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on Africa |
| By: | Ben Jebli, Mehdi; Ben Youssef, Slim; Apergis, Nicholas |
| Abstract: | This paper employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds methodological approach to investigate the relationship between economic growth, combustible renewables and waste consumption, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and international tourism for the case of Tunisia spanning the period 1990-2010. The results from the Fisher statistic of both the Wald-test and the Johansen test confirm the presence of a long-run relationship among the variables under investigation. The stability of estimated parameters has been tested, while Granger causality tests recommend a short-run unidirectional causality running from economic growth and combustible renewables and waste consumption to CO2 emissions, a bidirectional causality between economic growth and combustible renewables and waste consumption and unidirectional causality running from economic growth and combustible renewables and waste consumption to international tourism. In the long-run, the error correction terms confirm the presence of bidirectional causality relationships between economic growth, CO2 emissions, combustible renewables and waste consumption and international tourism. Our long-run estimates show that combustible renewables and waste consumption increases international tourism, and both renewables and waste consumption and international tourism increase CO2 emissions and output. We recommend that: (i) Tunisia should use more combustible renewables and waste energy as this eliminates wastes from especially tourist zones and increases the number of tourist arrivals, leading to economic growth, and (ii) a fraction of this economic growth generated by the increase in combustible renewables and waste consumption should be invested in clean renewable energy production (i.e., solar, wind, geothermal) and energy efficiency projects. |
| Keywords: | Combustible renewables and waste; Tourism; Autoregressive distributed lag model; Cointegration; Granger causality; Tunisia. |
| JEL: | C32 O55 Q42 Q43 Q54 |
| Date: | 2014–11–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59827&r=afr |
| By: | Eric W. Djimeu (The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation) |
| Abstract: | Although recent evidence shows detrimental effects of armed conflict on educational attainment, coupled with the fact that 50% of children out of school live in conflict affected countries, there is a lack of studies rigorously assessing the effectiveness of different social and economic development interventions aiming to mitigate the impact of armed conflict on education outcomes. In order to fill this knowledge gap, this study assesses the impact of education investments financed by the Angola Social Action Fund from 1994 to 2001 on years of schooling. I use the Angola 2001 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey to evaluate this impact. Using difference in differences estimation and a fixed effects model, I find that for individuals currently enrolled in schools and living in non-migrant households, an additional year of exposure to Angola Social Fund leads to an increase of years of schooling by 0.175 years. I find that Angola Social Action Fund has no impact on years of schooling for individuals currently out of school and for individuals living in migrant households. I find no heterogeneous effects of ASAF by variables considered. Interventions such as social funds can be used to mitigate the impact of civil war on education for individuals already enrolled in schools and living in non-migrant households. However, for individuals out of schools, there is great need to design innovative interventions specifically addressed to their circumstances and to test them rigorously in order to find interventions that can effectively mitigate the impacts of civil war on education. |
| Keywords: | Armed conflict, Social Action Funds, Education, Difference- in-differences, Angola |
| JEL: | O1 I2 O2 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:189&r=afr |
| By: | Arndt, Channing; Pauw, Karl; Thurlow, James |
| Abstract: | We estimate the impact of Malawi’s Farm Input Subsidy Program using an economywide approach. We find potentially substantial net benefits with indirect benefits accounting for about two-fifths of total benefits. Due to these indirect benefits, the cutoff at which lower fertilizer yield response rates lead to net program losses is much lower than the value suggested by existing partial equilibrium evaluations. Benefits decline with domestic financing and real fertilizer prices increases. Abstracting from extreme events, Malawi’s program potentially generates double-dividends through higher and more drought-resilient yields. Overall, our results buttress arguments for patience and a focus on program efficiency improvements. |
| Keywords: | Program evaluation, risk assessment, economywide model, farm subsidies, Malawi., Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, International Development, Public Economics, C68, O13, O22, Q18, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:169903&r=afr |
| By: | Qaim, Matin; Andersson, Camilla I.M.; Chege, Christine G.K.; Kimenju, Simon Chege; Klasen, Stephan; Rischke, Ramona |
