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on Africa |
| By: | Levine, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | This paper draws on the work in Lesotho and Namibia of tracking progress towards cutting poverty in half by 2015, which is the key poverty target of the Millennium Development Goals. The paper serves at least two purposes. Firstly, it outlines the steps and methodological considerations involved in selecting appropriate national indicators and targets for measuring income poverty using household surveys and poverty lines based on observed consumption patterns. Secondly, it highlights some practical lessons and challenges for policy makers in southern Africa when they attempt to access and analyse poverty data under less than ideal circumstances. |
| Keywords: | Income poverty; poverty line; household budget survey; Millennium Development Goals; Lesotho; Namibia |
| JEL: | I32 O21 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:4932&r=afr |
| By: | Lena Giesbert (GIGA Institute of African Affairs) |
| Abstract: | Migration and remittances are widely seen as major components of diversification strategies aimed at coping with risky environments in developing countries. The debate in the literature mainly concentrates on effects of and access to the strategy of migration. Against this background, the paper investigates patterns, determinants and the impact of internal migration on households based on data from a densely populated rural area in Western Kenya. The motivation behind migration is largely economic in kind. Accordingly, remittances account for a substantial share of household incomes. Results derived from a probit model estimation indicate that the likelihood of migration is independent from the wealth position of households. Instead, demographic household factors, education-related variables and migrant networks are of central importance. Migration and remittances are obviously more easily accessible than other opportunities of income diversification beyond farming for households across all levels of wealth, including the poorest households. |
| Keywords: | Migration, remittances, income diversification, coping strategies, sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya. |
| JEL: | R23 Q12 D13 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gig:wpaper:58&r=afr |
| By: | Alex Sienaert |
| Abstract: | What drives migration and remittance behaviour in South Africa, and what are the implications for public policy? This paper evaluates existing empirical evidence, posits a simple theoretical model and undertakes a fresh evaluation using longitudinal data spanning 1993 to 2004 from KwaZula-Natal province. Findings generally accord with expectations if migration is a family income-optimising strategy, with remittances sustained by migrant altruism. The key policy-relevant result is that receipt of public transfer income raises the likelihood of migration (most likely because migration is costly and households face liquidity constraints) and hence crowds in private transfers on average. |
| Keywords: | South Africa, Migration, Remittances, Public Pensions |
| JEL: | J4 J61 H31 H55 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:351&r=afr |
| By: | Cátia Batista (University of Oxford and IZA); Aitor Lacuesta (Bank of Spain); Pedro C. Vicente (University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | Does emigration really drain human capital accumulation in origin countries? This paper explores a unique household survey purposely designed and conducted to answer this specific question for the case of Cape Verde - the African country with the largest fraction of tertiary educated population living abroad, despite also having a fast-growing stock of human capital. Unlike previous literature, our tailored survey allows us to adjust existing inflated "brain drain" numbers for educational upgrading of emigrants after migration. We do so by combining our survey data on current, return and non-migrants with information from censuses of the destination countries. Our micro data also enables us to propose a novel, explicit test of "brain gain" arguments according to which the possibility of own future emigration positively impacts educational attainment in the origin country. Crucially, the innovative empirical strategy we propose hinges on the ideal characteristics of our survey, namely on full histories of migrants and on a new set of exclusion restrictions to control for unobserved heterogeneity of emigrants. Our results point to a very substantial impact of the "brain gain" channel on the educational attainment of those left behind. Alternative channels (namely remittances, family disruption, and general equilibrium effects at the local level) are also considered, but these do not seem to play an important role. Overall, we find that there may be substantial human capital gains from allowing free migration and encouraging return migration. |
