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on Africa |
| By: | Charles Ackah; Holger Goerg; Aoife Hanley; Cecília Hornok |
| Abstract: | We explore the export performance of Africa’s underperforming female entrepreneurs, using the Ghanaian ISSER-IGC panel, a comprehensive dataset of manufacturing firms for 2011–2015. Uniquely, the data provides information about the severity of key business constraints, across both male and female entrepreneurs. We find that females are less likely to export (and optimize their exporting) than their male peers. Although reduced access to finance seriously constrains the exports of female entrepreneurs, this limitation does not explain their relative inability to leverage value from exports. Consistent with related work, we find that certain social and cultural constraints, in particular constraints linked to bribes and security concerns, are more deeply felt by female entrepreneurs. This may hint at the exclusion of Africa’s females (voluntarily or involuntarily) from male-dominated networks or business practices. |
| Keywords: | female entrepreneurship; business constraints; productivity; exporting; Africa; Ghana |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notgep:2020-19&r=all |
| By: | Lisa CHAUVET; Siyavash ESLAMI; Marin FERRY; Laure PASQUIER-DOUMER |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between inequality in public good provision and attitude towards taxation in the context of sub-Saharan African countries. Individuals’ attitude towards taxation is measured using the sixth round of the Afrobarometer geo-coded data, and inequality is measured with a Gini index computed using data on night light intensity around individuals. Our identification strategy relies on an IV estimation where the instrument is a Gini index computed on predicted pixels’ light intensity based on the initial distance of each pixel from its closest enlightened pixel. Results suggest that inequality is positively associated with more pro-tax attitude. However, this association depends on the size of the area over which Gini indexes are computed: inequality in the immediate surrounding of individuals (in 20 up to 50km buffer areas) has a positive effect on their attitude towards taxation that we interpret as a higher demand for redistribution in more unequal context. In line with this interpretation, we also find that when facing high inequality, individuals in the bottom of wealth distribution or far away from economic centers have a more favorable attitude towards taxation. |
| Keywords: | Afrique |
| JEL: | Q |
| Date: | 2020–11–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:avg:wpaper:en11845&r=all |
| By: | Mwanda Phiri; Shimukunku Manchishi |
| Abstract: | The successful use of special economic zones as economic tools for export-led industrial development in East Asia propelled a wave of similar initiatives across Africa. In Southern Africa, Zambia and South Africa instituted special economic zones in their respective legal and institutional frameworks in the 2000s as mechanisms for catalysing industrialization and employment creation by means of domestic and foreign investments. |
| Keywords: | Special Economic Zones, Agglomeration, Industrialization, job creation |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2020-160&r=all |
| By: | Simplice A. Asongu (Yaounde, Cameroon); Alex Adegboye (Covenant University, Ogun State, Ota, Nigeria); Joseph Nnanna (The Development Bank of Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria) |
| Abstract: | This study explores whether female economic inclusion enhances tax performance in a sample of 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa from 2000 to 2018. The study’s empirical evidence is based on the generalized method of moments in order to account for endogeneity concerns. Three tax performance measurements are used, notably, total taxes revenue excluding social contributions, reported tax revenue derived from natural resources sources, and total non-resource tax revenue. Three female inclusion indicators are used, namely, female employment in industry, female labour force participation, and female employment. The following empirical evidences are documented; (i) There is a negative net effect from the enhancement of female employment in the industry on the total tax revenue. (ii) There is a positive net effect of female employment in the industry on the non-resource taxes. An extended threshold analysis is performed to establish the critical masses that could further influence tax performance positively. The following thresholds are established. (i) a minimum of 15.35 “employment in industry, female (% of female employment)†for the total tax revenue and (ii) a maximum of 23.75 “employment in industry, female (% of female employment)†for the non-resource tax revenue. These critical masses are crucial for sustainable development because, below or beyond these thresholds, policy makers should complement the female economic inclusion with other economic measures designed to improve tax performance in Sub-Saharan Africa. |
| Keywords: | Gender, economic inclusion, tax performance, sustainable development, Africa |
| JEL: | H20 H71 I28 J08 J21 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:exs:wpaper:20/093&r=all |
| By: | Marivoet, Wim; Ulimwengu, John M.; Bugeme, David M.; Sanginga, Blandine; Thontwa, Sarah |
| Abstract: | To guide the design of future agriculture and food value chain interventions, this paper combines two existing spatial food and nutrition security typologies and applies them to the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Apart from estimating absolute and relative inefficiencies along the food system from agricultural potential to nutrition, the integration of both typologies resulted in nine unique low efficiency profiles across the territories and major cities of the Greater Kivu region and Tanganyika. In addition to low utilization efficiency observed in some areas, most PICAGL intervention zones, especially Uvira and Kalemie, suffer from significant market constraints and therefore could substantially benefit from food value chain development. Although this paper relies on the most recent and spatially disaggregated data (which is a major improvement with respect to agricultural statistics of the country), the proposed typologies cannot uncover all bottlenecks hindering the development of agricultural value chains in the region. |
| Keywords: | DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO; CENTRAL AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA; food security; nutrition security; agriculture; value chains; food systems; spatial typologies |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1971&r=all |