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on Africa |
| By: | Samson Gebrerufael (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield 0028, South Africa); Renee van Eyden (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield 0028, South Africa); Rangan Gupta (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield 0028, South Africa) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically evaluates the technological learning trajectory models of Porcile et al. (2023) across African countries categorized into three institutional regimes: developmental (Ethiopia, Mauritius, Rwanda), conflicting claims (Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Tunisia), and neoliberal (Seychelles, South Africa). Using panel ARDL modeling, the study investigates the impact of real effective exchange rate (REER) depreciation on technological learning-by-doing, proxied by the growth rate of export income elasticity (GIEX). The results show no significant learning effects in the developmental regime due to immediate equilibrium adjustment and insignificant coefficients of REER depreciation. The conflicting claims regime demonstrates the same results, driven by low-complexity export baskets. Conversely, the neoliberal regime achieves a relatively persistent short-lived technological learning. However, its long-run REER growth coefficient is negative, confirming that over-reliance on price competitiveness retards long-run growth per Thirlwall's law. Ultimately, state failure hinders heavy intervention regimes in Africa, whereas moving toward the neoliberal framework yields better short-run learning outcomes. |
| Keywords: | technological learning-by-doing, REER depreciation, income elasticity of exports, developmental regimes, state failure |
| JEL: | F13 F41 F14 O47 O11 O33 O30 O43 P48 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:202625 |
| By: | Zovighian, Diane; Raballand, Gael; Cogoli-Bel, Anne-Lise; Irhiam, Hend |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the prevalence and effectiveness of public sector reforms promoting performance-based incentives and greater autonomy in public administrations in Sub-Saharan Africa. Inspired by the New Public Management paradigm, these reforms have been widely adopted despite limited systematic evaluation of their results. The paper draws on data and information on the design, implementation, and performance of World Bank–financed public sector reform projects in Sub-Saharan Africa implemented between 2010 and 2023, complemented by four qualitative in-depth case studies. The analysis shows that over one-third of World Bank–financed public sector reform projects during this period included at least one New Public Management intervention. The performance of these interventions has, however, been uneven across contexts and reform types. Only 40 percent of the interventions were fully implemented. Performance varied considerably across reform types, with performance-based public financial management reforms performing comparatively better than agencification and performance-based pay reforms. The findings suggest that weaknesses in reform design—including insufficient attention to institutional capacity and implementation constraints as well as political economy dynamics—have contributed to these mixed outcomes. Case studies further show that New Public Management reforms are particularly difficult to sustain in fragile and neo-patrimonial contexts. The paper argues that the diffusion of New Public Management–inspired approaches has often outpaced the available evidence on their effectiveness and highlights the need for more context-sensitive and evidence-based approaches to public sector reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa. |
| Date: | 2026–09–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11457 |
| By: | Gasior, Katrin; Tasseva, Iva; Wright, Gemma |
| Abstract: | The effectiveness of social protection during economic shocks depends on two types of benefit: non-shock-responsive benefits, fixed prior to crisis, and automatic stabilisers, which adjust with income or employment losses. We analyse effectiveness in seven Sub-Saharan African countries using tax-benefit microsimulation models and household survey data. Simulating employment losses, we apply a decomposition framework to isolate the role of each benefit type. We find that high pre-crisis coverage of non-shock-responsive benefits in Ghana and Zambia and income related automatic stabilisers in South Africa provide an income floor for poor households. South Africa’s unemployment insurance further mitigates losses among better-off households. In con trast, limited protection is available in Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, where benefits are modest, coverage gaps substantial, and automatic stabilisers ineffective due to ab sent unemployment insurance, reliance on proxy means-tests, and narrow eligibility. |
| Keywords: | social protection benefits;non-shock-responsive benefits;automatic stabilisers;economic shocks;poverty |
| JEL: | H55 D31 |
| Date: | 2025–10–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:140838 |
| By: | May, Liz |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:140864 |
| By: | Tara Bedi (Trinity College Dublin and TIME); Anu Jose (University of Galway); Michael King (Trinity College Dublin and TIME); Samuel McArdle (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)) |
| Abstract: | Natural disasters impose high and lasting psychological costs, yet the distribution of these costs within households remains poorly understood. Using a unique panel dataset of couples in Malawi, this paper examines the effect of Cyclone Idai damage on couples' mental health. We find that female spouses experience a 5.65% erosion in self‐efficacy five to seven months after the cyclone, while their husbands show no significant change. We find no significant effects on depression or stress‐related disability for either spouse. To explain this gender divergence in self‐efficacy, we investigate differential access to labour market coping strategies. Following severe cyclone‐related losses, husbands are 14.5% more likely to engage in wage employment and report 26.8% higher wage earnings relative to husbands in low‐loss households, whereas wives' participation in income‐generating activities remains unchanged. Together, these findings show that the psychological effects of the disaster are gender‐differentiated within the household, and differential labour market opportunities may explain the divergent psychological outcomes observed between spouses. These patterns have implications for the design of disaster response and social protection policies. |
| Keywords: | Natural Disasters, Mental Health, Intrahousehold, Gender, Labour |
| JEL: | D13 D15 Q54 I10 I30 I32 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep1726 |