| Abstract: | Food systems in developing countries are transforming, involving a rapid expansion of supermarkets. This supermarket revolution may affect dietary patterns and nutrition, but empirical evidence is scarce. The few existing studies have analyzed implications for food consumers and producers separately. We discuss a more integrated framework that helps to gain a broader understanding. Reviewing recent evidence from Kenya, we show that buying food in supermarkets instead of traditional outlets contributes to overnutrition among adults, while reducing undernutrition among children. For farm households, supplying supermarkets causes improvements in dietary quality. The results underline that supermarkets influence nutrition in multiple ways and directions. |
| Keywords: | supermarkets, obesity, malnutrition, nutrition impacts, developing countries, Kenya, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Development, D12, I15, O12, O15, Q12, |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:177204&r=afr |
| By: | Love, Abby; Magnan, Nicholas; Colson, Gregory J. |
| Abstract: | Risk is pervasive in developing country agriculture, and risk preferences are though to impact seed and technology choice. Empirical research on risk preferences and technology adoption typically only consider the risk preferences of a single household member. In this paper experimental techniques based on prospect theory (PT) to elicit risk aversion, loss aversion, and nonlinear probability weighting parameters from husbands and wives in Kenyan agricultural households. We also use survey data about their maize seed choice from these same respondents. We find that all three PT parameters are significant in different model specifications, and that risk preferences affect adoption differently for men and women in the same households, and also differently in the eastern and western regions of the country. |
| Keywords: | Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170241&r=afr |
| By: | Olwande, John; Smale, Melinda |
| Abstract: | High poverty rate persists in rural Kenya, where farming households continue to depend on agriculture for food and income, despite economic growth. Maize is the most widely grown crop, with the maize-growing smallholder population quite heterogeneous and diversified.However, less than half the growers enter the market to sell at least a portion of their harvest.Our objective in this paper is to test the effects of maize market participation on household income, poverty status, and income diversification among Kenya’s smallholder maize growers. We employ a combination of propensity score matching and endogenous switching regression on household panel data covering a ten-year period. The propensity score matching results show that in the overall, participation in the maize market has a significant impact on household income and poverty, with the magnitude of impact estimates differing across segments of maize growers, while the impact on diversification of income sources is not significant in most cases. These results persist after controlling for hidden selection bias through endogenous switching regression, with the impact estimates larger. Heterogeneity effects attest to existence of underlying differences among the maize-producing households that make sellers better off than non-sellers regardless of participation in the maize market. Our findings reinforce the call for interventions to expand the capacity of smallholder maize farmers to produce for the market in efforts to raise incomes and contribute to a more widespread poverty reduction. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, Marketing, maize market participation, smallholder farmers, income, poverty, diversification, propensity score matching, endogenous switching regression, Kenya, |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170028&r=afr |
| By: | Flory, Jeffrey A. |
| Abstract: | Work in progress, results are preliminary. Please ask permission before citing. |
| Keywords: | Savings accounts, financial access, gender and adoption, information, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, International Development, D14, D83, O12, O16, G21, |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:171879&r=afr |
| By: | Suzuki, Aya |
| Abstract: | While the role of risks in technology adoption is a classical topic, its effects beyond adoption have not been examined well enough despite that dis-adoption of a technology is also common. This paper examines the role of risk preferences and an exogenous shock on the survival of farmers for a case of export pineapple industry in Ghana. Employing hazard analyses, we find that risk preferences indeed matter for survival and the hazard of exit increased significantly in the period after the occurrence of the exogenous shock. We also find that education has an effect of increasing the resilience of farmers against risks. |
| Keywords: | risk preference, horticulture, export market, hazard analyses, Sub-Saharan Africa, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Development, Risk and Uncertainty, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170665&r=afr |
| By: | Mason, Nicole M.; Tembo, Solomon T. |