| Keywords: | brain drain, brain gain, brain circulation, international migration, human capital, effects of emigration in origin countries, household survey, Cape Verde, sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | F22 J24 O15 O55 |
| Date: | 2007–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3035&r=afr |
| By: | Brunt, Liam |
| Abstract: | In 1795 the British took control of the Cape colony (South Africa) from the Dutch; and in 1843 they exogenously changed the legal basis of landholding, giving more secure property rights to landholders. Since endowments and other factors were held constant, these changes offer clean tests of the effects on economic growth of colonial identity and secure property rights. The effects of both changes were immediate, positive and large. Other legal and institutional changes, such as the move to a common law system in 1827, had no such effects on economic growth. |
| Keywords: | Economic growth; Legal origins; Property rights |
| JEL: | N47 O43 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6404&r=afr |
| By: | Lourdes Diaz Olvera (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - [CNRS : UMR5593] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat]); Didier Plat (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - [CNRS : UMR5593] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat]); Pascal Pochet (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - [CNRS : UMR5593] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat]) |
| Abstract: | Que sait-on sur la marche à pied et sur les citadins africains qui la pratiquent quotidiennement, parfois sur de longues distances ? Finalement, assez peu de choses, tant les enquêtes classiques se concentrent sur les modes motorisés. Partant de ce constat, nous montrons, à l'aide d'enquête mobilité réalisées auprès de ménages de villes sahéliennes, que la marche constitue le mode le plus utilisé. Puis, sur l'exemple de Niamey, nous nous intéressons à mieux connaître la mobilité quotidienne des citadins ne se déplaçant qu'à pied pour la totalité de leurs déplacements. Population globalement défavorisée, les espaces urbains qu'elle fréquente se réduise le plus souvent à la proximité du domicile. En considérant le contexte de rareté de moyens existant dans ces villes, nous apportons quelques pistes pour une meilleure reconnaissance, par les politiques mises en œuvre, de la marche à pied comme mode essentiel dans l'organisation du système de transport et plus globalement dans le fonctionnement des villes au quotidien. |
| Keywords: | Marche à pied ; pauvreté ; Afrique subsaharienne ; Niamey |
| Date: | 2007–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00088005_v1&r=afr |
| By: | Lourdes Diaz Olvera (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - [CNRS : UMR5593] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat]); Didier Plat (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - [CNRS : UMR5593] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat]); Pascal Pochet (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - [CNRS : UMR5593] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat]) |
| Abstract: | La croissance démographique et la prédominance de l'habitat horizontal en Afrique de l'Ouest ont favorisé une forte extension spatiale des villes africaines qui rend de plus en plus difficiles les conditions de déplacement des citadins, particulièrement des pauvres. Ceux-ci se trouvent souvent refoulés dans des zones éloignées du centre, peu ou mal desservies en services urbains de base, avec des infrastructures routières généralement déficientes et des services de transport collectif limités en quantité et qualité. Pour ces citadins pauvres ne disposant pratiquement pas de véhicules de transport individuels et à la faible solvabilité financière, le risque est alors que la pauvreté se convertisse presque automatiquement en exclusion des emplois et des services urbains.<br />Les analyses que les auteurs ont entrepris sur les villes de Bamako, Niamey et Ouagadougou à partir d'enquêtes ménages réalisées dans les années 90 confirment globalement cette situation. Elles mettent en évidence des écarts sensibles de mobilité entre pauvres et « non pauvres », mais surtout des différences dans les conditions de réalisation de ces déplacements. La pratique quotidienne de la marche à pied est plus répandue chez les plus pauvres et leur mobilité est restreinte aux déplacements de proximité, avec cependant des pratiques de marche sur de longues distances. La majorité des actifs n'échappe pas à cette mobilité de proximité. Deux situations permettent cependant de compenser partiellement le manque de moyens économiques vis-à-vis des besoins de transport : le fait de résider dans des quartiers centraux, mieux équipés qu'en périphérie, et le fait de disposer d'un véhicule individuel, notamment d'un deux-roues motorisé ou d'un vélo. Par ailleurs, l'accès aux véhicules du ménage est inégalitaire au sein de l'unité résidentielle, la priorité étant donnée aux actifs, scolaires et étudiants. |
