|
on Africa |
| By: | Maria Kuecken (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne); Marie-Anne Valfort (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | Using a within-student analysis, we find no average impact of textbook access (ownership or sharing) on primary school achievement. Instead, it is only for students with high socioeconomic status that one form of textbook access - sharing - has a positive impact. |
| Keywords: | Textbooks; Educational quality; Sub-Saharan Africa; SACMEQ |
| Date: | 2013–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00828418&r=afr |
| By: | Danthe Damián Valderrama Menes (Departamento de Historia contemporánea - Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) |
| Abstract: | The study of the southern economies, among which emerging countries such as Brazil and several of Africa stand out, has acquired increasing international importance. In this article south-south cooperation between the South American giant and Sub-Saharan Africa is analyzed, focusing on the relations between Brazil and three African countries: Angola, Mozambique and South Africa. |
| Keywords: | Brazil, Sub Saharan Africa, Cooperation, South-south relations, Emerging economies, IBSA, South Africa, Angola, Mozambique |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00825695&r=afr |
| By: | Essers, Dennis; Cassimon, Danny |
| Abstract: | Sub-Saharan African governments have made significant progress in developing domestic local currency bond markets over the last decade. While this bodes well for their countries’ economic resilience and facilitates necessary investments, many challenges remain. |
| Keywords: | Africa |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iob:apbrfs:2013001&r=afr |
| By: | Monica Beuran; Marie Castaing Gachassin (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne); Gaël Raballand (The World Bank) |
| Abstract: | As planned large investments in road infrastructure continue to be high on the agenda of many African countries, only few of these countries have actually ammended their investments strategy. In many cases, there seems to be a preference for a status quo that can easily be explained by political economy factors driving the policies in the sector. This paper first presents data on the state of roads in Sub-Saharan Africa (length, density, condition) as well as on investments in the sector over the last decades. It then demonstrates how most countries' strategies are based on some misperceptions and recommends some changes to improve the developmental impact of roads investments. Better prioritization of investments, better procurement and contract management, better projects implementation and better monitoring are still needed, in spite of the efforts observed in the last 10 years. |
| Keywords: | Transport, roads, Sub-Saharan Africa, strategy, infrastructure, procurement. |
| JEL: | H41 O18 O55 R42 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:13049&r=afr |
| By: | Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel; Chiripanhura, Blessing |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impacts of the financial, food and fuel crises on the livelihoods of low-income households Nigeria. It uses primary household level data from Nigeria to analyse the impacts of induced price variability on household welfare. Our results indicate that aggregate shocks have significant adverse effects on household consumption, human capital, and labour decisions with a degree of impact variability between northern and southern regions of the country. We find that the coping strategies adopted by the poor to deal with the short-term effects of the crises, and which include substitution for lower quality food, increasing the intensity of work, withdrawing children from school – especially girls – and engaging children in child labour, can lock households in a low-income equilibrium or poverty trap. Provided that covariate shocks exacerbate these effects, tackling the effects of covariate risks becomes central for present and future development policy. |
| Keywords: | food; fuel; financial crisis; poverty; vulnerability; sub-Saharan Africa; Nigeria |
| JEL: | O11 O15 O55 |
| Date: | 2013–05–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:47348&r=afr |
| By: | Holden, Stein (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences) |
| Abstract: | This study uses simple non-separable farm household models calibrated to household, market, farming and policy context conditions in Central and Southern Malawi. The models are used to simulate how household characteristics, design and access to input subsidies affect the demand for improved maize seeds; how increasing land scarcity affects the cropping system and demand for improved maize; and how access to improved maize seeds affects household welfare with varying access to input subsidies. The model simulations demonstrate that a) there is a high risk that access to subsidized improved maize seeds can crowd out commercial demand for improved maize seeds but the effect is very sensitive to household characteristics, market characteristics and relative prices; b) increasing land scarcity increases the demand for improved maize seeds and improved maize facilitates intensification among others through intercropping of maize with legumes such as beans and pigeon peas; c) the welfare effects depend on households’ ability to utilize the potential of the improved varieties by combining them with complementary inputs. |
| Keywords: | Improved maize varieties; input subsidies; impact on seed demand; land scarcity; intensification; cash constraints; household welfare |
| JEL: | Q12 Q16 Q18 |
| Date: | 2013–06–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsclt:2013_006&r=afr |
| By: | Ben Jebli, Mehdi; Ben Youssef, Slim |