| Abstract: | Many of the ‘new’ agricultural input subsidy programs (ISPs) in sub-Saharan Africa list raising farm incomes and reducing rural poverty among their objectives, but are ISPs achieving these objectives? We use data from two nationally-representative surveys of smallholder farm households in Zambia to estimate the effects of an increase in ISP fertilizer on household incomes, poverty severity, and the probability of household income falling below the US$2 and US$1.25/capita/day poverty lines. Results suggest that although ISP fertilizer raises smallholder incomes, the increase is not large or widely distributed enough to substantively reduce the probability or severity of poverty. |
| Keywords: | fertilizer subsidies, smallholder farmers, income, poverty, Zambia, sub-Saharan Africa, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, H2, I38, D31, Q12, Q18, |
| Date: | 2014–05–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170617&r=afr |
| By: | Baker, Derek; Mtimet, Nadhem; Pica-Ciamarra, Ugo; Jagwe, John |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the results of a rapid consumer survey undertaken in Uganda. The survey aimed at identifying preferred quality and safety attributes, retail forms and retail outlets for major livestock products and by type of consumers. Results of the survey, combined with nationally representative household datasets, allows description of both the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of the developing market for animal-source foods, which is anticipated to provide major business opportunities for small-scale livestock producers in the short and medium terms. |
| Keywords: | Demand, Quality, Livestock products, Livestock Revolution., Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Livestock Production/Industries, |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iefi13:164736&r=afr |
| By: | Grabowski, Philip P.; Kerr, John M.; Haggblade, Steven; Kabwe, Stephen |
| Abstract: | Conservation agriculture (CA) is heralded as a means to increase yields and reverse land degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Low adoption levels have led to a polarized debate about the merits of conservation agriculture with critics questioning the suitability of the technology and proponents calling for increased and better promotion. Combining quantitative and qualitative analysis, this study examines the determinants of adoption of hand-hoe and oxen-draw minimum tillage in Eastern Zambia and the motivations for farmers’ decisions to implement or reject the technologies. |
| Keywords: | Zambia, cotton, Crop Production/Industries, |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:midcwp:188567&r=afr |
| By: | Marock, Carmel; Grawitzky, Renee |
| Abstract: | The paper discusses employment policies in South Africa and their implementation. |
| Keywords: | employment policy, employment creation, national plan, South Africa R, politique de l'emploi, création d'emploi, plan national, Afrique du Sud R, política de empleo, creación de empleos, plan nacional, República de Sudáfrica |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:485643&r=afr |
| By: | Martine Mariotti |
| Abstract: | I exploit the unexpected increase in employment in 1975, 76 and 77 in the South African homelands to compare the long term adult outcomes of children whose fathers benefitted from the employment increase to those who did not. Using a standard difference in difference approach I find that the shock affected males who were either newborn or in utero at the time, providing support to the fetal origins hypothesis and showing the importance of mother’s nutrition. The income increases did not raise household incomes above the poverty datum line, explaining why older individuals were not affected. This study provides previously unmeasured individual level information on the quality of life in the homelands during apartheid, an era when African living standards were neglected but unmeasured because of a lack of data collection. |
| Keywords: | living standards; stunting; difference-in-difference; fetal origins hypothesis |
| JEL: | I31 N37 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:477&r=afr |
| By: | Moshi, Goodiel; Mitomo, Hitoshi |
| Abstract: | This study attempted to analyze the effect of regulation and political stability in allocation of mobile telecommunication investments in the African continent between year 2001 and 2011. In order to better understand the dynamics of investment in telecommunications, a framework was developed to understand the factors that determine investments in telecom industry at country and industry level, particularly: institutions, market size/demand level, market structure and investing cost. The results show that investments in the telecommunications industry are positively dependent on liberalization that opened the market to private sector; however, no statistical evidence was found on the effect of political stability measured by the democratic process. Further, the study has shown that market structure especially competition, and market size and cost of investing in a country are important factors for investments allocation in mobile telecommunications industry among African countries. |
| Keywords: | mobile telecommunication,investment, political stability,liberalization,African countries |
| JEL: | L51 L1 C23 C26 D43 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:itse14:101430&r=afr |