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on Africa |
| By: | Grietjie Verhoef |
| Abstract: | Multinational corporations have commenced foreign direct investment (FDI) activities since the 1960s by moving operations to resource-rich, low-cost labour and capital markets (Wilkins, 1970; 1974; 1988; Jones, 1994; 2005). The first wave of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) during the 1960s and 1970s was motivated by efficiency and market-seeking factors. This wave was dominated by firms from Asia and Latin America. A second wave of OFDI followed in the 1980s, led by strategic asset-seeking enterprises from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea (Dunning et al., 1996; UNCTAD, 2005b: 3s). Since the 1990s China, Brazil, India, Russia (the so-called BRIC countries) Malaysia, Turkey and South Africa are among the countries expected to add significantly to OFDI growth (UNCTAD, 2005c: 4). The emergence of EMTNCs (Emerging Market Transnational Corporations) makes up a growing proportion of outward FDI and they acquire an increasing share in foreign affiliates from developed markets conducting business in their regions. This paper reflects on the transformation of businesses and business practice in Africa, from isolated peripheral actors to global players. A growing number of African multinational corporations extended business operations from behind marginalized peripheral operations to global markets. This paper investigates the history of leading emerging market multinational corporations from Africa since the 1980s. |
| Keywords: | Globalization, strategy, market seeking, state, change management |
| JEL: | N17 O55 M16 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:570&r=afr |
| By: | Anna Orthofer |
| Abstract: | The point of departure of Thomas Piketty’s influential Capital in the Twenty-First Century was the dramatic growth of private wealth-income ratios in the advanced economies between 1970 and 2010. Using official balance sheet data for South Africa—the first country to publish such data in the developing world—, this paper examines to what extent this reemergence of private wealth was also experienced in the developing-country context. First, we find that the South African current wealth-income ratio is very close to its level in 1975 (255 and 240 percent), and thus much lower than those of Piketty’s sample of advanced economies (where they increased from 200-300 to 400-700 percent). Second, we show that the discrepancy is explained not only by South Africa’s relatively low savings rates, but also by the reduction of wealth before and during the transition to democracy in the 1990s. Since the late 1990s, however, private wealth recovered significantly, indicating that South Africa might resemble the advanced economies more closely in the future. |
| Keywords: | saving, Wealth |
| JEL: | E01 E10 E21 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:564&r=afr |
| By: | Candace Miller; John Schurrer; Nicholas Redel; Arif Mamun; Duncan Chaplin |
| Abstract: | This report presents our qualitative evaluation findings on the implementation of the T&D activity and the FS initiative, and the outcomes of electrification as perceived by households, businesses, and other community institutions. |
| Keywords: | Energy, electrification, performance evaluation, qualitative evaluation, case study |
| JEL: | F Z |
| Date: | 2015–07–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:de3426ac1b7949c2a37de9eff6a87609&r=afr |
| By: | John Paul Dunne and Nan Tian |
| Abstract: | While there is a large empirical literature on the determinants of conflict, much less attention has been given to its economic effects and even less to the spillover effects it can have on neighbours. This paper considers the economic effects of conflict for a panel of African countries and develops an approach to calculating the spillovers that moves beyond simply using geographical distance measures and incorporates economic and political differences. The initial empirical results suggest that conflict has a strong negative spillover effect on directly contiguous countries' growth, but no significant impacts were observed on non-contiguous countries. When economic and political factors are considered, this result remains, but the spillover effect is smaller. This implies that it is important to take such factors into account. While the impact of conflict remains devastating, studies that use only geographical distance measures may have been overestimating the impact on neighbours. |
| Keywords: | Conflict; Economic Growth; Spillovers |
| JEL: | C21 F21 H56 O11 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:561&r=afr |
| By: | Asiedu, Edward |
| Abstract: | Using a unique data on sub-Saharan Africa, we show that even though in absolute terms men pay more bribes, in relative terms, women are more likely to be involved in bribery or do favors that benefit the household. Additionally, running country specific regressions shows that for 65% of the countries gender differences when household needs are at stake disappear. These results underscore the importance of household needs to the woman, and that the effect of gender on corruption may well be context specific. |
| Keywords: | service delivery, gender, bribe-involvement, household needs, Africa, Consumer/Household Economics, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Public Economics, D1, J16, H10, K42, |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gagfdp:229587&r=afr |