| Abstract: | We use panel cointegration techniques to examine the relationship between renewable energy consumption, trade and output in a sample of 11 African countries covering the period 1980-2008. The results from panel error correction model reveal that there is evidence of bidirectional causality between output and exports and between output and imports in both the short-run and the long-run. However, in the short-run, there is no evidence of causality between output and renewable energy consumption and between trade (exports or imports) and renewable energy consumption. In the long-run, the FMOLS panel approach estimation shows that renewable energy consumption and trade (exports or imports) have a statistically significant and positive impact on output. Policies recommendations are that, in the long-run, international trade enables African countries to benefit from technology transfer and to build the human and physical capacities needed to produce more renewable energies, which in turn increases their output. |
| Keywords: | Renewable energy consumption; International trade; Africa; Panel cointegration. |
| JEL: | C33 F14 Q42 Q43 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:47279&r=afr |
| By: | Tessa Bold; Mwangi Kimenyi; Germano Mwabu; Alice Ng'ang'a; Justin Sandefur |
| Abstract: | The recent wave of randomized trials in development economics has provoked criticisms regarding external validity. We investigate two concerns - heterogeneity across beneficiaries and implementers - in a randomized trial of contract teachers in Kenyan schools. The intervention, previously shown to raise test scores in NGO-led trials in Western Kenya and parts of India, was replicated across all Kenyan provinces by an NGO and the government. Strong effects of short-term contracts produced in controlled experimental settings are lost in weak public institutions: NGO implementation produces a positive effect on test scores across diverse contexts, while government implementation yields zero effect. The data suggests that the stark contrast in success between the government and NGO arm can be traced back to implementation constraints and political economy forces put in motion as the program went to scale. |
| Date: | 2013–03–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:wps/2013-04&r=afr |
| By: | Verpoorten, Marijke; Serneels, Pieter |
| Abstract: | We study whether conflict had an impact on economic performance across Rwandan administrative sectors six years after end of massive violence. Economic performance is measured using household expenditure data from a nationwide survey. Conflict intensity is measured using an index of excess mortality called WEMI (wartime excess mortality index). The findings show that economic performance was significantly lower in conflict-affected sectors, even after controlling for production factors (land, labor, education). |
| Keywords: | Rwanda |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iob:apbrfs:2013002&r=afr |
| By: | Christian Dustmann (Department of Economics, and Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), University College London.); Anna Okatenko (CReAM, University College London.) |
| Abstract: | Using a simple theoretical model, we show that the level of migration costs relative to wealth determines the form of the relation between income and migration intentions, which can be monotonically decreasing, increasing, or inverse U-shaped. Using unique individual level data, covering three geographic regions—sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America—we show that migration intentions do indeed respond to individual wealth, and that the patterns differ across the country groups studied in a manner compatible with the predictions of our model. Further, contentment with various dimensions of local amenities plays an important role for migration decisions. |
| Keywords: | Migration and Wealth Constraints, Migration Intentions, Local Amenities |
| JEL: | O15 R23 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2013017&r=afr |
| By: | Vellore Arthi (University of Oxford); James Fenske (University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | We examine the determinants of time allocation and child labour in a year-long panel of time-use data from colonial Nigeria. Using quantitative and ethnographic approaches, we show that health shocks imposed time costs on individuals. Whether individuals could recruit substitutes depended on social standing, urgency of work, and type of illness. Child labour did not systematically respond to temporary parental illness, but could replace a permanently disabled adult. Child labour was coordinated with parental work, aided childcare, and allowed children to build skills and resources. These decisions can be understood within an endogenous bargaining power framework with labour complementarities. |
| Date: | 2013–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nuf:esohwp:_114&r=afr |
| By: | Cheikh Tidiane Ndiaye (LEO - Laboratoire d'économie d'Orleans - CNRS : UMR7322 - Université d'Orléans); Mamadou Abdoulaye Konte (GERSEG - Groupe de recherche en économique et en gestion - Université Gaston Berger) |