| Keywords: | Mobilité quotidienne ; enquêtes ménages ; conditions de déplacements ; besoins de transport ; pauvreté ; Dakar |
| Date: | 2007–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00088105_v1&r=afr |
| By: | Lourdes Diaz Olvera (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - [CNRS : UMR5593] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat]); Cissé Kane |
| Abstract: | Dans les villes d'Afrique subsaharienne, la crise économique s'est traduite par une pauvreté endémique des populations et, dans le secteur des transports, par un faible équipement des ménages en véhicules individuels et le désengagement des Etats en tant que fournisseur ou régulateur de l'offre de transport collectif. Avec une extension rapide de l'espace urbain, les citadins voient alors les distances de déplacement s'allonger et les solutions pour se déplacer diminuer, le seul mode de transport vraiment accessible à la grande majorité de la population étant la marche. |
| Keywords: | marche à pied ; pauvreté ; mobilité quotidienne ; déplacements urbains ; offre de transport collectif ; Afrique subsaharienne |
| Date: | 2007–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00080428_v1&r=afr |
| By: | Sharma, Siddharth |
| Abstract: | This paper uses firm level data from a cross-section of 57 countries to study how financial development affects innovation in small firms. The analysis finds that relative to large firms in the same industry, spending on research and development by small firms is more likely and sizable in countries at higher levels of financial development. The estimates imply that among firms doing research and development in a country like Romania, which is at the 20th percentile of financial development, a 1 standard deviation decrease in firm size is associated with a decrease of 0.7 standard deviations in research and development spending. In contrast, this decrease is only 0.2 standard deviations in a country like South Africa, which is at the 80th percentile of the distribution of financial development. Small firms also report producing more innovations per unit of research and development spending than large firms, and this gap is narrower in countries at higher levels of financial development. As a robustness check, the author shows that these patterns are stronger in industries inherently more reliant on external finance. |
| Keywords: | Debt Markets,Microfinance,,Access to Finance,E-Business |
| Date: | 2007–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4350&r=afr |
| By: | Lourdes Diaz Olvera (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - [CNRS : UMR5593] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat]); Didier Plat (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - [CNRS : UMR5593] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat]) |
| Abstract: | La mobilité, articulant la totalité des déplacements d'une unité de temps donnée, le plus souvent la journée, est alors le moyen de réaliser un ensemble d'activités localisées à la fois dans le temps et dans l'espace. La demande de transport dérive essentiellement d'une demande d'activités, localisées dans des lieux distincts, qu'on désigne par motif du déplacement. Les besoins de déplacement varient alors avec la position sociale de l'individu : hommes et femmes, riches et pauvres, jeunes et vieux, citadins de souche et villageois fraîchement arrivés n'ont ni les même modes de vie, ni les même usages de la ville. Décrire la mobilité du citadin moyen n'a ainsi que peu de sens, il importe plutôt de chercher les déterminants sociaux majeurs des comportements individuels. |
| Keywords: | mobilité quotidienne ; comportement de déplacement ; déplacements urbains ; demande de transport ; Afrique subsaharienne |
| Date: | 2007–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00080424_v1&r=afr |
| By: | Lourdes Diaz Olvera (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - [CNRS : UMR5593] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat]); Xavier Godard (DEST - Département Economie et Sociologie des Transports - [INRETS]) |
| Abstract: | Le thème de la pauvreté a suscité de nombreuses réflexions dans différents domaines de la connaissance, chacun faisant l'objet de conceptualisations et d'approches différentes. Si initialement la pauvreté était déterminée par le seul référentiel des ressources économiques, le consensus sur le caractère multidimensionnel de la pauvreté est en train de s'imposer, aussi bien dans les pays du Sud que du Nord. Il n'existe pas de définition unique de la pauvreté mais d'une manière très générale elle peut être considérée comme le manque de ressources (économiques, sociales, culturelles), de moyens pour se procurer un niveau minimum de nutrition, participer à la vie quotidienne dans la société et assurer la reproduction économique et sociale. |
