|
on Africa |
| By: | Simplice Asongu (Yaoundé/Cameroun); Oasis Kodila-Tedika (Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo) |
| Abstract: | A 2015 World Bank report on attainment of Millennium Development Goals concludes that the number of extremely poor has dropped substantially in all regions with the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa. We assess if poverty is in the African gene by revisiting the findings of Ashraf and Galor (2013, AER) and reformulating the ‘Out of Africa Hypothesis’ into a ‘Genetic Diversity Hypothesis’ for a ‘Within Africa Analysis’. We motivate this reformulation with five shortcomings arising for the most part from the 2015 findings of the African Gerome Variation Project, notably: limitations in the concept of space, African dummy in genetic diversity, linearity in migratory patterns, migratory origins and underpinnings of genetic diversity in Africa. Ashraf and Galor have concluded that cross-country differences in development can be explained by genetic diversity in a Kuznets pattern. Our results from an exclusive African perspective confirm the underlying hypothesis in a contemporary context, but not in the historical analysis. From a historical context, the nexus is U-shaped for migratory distance, mobility index and predicted diversity while for the contemporary analysis; it is hump-shaped for ancestry-adjusted predicted diversity. Hence, poverty is not in the African gene from a within-Africa comparative standpoint. Policy implications are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Africa; Genetic diversity; Comparative economic development |
| JEL: | N10 N30 N50 O10 O50 Z10 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:agd:wpaper:15/011&r=afr |
| By: | Ollong, Kingsly Awang |
| Abstract: | In the context of globalisation Africa requires investment by multinational corporations (MNCs) to improve its competitiveness and to facilitate micro-level structural changes required for alleviating poverty and reducing its riskiness for investment. Economic theory recognises that MNCs can contribute to economic growth in developing countries through generating positive externalities. However, the extent to which Africa benefits from spill-over effects of MNCs remains to be empirically investigated. While some multinational corporations that operate in Africa take the corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies seriously, on the other hand there had been several complaints in many African countries on how these French multinational corporations conduct business within the continent. Thus, this paper intends to analyse the various paradoxes that are surrounding the activities of French multinational companies operating in Africa. |
| Keywords: | corporate social responsibility, MNC, paradox, under development, exploitation, conflicts, corruption and environmental degradation |
| JEL: | M00 M10 |
| Date: | 2014–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:63777&r=afr |
| By: | Bertrand LAPORTE (FERDI); Céline de QUATREBARBES (Ferdi) |
| Abstract: | Governments that lack the capacity to mine resources themselves have to attract foreign direct investment. However, since resources are not renewable, countries need to capture a ‘fair’ share of mineral resource rent to promote their development. While the third raw materials super cycle increased the global turnover of the mining sector by a factor of 4.6 between 2002 and 2010, the tax revenues from the non-renewable natural resource sector earned by African governments only grew by a factor of 1.15 (FERDI). The sharing of mineral resource rent between governments and investors is often criticised for being unfavourable to African governments. But what do we really know about the mineral resource rent sharing in Africa? The aim of this study is to review theoretical and empirical studies on rent sharing in Africa and note their limits for the knowledge of the actual mineral rent sharing. |
| JEL: | H25 L71 L72 L78 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fdi:wpaper:2103&r=afr |
| By: | Lavers, Tom; Hickey, Sam |
| Abstract: | The growing literature on social protection in Africa has tended to focus on conceptual debates, policy design issues and impact evaluations. To date, there has been relatively little systematic analysis of the ways in which politics and political economy shape policy. This paper outlines a conceptual and methodological framework for investigating the politics of social protection, with a particular focus on explaining the variation in progress made by African countries in adopting and implementing social protection programmes. We propose that an adapted "political settlements" framework that incorporates insights from the literatures on the politics of welfare state development and discursive institutionalism can help frame elite commitment to social protection as an outcome of the interaction of domestic political economy and transnational ideas. This approach has the advantage of situating social protection within a broader policy context, as well as highlighting the influence of underlying power relations in society. Finally, the paper suggests a research methodology that can be employed to operationalise this approach, with a particular focus on process tracing and comparative case study research. |
| Keywords: | social protection, social policy, economic policy, political aspect, Africa, protection sociale, politique sociale, politique économique, aspect politique, Afrique, protección social, política social, política económica, aspecto político, Africa |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:487627&r=afr |
| By: | Brendan Maughan-Brown (Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, School of Economics, University of Cape Town); Neil D. Lloyd (Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, School of Economics, University of Cape Town); Jacob Bor (Center for Global Health and Development, Boston University); Atheendar S. Venkataramani (Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School) |
