumed to be more tolerant. |
| Keywords: | africa, outgroup hostility, prejudice, religion, religiosity |
| JEL: | D74 J16 Z12 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:435 |
| By: | C.O. Olaniyi (University of South Africa); N.M. Odhiambo (University of South Africa) |
| Abstract: | Purpose This study examines the moderating role of institutional quality and its threshold in the African financial development-economic complexity nexus. This objective follows the argument that institutional quality influences the financial system's efficiency in allocating resources to innovative initiatives and activities that increase productivity knowledge and technical capabilities in an economy's production system to produce complex products and exports. Design/methodology/approach To achieve these objectives, this study adopts novel and robust approaches such as the system generalized method of moments (GMM), the Driscoll-Kraay nonparametric covariance matrix estimator (DK), the method of moments quantile regression, and a dynamic panel threshold to analyze the annual dataset of 29 African countries covering 1995-2020. Findings This study establishes robust and persistent evidence of interdependence, intertwining, and heterogeneity among African countries. In addition, the study affirms long-run relationships among the variables through various estimators. Both mean-based (GMM and DK) and quantile regressions consistently demonstrate that financial development and institutional quality separately enhance Africa's economic complexity across quantiles. In contrast, institutional quality drains financial development's contribution to economic complexity when the coefficients are significant. The moment-quantile regression reveals that institutional quality complements financial development to support economic complexity from the 10th to 30th quantiles, but the coefficients are insignificant. The threshold estimation confirms nonlinearity and the institutional quality threshold estimate is 5.73 on the ordinal scale of 10. On average, only six African countries exceed the threshold, while others operate below the benchmark. Research limitations/implications Based on the findings, African financial systems operate within weak institutional frameworks. These phenomena allow rent-seeking, opportunism, corruption, and sharp practices, which divert financial resources from innovative activities and investments in research and development, human capital development, technology, high-tech infrastructure, and entrepreneurial innovation. As a result, Africa's institutional quality impairs the financial sector's ability to spur economic complexity upgrades. African economies need better institutional architectures to maximize financial development's benefits of upgrading economic complexity. The policy implications and recommendations of this study are more relevant to African settings and situations. Thus, other scholars are encouraged to conduct similar research for other continents to enrich the study’s outcomes. Originality/value The following are the highlights of this study's novelties: 1.) To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine the moderating role of institutional quality in the financial development-economic complexity nexus in Africa using estimators that account for cross-sectional dependence, distributional effects, and heterogeneous effects (the Driscoll-Kraay nonparametric covariance matrix estimator (DK) and the method of moment quantile regression). 2.) Unlike earlier research, this study establishes a threshold of institutional quality in the financial development-economic complexity nexus. We propose that the institutional structures that govern Africa's financial systems be examined and trimmed. This move helps to phase out the inherent inadequacies that drain financial development's contributions to economic complexity. |
| Date: | 2024–12–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:afa:wpaper:wp042024 |
| By: | Thiele, Rainer; Necker, Tomke; Spitzer, Cara |
| Abstract: | Multiple geopolitical disruptions have highlighted the need for firms to diversify their supply chains. For Germany and the EU, this might imply an increased reliance on Africa, the neighboring continent, for example when it comes to sourcing critical raw materials for the energy transition towards renewables. In this paper, we critically assess whether Africa can indeed play a significant role in Europe's strategy of diversifying supply chains and reducing its dependence on China in particular. |
| Abstract: | Eine Vielzahl geopolitischer Verwerfungen haben für Unternehmen die Notwendigkeit deutlich gemacht, Lieferketten stärker zu diversifizieren. Für Deutschland und die EU könnte dies zu einer stärkeren Hinwendung zum Nachbarkontinent Afrika führen, etwa wenn es darum geht, die Versorgung mit kritischen Rohstoffen für die Energiewende sicherzustellen. In diesem Artikel wird kritisch diskutiert, ob Afrika eine nennenswerte Rolle dabei spielen kann, Europas Lieferketten zu diversifizieren und insbesondere die Abhängigkeit von China zu reduzieren. |
| Keywords: | supply chains, critical raw materials, textiles and clothing, China, Africa |
| JEL: | F15 L67 L72 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkie:317904 |