nep-afr New Economics Papers
on Africa
Issue of 2007‒02‒03
eight papers chosen by
Suzanne McCoskey
Foreign Service Institute, US Department of State

  1. International Competitiveness of Manufacturing Firms in sub-Saharan Africa By Fukunishi, Takahiro
  2. Mass Unemployment in South Africa: A Comparative Study with East Asia By Hirano, Katsumi
  3. Does Aid for Education Educate Children? Evidence from Panel Data By Axel Dreher; Peter Nunnenkamp; Rainer Thiele
  4. Poverty Analysis of Ethiopian Females in the Amhara Region: Utilizing BMI as an Indicator of Poverty By Kodama, Yuka
  5. Who Develops Innovations in Medicine for the Poor? Trends in Patent Applications Related to Medicines for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Neglected Diseases By Ito, Banri; Yamagata, Tatsufumi
  6. Trade, Standards, and Poverty: Evidence from Senegal By Miet Maertens; Jo F.M. Swinnen
  7. Microfinance in post-disaster and post-conflict situations: Turning victims into shareholders By Marek Hudon; Hans Dieter Seibel
  8. Innovation in International Law and Global Finance: Estimating the Financial Impact of the Cape Town Convention By Ingo Walter; Anthony Saunders; Anand Srinivasan

  1. By: Fukunishi, Takahiro
    Keywords: Manufacturing exports, International competitiveness, Sub-Saharan Africa, Manufacturing industries, Exports, International competition, Business enterprises, Africa
    JEL: F14 L60 O14 O55
    Date: 2006–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper2&r=afr
  2. By: Hirano, Katsumi
    Keywords: Employment, Unemployment, South Africa, Malaysia
    Date: 2006–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper6&r=afr
  3. By: Axel Dreher (Department of Management, Technology, and Economics, ETH Zurich); Peter Nunnenkamp (The Kiel Institute for the World Economy); Rainer Thiele (The Kiel Institute for the World Economy)
    Abstract: This paper empirically analyzes the impact of aid on education for about 100 countries over the period 1970-2005. We estimate a system of equations to test whether and to what extent the impact of sector-specific aid on educational attainment depends on (i) the extent to which aid adds to overall educational expenditure of the recipient government, (ii) the strength of the link between government expenditure and education, (iii) the quality of institutions in the recipient country, and (iv) whether aid encourages institutional reforms. According to our results, aid significantly increases primary school enrolment. This result is robust to the method of estimation, employing instruments to control for the endogeneity of aid, and the measure of institutional quality employed. The degree of institutional quality, however, has no robust impact on this relationship.
    Keywords: Aid effectiveness, Education, Sector-specific aid
    JEL: F35 O11 H52 I22
    Date: 2006–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:06-146&r=afr
  4. By: Kodama, Yuka
    Abstract: This paper analyzes poverty-affected females in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. As the measurement of poverty, the paper uses body mass index (BMI) because it is one of the effective tools for measuring individual poverty level. The results of the BMI analysis show that the most poverty-affected female group is the female household heads in urban areas. The results, however, should be treated carefully considering the different social and economic structure of urban and rural areas, and the interdependent relationship between these two areas. In rural areas, access to land is the biggest issue affecting the BMI, while in urban areas, the occupation of husbands or partners is more important. These differences by area do not mean that there is no intersection between the urban and rural female groups because the majority of females in urban areas migrated from rural areas to urban areas due to various reasons such as divorce, marriage, and job opportunities.
    Keywords: BMI, Poverty, Female household head, Ethiopia, Amhara, Women, Rural survey
    JEL: D31 I32 J12
    Date: 2007–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper80&r=afr
  5. By: Ito, Banri; Yamagata, Tatsufumi
    Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, Neglected diseases, Patents, Medicine, Knowledge production, Diseases, Medical care, Developing countries
    JEL: I19 L65 O31 O34
    Date: 2006–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper24&r=afr
  6. By: Miet Maertens; Jo F.M. Swinnen
    Abstract: An emerging literature on standards, global supply chains, and development argues that enhanced quality and safety standards are major trade barriers for developing country exports and cause the marginalization of small businesses and poor households in developing countries. This paper is the first to quantify income and poverty effects of such high-standards trade and to integrate labor market effects, by using company and household survey data from the vegetable export chain in Senegal. First, horticultural exports from Senegal to the EU have grown sharply over the past decade, despite strongly increasing food standards in the EU. Second, these exports have strong positive effects on poor households’ income. We estimate that these exports reduced regional poverty by around 12 percentage points and reduced extreme poverty by half. Third, tightening food standards induced structural changes in the supply chain including a shift from smallholder contract-based farming to large-scale integrated estate production. However, these changes mainly altered the mechanism through which poor households benefit: through labor markets instead of product markets. Moreover, the impact on poverty reduction is stronger as the poorest benefit relatively more from working on large-scale farms than from contract farming. These findings challenge several basic arguments in this research field.
    Date: 2006
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lic:licosd:17706&r=afr
  7. By: Marek Hudon (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and Harvard University, Boston.); Hans Dieter Seibel (University of Cologne)
    Abstract: In recent years, large numbers of developing and transitional countries have ex¬peri¬enced situations of crisis, following political, economic or natural disasters, or total crisis, triggered by war or totalitarian oppression. The goal of this article is to study the role of member-owned institutions (MOIs) in the provision of the reparations for victims of human rights abuses or reconstruction in post-conflict and post-disaster situations. We argue that grants usually awarded for reconstruction in post-conflict areas or for reparations payments in post-disaster areas could be best turned into equity and deposits to foster MOIs. MOIs are found to be an appropriate institutional framework, to make the benefits of one-off payments more sustainable and also reinforce the financial sector.
    Keywords: microfinance, conflict, disaster, repayment, human right.
    JEL: L31 M54 O16 Q14
    Date: 2007–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:07-002&r=afr
  8. By: Ingo Walter; Anthony Saunders; Anand Srinivasan
    Date: 2006
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ste:nystbu:06-30&r=afr

This nep-afr issue is ©2007 by Suzanne McCoskey. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.
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