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on Africa |
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Issue of 2006‒07‒09
six papers chosen by Suzanne McCoskey Foreign Service Institute, US Department of State |
| By: | Juan R. de Laiglesia |
| Abstract: | High quality institutions lower transaction costs, encourage trust, reinforce property rights and avoid the exclusion of sections of the population. Overcoming institutional bottlenecks that constrain entrepreneurial activities and the development of the private sector is a prerequisite for achieving pro-poor growth, in particular in Africa. As part of the Development Centre’s Work Programme 2005/2006 on institutional requirements for advancing peace and development in sub-Saharan-Africa, this explorative study sets the stage for forthcoming indepth case studies in Ghana and Cameroon. <BR>La médiocre performance de l’agriculture africaine est à mettre au compte non seulement d’une donnée naturelle difficile et d’une histoire de politiques extractives, mais aussi de goulots d’étranglement institutionnels fondamentaux. Ce document de travail présente un cadre pour l’analyse des goulots d’étranglement empêchant le développement agricole en Afrique sub- Saharienne. Il passe en revue la littérature au sujet des institutions et du développement agricole afin d’identifier les principaux obstacles institutionnels auxquels l’agriculture africaine fait face. |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:devaaa:248-en&r=afr |
| By: | Habiyaremye, Alexis (UNU-MERIT); Ziesemer, Thomas (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the extent to which dependence on primary commodities in Sub-Saharan African(SSA) countries can be explained by low levels of absorptive capacity (the ability to acquire, internalize and utilize knowledge developed elsewhere). We examine the individual and combined effects of various indicators of absorptive capacity on export diversification. We test the significance of these effects on a sub-sample consisting of SSA countries and a sample of other developing countries. Our results show that the association between higher levels human capital and basic infrastructure -two crucial components of absorptive capacity -with more export diversification is subject to threshold level effects, while the abundance of natural resources turns out to be impeding diversification in SSA. These results imply that SSA countries need to substantially increase their investments in basic infrastructure as well as reinforce the accumulation pace of human and physical capital to allow active technological learning and reduce their dependence on primary commodities. |
| Keywords: | absorptive capacity, human capital, capital accumulation, export diversification, Sub-Saharan Africa. |
| JEL: | O13 O33 O55 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2006030&r=afr |
| By: | Hildegunn Ekroll Stokke (Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of a natural resource boom on structural change and real exchange rate dynamics, taking into account the indirect effect via relative sectoral productivity changes. Our contribution relative to the Dutch disease literature is threefold. First, the productivity specification is extended from simple learning by doing to include trade barriers and technology gap dynamics, consistent with the modern understanding of productivity growth. Second, we offer a dynamic general equilibrium model with imperfect substitution between domestic and foreign goods. Third, the model is applied to South Africa and analyzes the macroeconomic impact of the gold price increase in the 1970s. Political pressure for rapid domestic spending after a surge in resource rents tends to generate myopic government behavior with unsustainable high consumption spending. Such fiscal response to higher resource income is captured by the model specification. Numerical simulations show how the resource boom can help explain the structural change and real exchange rate path observed in South Africa. Due to productivity effects the initial real appreciation is followed by gradual depreciation of the real exchange rate. |
| Keywords: | gold price boom;Dutch disease;trade barriers;fiscal response;deindustrialization |
| JEL: | O33 O41 O55 Q33 |
| Date: | 2006–05–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nst:samfok:7206&r=afr |
| By: | Subrata Ghatak; José R. Sánchez-Fung |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates fiscal policy sustainability in Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, and Venezuela using competing methodologies. Standard unit roots and cointegration analyses do not endorse the validity of the intertemporal budget constraint. In contrast, to varying degree across-countries, alternative testing employing a fiscal policy reaction function indicates sustainability defined as surplus adjustments in response to higher debt to income ratios. Corresponding debt-dynamics analyses show that corrective measures were put in place to revert non-sustainable trends in government debt. However, ancillary variables in the debt modeling produce statistically weak evidence of procyclical fiscal behavior in the Latin American countries. |
| Keywords: | fiscal policy sustainability, fiscal policy reaction functions, developing countries |
| Date: | 2006–03–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:dpaper:384&r=afr |
| By: | de Walque, Damien |
| Abstract: | Most analyses of the determinants of HIV infection are performed at the individual level. The recent Demographic and Health Surveys which include results from HIV tests allow studying HIV infection at the level of the cohabiting couple. The paper exploits this feature of the data for Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania. The analysis yields two surprising findings about the dynamics of the HIV/AIDS epidemic which have important implications for policy. First, at least two-thirds of the infected couples are discordant couples, that is, couples where only one of the two partners is infected. This implies that there is scope for prevention efforts among couples. Second, between 30 and 40 percent of the infected couples are couples where the female partner only is infected. This is at odds with levels of self-reported marital infidelity by females and with the common perception that unfaithful males are the main link between high risk groups and the general population. This study investigates and confirms the robustness of these findings. For example, even among couples where the woman has been in only one union for 10 years or more, the fraction of couples where only the female partner is infected remains high. These results suggest that extramarital sexual activity among cohabiting women, whatever its causes, is a substantial source of vulnerability to HIV that should be, as much as male infidelity, targeted by prevention efforts. Moreover, this paper uncovers several inconsistencies between the sexual behaviors reported by male and female partners, suggesting that as much as possible, prevention policies should rely on evidence including objectively measured HIV status. |
| Keywords: | AIDS HIV,HIV AIDS and Business,Health Monitoring & Evaluation,Health Service Management and Delivery,Poverty and Health |
| Date: | 2006–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3956&r=afr |
| By: | Jan Peter Wogart (University of Applied Sciences, Bremen) |
| Abstract: | By using a game theoretical approach and the notion of “forum” or “regime shifting” this paper examines the multiple interfaces of the multinational pharmaceutical corporations (MNPCs) with their major counterparts at home and abroad, including the governments of the North and South, the international organizations and increasingly with national and international NGOs in the context of the spreading HIV/AIDS crisis. It shows how the execution of the MNPCs’ strategies led to significant reactions from other actors, which led to further moves and countermoves in a strategic battle between representatives of the North and the South in the global health arena. |
| Keywords: | Multinational Pharmaceutical Corporations (MNPCs), HIV/AIDS, global health governance, pricing of ARVs; |
| JEL: | I K |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gig:wpaper:24&r=afr |