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on Africa |
| By: | Lubungu, Mary; Burke, William J.; Sitko, Nicholas J. |
| Abstract: | The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has a stated goal of lifting more than a quarter of millions of rural farmers out of poverty in Zambia’s Eastern Province through the implementation of the Feed the Future program (FtF). Part of the program’s goal will be achieved through investments in several key value chains in the agricultural sector. Investing in sunflower may be ideal for promoting rural welfare, however much poverty reducing potential may go unrealized in Zambia’s rural areas if the current status quo is unchanged. |
| Keywords: | Zambia, sunflower value chain, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Food Security and Poverty, |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:midcwp:186604&r=afr |
| By: | Mohamed El Hedi Arouri (LEO - Laboratoire d'économie d'Orleans - CNRS : UMR6221 - Université d'Orléans); Adel Ben Youssef (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - CNRS : UMR7321 - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (UNS)); Hatem M'Henni (LARIME - Laboratoire de Recherche Interdisciplinaire sur les Mutations des Economies et des Entreprises - Université de Tunis (TUNISIA)); Christophe Rault (LEO - Laboratoire d'économie d'Orleans - CNRS : UMR6221 - Université d'Orléans, CESifo - Center for Economic Studies and Ifo for Economic Research - CESifo Group Munich) |
| Abstract: | We make use of a bootstrap panel analysis of causality between energy use and economic growth for a sample of sixteen African countries over the period 1988-2010. Our results show that growth and energy use are strongly linked in Africa. However, African countries are heterogeneous and there is no "one way" recommendation about energy-growth relationship that may work for all countries in Africa. |
| Keywords: | energy use; growth; VAR |
| Date: | 2014–06–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01068258&r=afr |
| By: | Lori Beaman (Northwestern University); Dean Karlan (Economic Growth Center, Yale University); Bram Thuysbaert (Ghent University) |
| Abstract: | High transaction and contracting costs are often thought to create credit and savings market failures in developing countries. The microfinance movement grew largely out of business process innovations and subsidies that reduced these costs. We examine an alternative approach, one that infuses no external capital and introduces no change to formal contracts: an improved “technology” for managing informal, collaborative village-based savings groups. Such groups allow, in theory, for more efficient and lower-cost loans and informal savings, and in practice have been scaled up by international non-profit organizations to millions of members. Individuals save together and then lend the accumulated funds back out to themselves. In a randomized evaluation in Mali, we find improvements in food security, consumption smoothing, and buffer stock savings. Although we do find suggestive evidence of higher agricultural output, we do not find overall higher income or expenditure. We also do not find downstream impacts on health, education, social capital, and female decision-making power.Could this have happened before, without any external intervention? Yes. That is what makes the result striking, that indeed there were no resources provided nor legal institutional changes, yet the NGO-guided, improved informal processes led to important changes for households. |
| Keywords: | Micro-savings, Savings groups impact |
| JEL: | O12 D12 D91 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egc:wpaper:1043&r=afr |
| By: | Mintewab Bezabih; Andrea Mannberg; Eyerusalem Siba |
| Abstract: | Land tenure security has long been touted as key to increased performance of the agricultural sector in developing countries. This paper utilizes household level panel data to analyse the impact of a land certification program on farmers’ off-farm participation and activity choices in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia. Identification of the program’s impact relies on the sequential nature of its implementation and application of the difference-in-differences strategy. Our results suggest that certification is a significant determinant of participation in off-farm employment. However, the impact differs substantially between different types of off-farm activities. While land certification is associated with an increased probability of participation in non-agricultural activities requiring unskilled labor, it reduces the probability to engage in work on others’ farms. In addition, the effect of the program depends on the size of landholdings. The differentials in the responsiveness of different off farm activities to both certification and farm size indicate the need to recognize the complex relationships between land tenure enhancing reform policies and the non agricultural sub-sector in rural areas. In light of similar previous studies, the major contributions of the paper are twofold: assessment of the effects of enhanced land tenure security on activities outside agriculture and the role of farm size in determining off-farm participation. |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lsg:lsgwps:wp168&r=afr |
| By: | Julia Cage (Département d'économie); Valeria Rueda (Département d'économie (ECON)) |
| Abstract: | This article delves into the relationship between newspaper readership and civic attitudes, and its effect on economic development. To this end, we investigate the long-term consequences of the introduction of the printing press in the 19th century. In sub-Saharan Africa, Protestant missionaries were the first both to import the printing press technology and to allow the indigenous population to use it. We build a new geocoded dataset locating Protestant missions in 1903. This dataset includes, for each mission station, the geographic location and its characteristics, as well as the educational and health-related investments undertaken by the mission. We show that, within regions located close to missions, proximity to a printing press significantly increases newspaper readership today. We also document a strong association between proximity to a printing press and contemporary economic development. Our results are robust to a variety of identification strategies. |
| Keywords: | historical persistence, printing press, Protestant missions, newspaper readership, political participation, economic development. |
| JEL: | D72 N37 N77 O33 Z12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/453m2eks408pdoss8agfiaocu6&r=afr |
| By: | Harou, Aurélie; Liu, Yanyan; Barrett, Christopher B.; You, Liangzhi |
| Abstract: | Despite the rise of targeted input subsidy programs in Africa over the last decade, several questions remain as to whether low and variable soil fertility, frequent drought, and high fertilizer prices render fertilizer unprofitable for large subpopulations of African farmers. To examine these questions, we use large-scale, panel experimental data from maize field trials throughout Malawi to estimate the expected physical returns to fertilizer use conditional on a range of agronomic factors and weather conditions. Using these estimated returns and historical price and weather data, we simulate the expected profitability of fertilizer application over space and time. We find that the fertilizer bundles distributed under Malawi’s subsidy program are almost always profitable in expectation, although our results may be reasonably interpreted as upper-bound estimates among more skilled farmers given that the experimental subjects were not randomly selected. |
| Keywords: | Fertilizers, subsidies, Agricultural development, productivity, farm inputs, poverty alleviation, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1373&r=afr |