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on Africa |
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Issue of 2007‒01‒23
four papers chosen by Suzanne McCoskey Foreign Service Institute, US Department of State |
| By: | Siv Gustafsson (Universiteit van Amsterdam); Seble Y. Worku (Universiteit van Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effects of local marriage markets on South African women’s marital decisions. The analysis is motivated by the low proportion of married among African mothers since 48% are never married. This means that the children of all these never married mothers have no access to their fathers' resources. The low sex ratio of 92 men to 100 women among Africans aged 20-40 makes us believe that shortage of marriageable men may explain marriage patterns. Economic theory predicts less attractive marital outcomes for women when the sex ratio is low. We analyze this hypothesis using the 2001 Census of South Africa. An ordered probit model is fitted with the different marital type ranked from less desirable (never married) to more attractive (married civil). The estimation results suggest that both the quantity and quality of marriageable men matter in the marital choice of women who have at least one child. Exposing African women to the White woman’s marriage market and the achievement of educational levels similar to those of Whites increase their probability of marriage by 8%, implying that only 44% of African women are expected to marry even given good marital opportunities and improved levels of education. |
| Keywords: | local marriage market; sex ratio; marriageable men; ordered probit; African; White |
| JEL: | D1 J1 |
| Date: | 2006–11–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20060102&r=afr |
| By: | Anne Briand (University of Rouen) |
| Abstract: | The model simulates on a 20-year horizon, a first phase of increase in the water resource availability taking into account the supply policies by the Senegalese government and a second phase with hydrologic deficits due to demand evolution (demographic growth). The results show that marginal cost water pricing (with a subsidy ensuring the survival of the water production sector) makes it possible in the long term to absorb the shock of the resource shortage, GDP, investment and welfare increase. Unemployment drops and the sectors of rain rice, market gardening and drinking water distribution grow. In contrast, the current policy of average cost pricing of water leads the long-term economy in a recession with an agricultural production decrease, a strong degradation of welfare and a rise of unemployment. This result questions the basic tariff (average cost) on which block water pricing is based in Senegal. |
| Keywords: | Computable General Equilibrium Model, Dynamic, Imperfect Competition, Water, Pricing, Sub Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | C68 O13 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2006.144&r=afr |
| By: | Juliane Brach (GIGA German Institute for Middle East Studies) |
| Abstract: | EU and twelve countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) engaged in 1995 in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) in political, economic and cultural matters with the aim to foster cooperation, stability, and prosperity around the Mediterranean Basin. The Economic and Financial Partnership (EFP) plays a central role in the EMP design and implementation, which is centered on economic and trade integration as a starting point for and an anchor of socioeconomic development in the MENA region. Against this background, this paper reviews the situation in the MENA partner countries and the past performance of the EFP. It analyzes the association agreements, economic cooperation and financial assistance, discusses the major obstacles, and outlines the potential of the EFP to shape the European Neighborhood Policy. |
| Keywords: | EU, Euro-Mediterranean partnership, Barcelona process, MENA, economic integration, socioeconomic development |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gig:wpaper:36&r=afr |
| By: | Ben Fredj, Imene; Schalck, Christophe |
| Abstract: | The relationship between financial development and economic growth were the subject of many recent theorical and empirical works [Shepherd, Hasan and Klapper, 2004; Gylfason, 2004; Rioja and Valev, 2003; Driffill, 2004; Haas, 2002; Carlin and Mayer, 2000]. These authors generally focused their analysis of the link finance- growth on the mature financial systems. As the Tunisian economy knew a long period of financial repression before starting the phases of liberalization, it would be more judicious to start by McKinnon and Shaw’s theory of “financial deepening” (1973) to then determinate the impact of Tunisian financial system development on economic growth. Indeed, McKinnon and Shaw were the first authors to analyze positive effects of financial liberalization policy on economic performance of less developed countries. To check the relevance of this assumption in Tunisian’s context, we built a model inspired of the model of King and Levine (1993) who by measuring instruments of economic and financial development appears good indicators of Tunisian economy’s financiarisation. The results of the empirical study on Tunisia stemming from causality tests within B-VAR framework nuance McKinnon and Shaw’s theorical contribution. Reciprocal relationships are only finding between the ratio of investment on the GDP and the loans granted to private and public sectors. The economic role of State is highlighted, over the period of pre-reforms as well as during the recent time. |
| Keywords: | financial repression; financial deepening; economic development; finance and growth; B-VAR |
| JEL: | O16 E44 G21 |
| Date: | 2004–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1436&r=afr |