| Abstract: | Cet article propose une évaluation de la relation entre l'incertitude émanant de la volatilité de l'inflation et la croissance économique des pays de l'UEMOA. Il s'interroge également sur les répercussions des chocs d'inflation sur l'économie réelle des pays de la zone. L'étude s'appuie sur un modèle VAR-GARCH susceptible de faire ressortir, d'une part, les différentes caractéristiques des chocs d'inflation dans l'union, et d'autre part, les liens entre l'inflation incertaine et la croissance économique. Les résultats suggèrent la persistance accentuée de la volatilité de l'inflation et de l'activité économique mais aussi une ampleur très significative de l'incertitude de l'inflation. Les mécanismes de transmission de l'inflation incertaine sur la croissance économique sont différents selon les pays. Les politiques relatives à la convergence macroéconomique, à la stabilisation et au développement n'ont pas suffit à contrecarrer la persistance des fluctuations de l'inflation et de l'activité économique. De même, elles n'ont pas réussi à juguler les effets globalement négatifs de l'interaction des chocs d'inflation entre les pays et de l'inflation incertaine sur la croissance économique des pays de l'union. Une meilleure orientation et un caractère plus accommodant des politiques de stabilisation s'avèrent nécessaires pour apaiser les tensions sur les marchés des biens et du travail et pour propulser la capacité d'offre des économies de l'union. |
| Keywords: | Inflation, Incertitude de l'inflation, Fluctuation économique, croissance économique. |
| Date: | 2012–12–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00828156&r=afr |
| By: | BESSO, Christophe Raoul; Chameni Nembua, Célestin |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes impact of stability and growth pact in Economics Monetary Union. We analyze the interaction of fiscal and monetary policies in the economic and monetary union. The aim was analyzed macroeconomics adjustment under non-cooperative and cooperative fiscal policy design in the Economic Monetary Union. In conclusion, cooperative case is better than non-cooperative case, but if we introduce stringency requirements like the stability and growth pact in the non-cooperative case, it become optimal like cooperative case. |
| Keywords: | convergence, cooperative fiscal policy, central Bank, monetary union |
| JEL: | C61 C7 E6 E63 |
| Date: | 2013–05–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:47256&r=afr |
| By: | Gaël Giraud (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris); Cécile Renouard (ESSEC Business School - ESSEC Business School); Hélène L'Huillier (ESSEC Business School - ESSEC Business School); Raphaële De La Martinière (ESSEC Business School - ESSEC Business School); Camille Sutter (ENSAE - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - ENSAE ParisTech) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores some of the dimensions related to poverty and exclusion, by defining a Relational Capability Index (RCI) which focuses on the quality of relationships among people and on their level of relational empowerment. This index is rooted in a relational anthropology; it insists on the quality of the social fabric and of interpersonal relations as a key aspect of human development. As a multidimensional index, the RCI includes integration into networks, private relations and civic commitments. We provide an axiomatization of a family of multidimensional indexes. This axiomatic viewpoint fills the gap between theories of justice and poverty measurements. By means of illustration, we apply three different versions of the RCI, which are elements of this family, to the measurement of the impact of oil companies on local communities in the Niger Delta (Nigeria) and to national surveys (Afrobarometer). |
| Keywords: | Multidimensional poverty; geometric mean; maximin solution; utilitarian solution; coherence; Nigeria; oil compagny |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00827690&r=afr |
| By: | Khemraj, Tarron |
| Abstract: | The paper shows how democratic elections in a bi-communal society with entrenched ethnic voting results in an elected oligarchy in which elites of one ethnic group control the allocation of scarce economic resources. Using a simple strategic game, the paper shows that the control of resources results in the Nash equilibrium of uneven development. Heterogeneous agents are included in the model, which is solved for the conditions under which democratic consolidation might occur. Token resource transfers from elites to other groups will tend not to guarantee consolidation. Remittances to the masses tend to prevent democratic consolidation, while bi-lateral grants to an elite dominated government prevent consolidation under some restricted conditions. Constitutional institutions might be necessary to incentivize explicit cooperation – the anti-Nash equilibrium. |
| Keywords: | fractionalization, political economy, prisoner’s dilemma, bi-communalism, institutions |
| JEL: | O10 O54 O57 P0 |
| Date: | 2013–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:47288&r=afr |
| By: | Frédéric LESNE (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I) |
| Abstract: | The role of school fees in achieving both allocative and productive efficiency in the delivery of primary education has been a subject of intense debate. Building on a simple model that makes explicit the role of school fees in determining the optimal level of parental participation to school governance, this paper contributes to the debate by evaluating empirically the relationship between fees, participation and the accountability framework in public primary schools in Madagascar. The results show evidence that schools requiring parents to pay more fees experience a higher degree of parental participation. While results are consistent with the theoretical model, the empirical analysis provides evidence that school fees increase participation beyond their effect on the power relationship between the community and the school authorities. The model hypothesis that school fees modify the accountability framework, which leads to more productive participation efforts, is challenged by alternative explanations. One of them is that participation aims not to increase education quality but rather to decrease the amount of fees requested by the school. |
| Keywords: | education;school governance;accountability;school fees |
| Date: | 2013–05–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00825240&r=afr |