| Keywords: | pauvreté ; mobilité ; rôle du transport |
| Date: | 2007–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00080445_v1&r=afr |
| By: | Marijke Verpoorten |
| Abstract: | The economic literature has given due attention to household coping strategies in peacetime. In contrast, little is known about such strategies in wartime. This paper studies the use of cattle as a buffer stock by Rwandan households during 1991-2001, a period characterized by civil war and genocide. It is found that the probability of selling cattle increases upon the occurrence of both peacetime and wartime covariant adverse income shocks. The peacetime cattle sales are largely explained by shifts in the household asset portfolio. In contrast, in 1994, the year of the genocide, almost half of the cattle sales were motivated by the need to buy food. However, we argue that the effectiveness of this coping strategy was severely reduced due to the wartime conditions. First, during the year of ethnic violence, cattle prices plummeted to less than half of their pre-genocide value. Second, we find that households most targeted in the violence did not sell cattle. We discuss several explanations for this latter finding. |
| Keywords: | Coping Strategies, Buffer Stock Model, Cattle, Violent Conflict, Rwanda |
| JEL: | D12 D91 O12 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lic:licosd:18907&r=afr |
| By: | James K. Boyce (University of Massachusetts Amherst) |
| Abstract: | In the wake of violent conflict, a key element of building a durable peace is building a state with the ability to collect and manage public resources. To implement peace accords and provide public services, the government must be able to collect revenue, allocate resources, and manage expenditure in a manner that is regarded by its citizens as effective and equitable. This paper addresses eight key issues related to this challenge. The first four pertain to resource mobilization: (i) How should distributional impacts enter into revenue policies? (ii) How can postwar external assistance do more to prime the pump of domestic revenue capacity? (iii) Should macroeconomic strictures prescribed for economic stabilization be relaxed to foster political stabilization? (iv) How should the benefits of external resources be weighed against their costs? The second four issues relate to the expenditure side of public finance: (i) How should the dynamics of conflict be factored into public spending policies? (ii) Can the pathologies of a ‘dual public sector’ – one funded and managed by the government, the other by the aid donors – be surmounted by channeling external resources through the government, with dual-control oversight mechanisms to reduce corruption? (iii) How should long-term fiscal sustainability enter into short-term expenditure decisions? (iv) Lastly, is there scope for more innovative solutions to postwar legacies of external debts? |
| Keywords: | peacebuilding; revenue mobilization; external assistance; foreign aid; post-conflict transitions; public expenditure; horizontal equity; odious debt. |
| JEL: | E61 E62 E63 F35 F51 F53 H20 H22 H50 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ums:papers:2007-09&r=afr |
| By: | Makoka, Donald; Kaluwa, Ben; Kambewa, Patrick |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the determinants of demand for private health insurance among formal sector employees in Malawi, a poor country with heavy pressure on under-funded free government health services. The study is based on membership in the Medical Aid Society of Malawi’s (MASM), three schemes, namely: the VIP, the best; the Executive, the intermediate; and the Econoplan, the minimum. The results indicate that formal sector employees prefer to receive medical treatment from private fee-charging health facilities, where health insurance would be relevant. The study finds that the probability of enrolling in any of MASM’s schemes increases with income and with age for the top and minimum schemes. More children and good health status reduce the probability of enrolling into the two lower schemes. The results suggest the potentially important roles that can be played by information and interventions that address the affordability factor such as through employer contributions that take into consideration income and family size. |
| Keywords: | Health insurance; MASM; Multinomial logit |
| JEL: | D1 I1 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:4974&r=afr |
| By: | Dercon, Stefan; De Weerdt, Joachim; Beegle, Kathleen |
