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on Africa |
| By: | Durevall, Dick (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Lindskog, Annika (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the relationship between intimate partner violence and HIV among married women in sub-Saharan Africa. Using propensity score matching, we find a strong relationship. To investigate mechanisms, we split the sample according to spouse’s HIV status. Neither women with HIV-positive husbands nor those with HIV-negative husbands are more likely to be infected when subject to IPV. To find an effect the two samples have to be combined. Thus the relationship is explained by higher HIV risk among violent men. Neither women’s decreased ability to protect from HIV transmission within marriage, nor their risky sexual behavior explains the link. |
| Keywords: | Domestic violence; HIV; HIV epidemic; Intimate partner violence; Gender inequality; Sexual violence; Propensity score matching; Sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | I14 I15 J12 |
| Date: | 2013–03–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0563&r=afr |
| By: | Manfred Hafner (Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Bologna Center, Sciences Po Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA), Skolkovo Moscow School of Management, IEFE, Bocconi University, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Euro-Mediterranean Center for Climate Change, and International Energy Consultants (IEC)); Simone Tagliapietra (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei) |
| Abstract: | The geographical distribution of African natural gas resources is going through a period of profound change as new gas discoveries in East Africa emerge to reshape the continent's energy landscape. This region is rapidly establishing itself as a world-class natural gas province and two countries have already emerged as key-players of this new African natural gas renaissance: Mozambique and Tanzania. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the gas developments in the region, which could well become the next game-changer of the global gas market. |
| Keywords: | Natural Gas, East Africa, Energy Geopolitics, Hydrocarbons, Exploration and Production |
| JEL: | Q4 Q48 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2013.26&r=afr |
| By: | Ntim, Collins G |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between director shareownership and corporate performance in South Africa using a sample of 169 listed firms from 2002 to 2007. Our results suggest a statistically significant and positive association between director shareownership and corporate performance. By contrast, we find no evidence of a non-linear effect of director shareownership on corporate performance. Our findings are robust across a raft of econometric models that control for different types of endogeneity problems and corporate performance proxies. Overall, our results provide support for agency theory, which suggests that director shareownership can reduce agency problems by aligning more closely the interests of shareholders and corporate executives, and thereby improving corporate performance. |
| Keywords: | corporate governance, corporate performance, director shareownership, South Africa, endogeneity |
| JEL: | G32 G34 G38 |
| Date: | 2012–12–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45808&r=afr |
| By: | Ntim, Collins G. |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between an integrated corporate governance (CG) index and financial performance using a sample of 169 South African (SA) listed corporations between 2002 and 2007. We find a statistically significant and positive association between a broad set of good CG practices and financial performance. In a series of sensitivity analyses, we find that our results are robust to endogeneity, different financial performance proxies, alternative CG weighting scheme and firm-level fixed-effects. We further distinctively examine the link between complying with SA context specific stakeholder CG provisions and financial performance. In line with political cost and resource dependence theories, our results reveal a statistically significant and positive nexus between compliance with stakeholder CG provisions and financial performance. |
| Keywords: | corporate governance, corporate financial performance, affirmative action and stakeholder provisions, King II and South Africa, endogeneity |
| JEL: | G32 G34 G38 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45805&r=afr |
| By: | Moussa Diaby (CREM - Centre de Recherche en Economie et Management - CNRS : UMR6211 - Université de Rennes 1 - Université de Caen Basse-Normandie); Hélène Ferrer (CREM - Centre de Recherche en Economie et Management - CNRS : UMR6211 - Université de Rennes 1 - Université de Caen Basse-Normandie); Fabrice Valognes (CREM - Centre de Recherche en Economie et Management - CNRS : UMR6211 - Université de Rennes 1 - Université de Caen Basse-Normandie) |
