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on Africa |
| By: | Pádraig Carmody, Trinity College Dublin And Godfrey Hampwaye, University of Zambia |
| Abstract: | Sub-Saharan Africa's economy grew rapidly from 2004 to 2008, largely driven by Asian investment and trade. While much investment has been in primary commodities, Asian-owned manufacturing and other businesses in Africa, despite growing rapidly, have received very little attention. Using survey research, and other primary and secondary data this paper investigates the nature and impacts of Asian businesses in Zambia to interrogate whether their developmental impacts are inclusive or exclusionary. It then moves to assess the likely impact of the current global slowdown and how this will impact on Sino-Zambian economic relations. |
| Date: | 2009–08–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp297&r=afr |
| By: | Beck, Thorsten; Fuchs, Michael; Uy, Marilou |
| Abstract: | In spite of shallow financial markets, Sub-Saharan Africa will not escape the repercussions of the global financial crisis. The global turmoil threatens the progress Sub-Saharan Africa has made in financial sector deepening and broadening over the recent years and underlines the importance of continuing and deepening the necessary institutional reforms. In this context it is important to define the role of government in expanding financial sectors in a sustainable and market-friendly manner. Foreign banks have brought more benefits than risks for their host economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, but are certainly not a panacea and not a substitute for institutional and policy reform. The profile of foreign banks, however, has changed, with more and more regional banks emerging. This trend toward regional integration is promising as it might allow the small African financial system to reap benefits from scale economies, but it also requires regulatory and supervisory improvements and coordination across the region. |
| Keywords: | Banks&Banking Reform,Debt Markets,Access to Finance,,Emerging Markets |
| Date: | 2009–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5020&r=afr |
| By: | Fofack, Hippolyte |
| Abstract: | Over the decades leading to the global financial crisis, the world witnessed a deepening integration of world economies, irrespective of a country’s geographical location on the spherical space. This process of increasing interdependence of world economies, most notably illustrated by the scale of financial flows and movements of goods and services now termed globalization, has been facilitated by research and development and advances in technology, especially in the area of information and communication technology. In spite of its global nature, its expected benefits have not been uniformly distributed, however. This paper shows that the countries and regions that are driving the process of knowledge creation and production of high-tech and manufactured goods, building on frontier technology, are benefiting the most from globalization, increasingly acting as drivers and relegating Sub-Saharan Africa to the end-user status. In this process, the income gap between Sub-Saharan Africa and the globalizers has increased even more. However, the paper also shows that raising the level of technological endowment in Sub-Saharan Africa to that of developed countries could go a long way to bridge Africa's output gaps and improve its export performance in the new globalization landscape of the post-financial crisis era. |
| Keywords: | Debt Markets,Emerging Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Currencies and Exchange Rates, |
| Date: | 2009–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5019&r=afr |
| By: | Edwards, Lawrence; Rankin, Neil A.; Schöer, Volker |
| Abstract: | Policies to stimulate export growth and diversify the composition of exports in South Africa are now high on the government’s agenda. In order to understand exporting and its impact on job creation, one needs to understand how firms function, what determines, or constrains, exporting at the firm level and the links between export behaviour and labour demand. An understanding of these relationships, particularly over time, is also essential for the implementation and evaluation of export related policies. This paper reviews the evidence on South African exporting firms, highlighting what we know, and what we do not know. A key conclusion is that our understanding of firm level export behaviour is severely constrained by the lack of adequate firm data, particularly panel data. |
| Keywords: | South Africa; exports; firms |
| JEL: | D21 F12 F14 D24 F19 |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:16906&r=afr |
| By: | South-South Learning Unit (IPC-IG) |
| Keywords: | Good Perspectives,Social Protection, Angola |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:pubipc:1749840&r=afr |
| By: | Micheal Plante (Indiana University, Ball State University) |
| Abstract: | This paper considers monetary and scal policy responses to oil price shocks in low income oil importing countries. I examine the dynamic properties and the welfare implications of a set of ination targeting policies and a group of policies where the government provides a subsidy on household purchases of oil products and nances this subsidy through some combination of printing money and raising non-distortionary lump sum taxes. Even in the case where lump sum taxes nance the subsidy, it distorts household behavior in important ways leading to over consumption of oil products, increased trade decits, and distortions to the labor supply. Resorting to the ination tax to nance the subsidy leads to signicant macroeconomic issues when exchange rates are exible. The welfare gains from a policy that nances the subsidy through lump sum taxation are small compared to the policy with full pass through. For most calibrations the losses from nancing the policy through the ination tax are substantial. The welfare generated by the ination targeting policies is close to the baseline policy with full pass through so long as the response to ination is strong enough. |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inu:caeprp:2009-017&r=afr |