| Abstract: | This paper presents unique evidence that orphanhood matters in the long run for health and education outcomes, in a region of Northwestern Tanzania. The paper studies a sample of 718 non-orphaned children surveyed in 1991-94, who were traced and re-interviewed as adults in 2004. A large proportion, 19 percent, lost one or more parents before the age of 15 in this period, allowing the authors to assess the permanent health and education impacts of orphanhood. The analysis controls for a wide range of child and adult characteristics before orphanhood, as well as community fixed effects. The findings show that maternal orphanhood has a permanent adverse impact of 2 cm of final height attainment and one year of educational attainment. Expressing welfare in terms of consumption expenditure, the result is a gap of 8.5 percent compared with similar children whose mother survived till at least their 15th birthday. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring & Evaluation,Street Children,Youth and Governance,Primary Education,Population Policies |
| Date: | 2007–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4353&r=afr |
| By: | Brigid Gavin |
| Abstract: | The European Union is currently concluding negotiations for Economic Partnership Agreements with 77 developing countries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions. The dilemma at the heart of those negotiations is how to reconcile the goal of poverty reduction and development with the substantial trade liberalisation involved. ACP counties have become marginalised in world trade over the past three decades while at the same time they have adopted outward–oriented trade policies and their economies have become increasingly open. Therefore, further trade liberalisation is unlikely to contribute much to development in any major way. Instead ACP countries should focus on domestic growth strategies. Each ACP region should identify its own priority growth sectors and adapt its own specific growth. |
| Keywords: | development, trade liberalisation, regional integration |
| Date: | 2007–06–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp224&r=afr |
| By: | Accolley, Delali |
| Abstract: | Cet article explore le modèle de Mundell –Fleming dans un régime de taux de change fixe. Ledit modèle suppose un équilibre simultané sur le marché des produits, de la monnaie et des changes. Nous nous sommes intéressés au cas du Togo pour étudier l’existence d’une relation d’équilibre de long-terme sur ces trois marchés au cours de la période 1983 - 2004. Les études indiquent l’absence de cointégration entre les variables macroéconomiques mises en relation. Le marché des changes, principalement, est en déséquilibre dû au fait que la prime de risque n’évolue pas en fonction de ses déterminants. Une solution pour remédier à cette distorsion serait soit une baisse du taux directeur de la BCEAO ou soit une réévaluation du Franc CFA. This article explores the Mundell-Fleming model with a fixed exchange rate. The afore-mentioned model supposes a simultaneous equilibrium in the goods, money, and currency exchange markets. We have been interested in the case of Togo to study the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship in these three markets over the time period 1983 - 2004. The studies point out the absence of cointégration between the macroeconomic variables put into relationship. Mainly, the currency exchange market is in disequilibrium due to the fact that the risk premium does not change according to its determinants. A solution to remedy this distortion would be either a decrease of the base rate of BCEAO or a revaluation of the CFA Franc. |
| Keywords: | Mundell Fleming; Taux de Change Fixe; Franc CFA; Togo |
| JEL: | F41 E12 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:4928&r=afr |
| By: | Eric Penot (INNOVATION - Changement technique, apprentissage et coordination dans l'agriculture et l'agroalimentaire - [CIRAD : UMR85]) |
| Abstract: | Les Balantes de la région de Tombali en Guinée Bissau ont développé un système social contraignant, basé sur le contrôle de la main d'oeuvre et la redistribution sociale des richesses et excédents selon un principe de réciprocité sur des bases sociales, fanado ou passage de classe et religieuses animistes : choro ou fête des morts. Ce système a fait ses preuves en maintes circonstances plutôt diversifiées (période coloniale, guerre d’indépendance, période Marxiste…), mais notre analyse montre qu'il manque de souplesse pour s'adapter aux nécessités économiques et aux lois du marché. L’intérêt matériel collectif a pu être préservé jusqu'à ce jour grâce au lien social particulier exigé par la riziculture de mangrove mais les interactions sont nombreuses et le système reste très fragile. L’identité Balante reste également très forte sur la base des liens de parenté qui tissent les structures de production avec les concessions regroupant plusieurs exploitations familiales liées par les liens du sang ou claniques |
| Date: | 2007–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:hal-00173323_v1&r=afr |