| Abstract: | Background: HIV counselling and testing (HCT) is a critical component of HIV prevention and treatment efforts. Between April 2010 and June 2011 South Africa ran an ambitious, multi-sector, campaign aiming to test 15 million people nationwide. We assessed the extent to which this campaign reached (1) those who previously had never tested for HIV and (2) high risk and socioeconomically vulnerable populations. Methods: We used data from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS, n=18,650), a nationally representative panel study in South Africa, to assess the uptake of first-time testing between 2010 and 2012 at the national level and by age, gender, racial, and province-level subgroups. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to compare the factors associated with HIV testing in 2010 and 2012, and to assess the characteristics of first-time testers. Results: The proportion of adults having ever received an HIV test increased from 43.7% (95% CI: 41.48; 45.96) in 2010 to 65.2% [63.28; 67.10] in 2012, as approximately 7.5 million individuals 15 years and older tested for the first time nationally. However, there was large variation in new testing rates across geographic areas and population subgroups. The association between ever testing and both income and self-reported health declined between 2010 and 2012, suggesting the campaign was successful in reaching poorer and healthier individuals. However, disparities in testing by education and gender remained strong between 2010 and 2012. Conclusion: The provision of HCT services in South Africa led to a steady rise in the proportion of individuals ever tested for HIV and has improved equity of HCT uptake. Future initiatives to increase HCT uptake, both within South Africa and in other countries, would gain from lessons learned from the South African effort. However, new interventions may be required to improve testing rates among the less educated and men, particularly poor men, and to achieve universal HCT access and uptake. |
| Keywords: | HIV counselling and testing, HCT Services, National Income Dynamics Study, NIDS, South Africa |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ldr:wpaper:145&r=afr |
| By: | Giles Mohan; Kojo Pumpuni Asante |
| Abstract: | Ghana’s recent status as an oil producer focuses attention on the relationship between domestic politics and transnational actors. While the political settlements literature is useful for focusing on how elite coalitions shape the governance of natural resources, it is not explicit about the role of transnational factors in shaping and enabling these coalitions. As such there is a tendency to downplay the significance of transnational-national interactions and national-local dynamics. This paper analyses the changing nature of the political settlement in Ghana pre- and post-oil and the role that transnational actors play in reshaping the coalitions which underpin and reproduce the overall settlement. We find that the discovery of oil has not radically altered the nature of Ghana’s political settlement, which remains of a competitive clientelist form within which institutional functioning and policy actors are heavily influenced by the need of political elites to secure success in increasingly tightly-fought elections. These tendencies and the ongoing structural inequalities between transnational capital and the sovereign state have resulted in oil licences being negotiated on terms favouring external actors. Through primary data collected from key informant interviews and case studies we show that power lies with the external actors albeit through the elite brokerage of contracts. Within these bargaining processes we see parts of the Ghanaian state acting strongly and effectively to serve both the interests of domestic elites and transnational capital. The combined effect of competitive clientelism and new sources of foreign capital is that structural issues and longer term planning decisions are largely deprioritised in favour of shorter-term gains. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwp:bwppap:esid-049-15&r=afr |
| By: | Sam Hickey; Badru Bukenya; Angelo Izama; William Kizito |
| Abstract: | The capacity and commitment of Uganda to govern its oil in developmental ways has generally been discussed through a ‘new institutionalist’ prism that focuses on the dangers of the ‘resource curse’. This paper argues that the developmental potential of oil in Uganda can be more insightfully understood through a political settlements framework which goes beyond a focus on institutional form to examine deeper forms of politics, power and ideas. Drawing on in-depth primary research, we focus in particular on the extent to which the interplay of interests and ideas within the ruling coalition in Uganda has enabled it to protect its national interest during negotiations with international oil companies. However, our reading of the underlying dynamics within Uganda’s political settlement suggests that the impressive levels of elite commitment and bureaucratic capacity displayed to date are unlikely to withstand the intensified pressures that will accompany the commencement of oil flows. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwp:bwppap:esid-048-15&r=afr |
| By: | Hamdi, Helmi; Hakimi, Abdelaziz |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to investigate the dynamic relationship between corruption, investment and economic growth in Tunisia within a multivariate framework. In the empirical section we use data span from 1976 to 2013 and we perform a vector error correction model and cointegartion technique to detect causality between corruption, investment, economic growth, credit to the private sector and foreign direct investment. The main findings of this paper show that corruption hampered Tunisia economic growth in the short-run and the long run as well. Corruption could be the main reason of the slowdown of investment activities and the low inflow of capital. Another important conclusion was revealed in this paper is that corruption get worsened in the period that follows the social upsurge of December 2010. Therefore, the main goals of the so called “revolution” are from being achieved yet. Hence, more works are needed to fight corruption in Tunisia. |
| Keywords: | Corruption, investment, Growth, Tunisia |
| JEL: | G2 G28 O11 O43 |
| Date: | 2015–04–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:63748&r=afr |