| Abstract: | We consider in the present paper an original approach to a decision making problem related to the management of a primary resource, namely the rubber tree. By using the social choice theory through approval voting, we show that it is possible to improve the return of the crop. Hence, by selecting the best varieties to be planted with respect to some environmental constraints, we demonstrate that approval voting can be easily used (opposed to classical operation research methods) by the African rubber tree planters in order to get a plantation at peak performance. |
| Keywords: | Natural resource management; Rubber tree; Social choice; Group decision making |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00804065&r=afr |
| By: | Cecilia García-Peñalosa (AMSE - Aix-Marseille School of Economics - Aix-Marseille Univ. - Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole Centrale Marseille (ECM)); Maty Konte (AMSE - Aix-Marseille School of Economics - Aix-Marseille Univ. - Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole Centrale Marseille (ECM)) |
| Abstract: | A substantial literature has examined the determinants of support for democracy and although existing work has found a gender gap in democratic attitudes, there have been no attempts to explain it. In this paper we try to understand why females are less supportive of democracy than males in a number of countries. Using data for 20 Sub-Saharan African countries, we test whether the gap is due to individual differences in policy priorities or to country-wide characteristics. We find that controlling for individual policy priorities does not offset the gender gap, but those women who are interested in politics are more democratic than men. Furthermore, our results indicate that the gap disappears in countries with high levels of human development and political rights. |
| Keywords: | Support for democracy; gender gap; policy priorities; institutions |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00802838&r=afr |
| By: | Ntim, Collins G. |
| Abstract: | The post-Apartheid South African corporate governance (CG) model is a unique hybridisation of the traditional Anglo-American and Continental European-Asian CG models, distinctively requiring firms to explicitly comply with a number of affirmative action and stakeholder CG provisions, such as black economic empowerment, employment equity, environment, HIV/Aids, and health and safety. This paper examines the association between a composite CG index and firm value in this distinct corporate setting within a simultaneous equation framework. Using a sample of post-Apartheid South African listed corporations, and controlling for potential interdependencies among block ownership, board size, leverage, institutional ownership, firm value and a broad CG index, we find a significant positive association between a composite CG index and firm value. Further, our two-stage least squares results show that there is also a reverse association between our broad CG index and firm value, emphasising the need for future research to adequately control for potential interrelationships between possible alternative CG mechanisms and firm value. Distinct from prior studies, we find that compliance with affirmative action CG provisions impacts positively on firm value. Our results are consistent with agency, legitimacy, political cost, and resource dependence theoretical predictions. Our findings are robust across a number of econometric models that adequately control for different types of endogeneity problems, and alternative accounting, and market-based firm valuation proxies. |
| Keywords: | Corporate governance, Firm value, endogeneity, simultaneous equations, South Africa |
| JEL: | G32 G34 G38 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45804&r=afr |
| By: | Hannes Öhler; Peter Nunnenkamp |
| Abstract: | The regional allocation of aid within recipient countries has been largely ignored in the aid allocation literature. We use geocoded data on the location of aid projects financed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank within a sample of 27 recipient countries to assess the claim of donors that their aid targets needy population segments. We also assess whether political leaders in these countries direct aid funds to their home region, irrespective of regional needs. We do not find that the multilateral aid institutions take regional needs into account. Instead, favoritism appears to play an important role for location choices, in particular for physical infrastructure projects |
| Keywords: | aid allocation, within-country targeting, favoritism, World Bank, African Development Bank |
| JEL: | F35 F53 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1838&r=afr |
| By: | Jennifer Helgeson; Simon Dietz; Stefan Hochrainer-Stigler |
