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on Africa |
| By: | Cheteni, Priviledge; Shindika, Emmanuel |
| Abstract: | This study was conducted to investigate the extent of ethical leadership practices in African public utilities, given the relatively high corruption reported in its institutions, with consequences of seriously constrained development of the national economy and significant hindrance to good governance. Our aim was to establish potential benefits from ethical leadership in public sector agencies, by analysing ethical leadership characteristics of leaders in the public sector from Botswana and South Africa. We measured ethical leadership perceptions utilizing a combination of scales in an attempt to encompass the larger breadth of ethical leadership scales in literature, to determine how employees perceived their managers in terms of being moral people and moral managers. A total of 108 respondents completed questionnaires. Results indicate that there were significant differences between the perceptions of managers’ moral conduct. South African leaders were perceived as relatively weaker moral managers as compared to those in Botswana. |
| Keywords: | Africa, Corruption, Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS), Managers, Moral |
| JEL: | H7 M0 |
| Date: | 2016–08–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80968&r=afr |
| By: | Kohnert, Dirk |
| Abstract: | The presidential elections of 25 April 2015 resulted in a victory for the incumbent, Faure Gnassingbé. Thus, he secured his third five-year term, consolidating the Gnassingbé-clan’s grip on power. The latter have ruled the country since 1967. In view of the ruling party’s absolute parliamentary majority, further meaningful constitutional and electoral reforms that would have been required for free and fair elections have been postponed indefinitely. Overriding concerns for stability in West Africa in view of the growing threat from Islamist terrorist organizations, combined with Togo’s role as contributor of soldiers meant that the international community largely ignored the government’s indefinite postponement of democratic reforms and local elections. However, the simmering discontent of hardliners within the security forces and the ruling party remained evident. The opposition tried unsuccessfully to overcome internal divisions between its moderate and radical wings. An alliance of opposition parties and civil society groups organized frequently peaceful demonstrations in opposition to the regime, which were violently suppressed. Yet, the human rights record of the government has improved but remains poor. A tense political climate persisted due to the presidential elections in April 2015, and the apparent determination of the president to stay in power for a third and possible a fourth term whatever the cost. Despite undeniable improvements to the framework and appearance of the regime’s key institutions during the review period, democracy remains far from complete. However, the international community, notably Togo’s African peers, the AU and ECOWAS, as well as the Bretton-Woods Institutions, China and the European Union (EU), followed a ‘laissez faire’ approach in the interests of regional stability and their national interests in dealing with Togo. Economic growth remained stable at about 5% per annum. Public investment in infrastructure (e.g. roads, harbor) and increases in agricultural productivity, notably of export crops, had been the key drivers of economic growth. However, growth remains vulnerable to external shocks and the climate and has not been inclusive. Positive growth was overshadowed by increasing inter-personal and regional inequality as well as an increase in extreme poverty. Moreover, money laundering and illegal money transfers grew alarmingly. The business climate improved considerably nevertheless. Though the World Bank still defines Togo as low income, fragile stat, the government aims to achieve the status of a developing economy. |
| Keywords: | Country study, Togo, West Africa, development, good governance, ODA |
| JEL: | N17 N37 N97 O17 O55 P45 Z13 |
| Date: | 2017–09–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:81176&r=afr |
| By: | Mohamed Chaffai (University of SFAX, UREP and ERF); Patrick Plane |
| Abstract: | We explore to what extent the export status and technological choices are related to firm Total Factor Productivity (TFP). Egyptian industrial firms are investigated for the period 2003-2008. The dataset is stratified on five manufacturing industries. Technology being an unobserved phenomenon, a Latent Class Model (LCM) is used to identify its heterogeneity within and across sectors. Translog, Cobb-Douglas, and a mixture of these specifications are used for the estimation of LCMs. Over the five industries, two technology classes prove to be statistically significant. One class provides higher firm productivity levels and is potentially shared by both exporters and non-exporters. Whatever the technology class, except for Food Processing, exporters are found, on average, to have a higher productive performance than non-exporters. Taking into account the potential self-selection effect over the whole sample, Propensity Score Matching (PSM) suggests that the difference is not significant for Food Processing, but varies in the other sectors from 9% in Metal to 32% in Chemistry. When the sample is restricted to labor-intensive technology, which is the largest in terms of number of observations, the premium of export status is about 10%. |
| Date: | 2017–06–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1134&r=afr |
| By: | BAHMANI-OSKOOEE, Mohsen; GELAN, Abera |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study a sample of twelve African countries to examine the impact of the real exchange-rate volatility on their trade flows. In order to distinguish the distinct impact of the real exchange-rate volatility on their exports and imports, both in the short-run and long-run, we use the bounds-testing approach. We find that while exchange rate volatility affects trade flows of many of the countries in our sample in the short run, the long-run effects were restricted only on the exports of five countries and on the imports of only one country. The level of economic activity in the world and at home were identified to be major determinants of exports and imports, respectively. |
| Keywords: | Africa, Trade Flows, Exchange Rate Volatility |
| JEL: | F31 |
| Date: | 2017–08–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:81177&r=afr |
| By: | Folarin, Oludele; Asongu, Simplice |
| Abstract: | A stable money demand function is essential when using monetary aggregate as a monetary policy. Thus, there is need to examine the stability of the money demand function in Nigeria after the deregulation of the financial sector. To achieve this, the study employed CUSUM (cumulative sum) and CUSUMSQ (CUSUM squared) tests after using autoregressive distributive lag bounds test to determine the existence of a long run relationship between monetary aggregate and its determinant. Results of the study show that a long-run relationship holds and that the demand for money is stable in Nigeria. In addition, the inflation rate is found to be a better proxy for an opportunity variable when compared to interest rate. The main implication of the study is that interest rate is ineffective as a monetary policy instrument in Nigeria. |
| Keywords: | Stable; demand for money; bounds test |
| JEL: | C22 E41 |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:81190&r=afr |
| By: | François-Seck Fall (LEREPS - Laboratoire d'Etude et de Recherche sur l'Economie, les Politiques et les Systèmes Sociaux - UT1 - Université Toulouse 1 Capitole - UT2 - Université Toulouse 2 - Institut d'Études Politiques [IEP] - Toulouse - ENFA - École Nationale de Formation Agronomique - Toulouse-Auzeville) |
| Abstract: | The financial relationship between banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) is a key element of the debate on establishing accessible financial systems in sub-Saharan countries. Today, MFIs face strong and growing pressure in terms of resources, especially due to an increasing demand for funding, both in number and volumes. However, there is virtually no academic literature on refinancing between banks and MFIs. Also, the existing empirical literature on microfinance access to external funding has to some extend neglected the importance of bank financing funds, focusing more on international external funds. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the access of MFIs to external funds from the local banking system. Specifically, we examine the link between an MFI's access to Banks funding and its maturity and performance. From a panel of 156 Senegalese MFIs, we have created a fixed-effects model to help explain the influence of key variables (MFI size, profitability, risk, etc.) on an MFI's ability to raise funds from the local banking system. The results show that bank financing generally benefit large MFIs, those with significant tangible assets and with a high quality portfolio. Profitability does not seem to be a key determinant of MFI's access to bank funding. However, the funds deposited by microfinance organizations in banks act as a financing guarantee and strongly help MFIs to raise funds from local commercial banks. |
| Keywords: | Banking,Microfinance,Refinancing,Financial Cooperation,Panel model,Senegal |
| Date: | 2017–06–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01538412&r=afr |