| Abstract: | When a natural disaster hits, the affected households try to cope with its impacts. A variety of coping strategies may be employed, from reducing current consumption to disposing of productive assets. The latter strategies are especially worrisome, as they may reduce the capacity of the household to generate income in the future, possibly leading to chronic poverty. In this paper, we use the results of a household survey in rural Uganda to ask, first, what coping strategies would tend to be employed in the event of a weather disaster, second, given that multiple strategies can be chosen, in what combinations would they tend to be employed, and, third, given that asset-liquidation strategies can be particularly harmful for the future income prospects of households, what determines their uptake? Our survey is one of the largest of its kind, containing over 3000 observations garnered by local workers using smart-phone technology. We find that in this rural sample by far the most frequently reported choice would be to sell livestock. This is rather striking, since asset-based theories would predict more reliance on strategies like eating and spending less today, which avoid disposal of productive assets. It may well be that livestock are held as a form of liquid savings to, among other things, help bounce back from a weather disaster. Yet we do find that other strategies, which might undermine future prospects, are avoided, notably selling land or the home, and disrupting the children’s education. Our econometric analysis reveals a fairly rich set of determinants of different subsets of coping strategies. Perhaps most notably, households with a more educated head are much less likely to choose coping strategies involving taking their own children out of education. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lsg:lsgwps:wp91&r=afr |
| By: | MISANGUMUKINI Nicaise |
| Abstract: | Ce papier se propose de mettre en exergue les facteurs qui expliquent pourquoi des chefs de ménage maliens objectivement non pauvres se déclarent subjectivement pauvres. Pour ce faire, l?étude exploite des données de l?Enquête Légère Intégrée auprès des Ménages (ELIM 2006). Il ressort des analyses que plus d?un tiers des chefs de ménage maliens, pourtant non pauvres au regard de l'indicateur de pauvreté objective peuvent être classés comme subjectivement pauvres. Un des premiers résultats frappant est qu'avoir un niveau de vie élevé ne semble pas influencer la perception subjective du bien être. Par contre, le sentiment de pauvreté chez les chefs de ménage maliens objectivement non pauvres est lié à l?avancée en âge, au fait d'avoir un faible niveau d?instruction et un état sanitaire insatisfaisant. L?insatisfaction des besoins minimums, le fait de se sentir discriminé ou d?avoir subi des chocs sont d?autres éléments qui influent sur la pauvreté subjective. |
| Keywords: | pauvreté; perception de la pauvreté; pauvreté subjective; chef de ménage; Mali |
| JEL: | C14 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2013-05&r=afr |
| By: | Céline Guimas (UP1 UFR02 - Université Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne - UFR d'Économie - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | For a better understanding of this study, I will explain why organic agriculture offers interesting potential for reducing poverty and why contract farming arrangement can be a successful tool for ful lling this potential. However, in order to fully evaluate the impacts of organic contract farming scheme, it is necessary to evaluate the spillovers on the local community, including people that do not directly participate in such scheme. One of these spillovers is the creation of employment opportunities and this is the focus of this study. An increase in labor demand may limit conversion to organic farming in country where labor supply is scarce. However, in a country like Uganda where rural poor are often underemployed and have no - or too little - land to meet their own needs, job creation is a positive and crucial contribution for poverty alleviation. Hence, if organic contract farming increases labor demand, this deserves to be emphasized. For now, existing literature has never studied this speci c consequence and thus, future research should rigorously quantify this effect on labor demand. My own study, though limited by data availability on farm labor input, is a rst step in this important investigation. I will use a simple farm-household model in order to illustrate how farmers determine their farm labor demand as well as their farm and off-farm labor supply. This model has really modest purposes and aims only to give the main intuition about how the participation in an organic contract farming scheme can modify these decisions. At last, the empirical analysis will provide support for the main hypothesis that is tested: organic contract farming scheme increases the farm labor demand. Yet, results suggest this does not come from more labor intensive organic farm practices but mainly comes from higher price and product quality that are associated with the participation in this organic contract farming arrangement. This study is structured as follows: Section 2 introduces potentials and challenges of organic agriculture and contract farming. Section 3 focuses on Uganda and on potential employment contribution. Section 4 presents the cocoa and vanilla organic contract farming scheme with the exporter Esco (U) Ltd. Section 5 is dedicated to a simple farm-household model. At last section 6 and 7, focus on the empirical investigation and its results. |
| Keywords: | marché du travail, agriculture biologique, Ouganda |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:dumas-00802135&r=afr |