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on Africa |
| By: | Nora Lustig (Tulane University); Jon Jellema (CEQ Institute); Valentina Martinez Pabon (Tulane University) |
| Abstract: | Using microsimulations, we assess whether budget neutral universal income floors are fiscally viable in twelve SSA countries. We consider three universal basic income (UBI) scenarios of decreasing levels of generosity: poverty line, average poverty gap, and current spending on transfers and subsidies per person (spending neutral). The viability of the policies is assessed by comparing the results on poverty and average tax rates obtained from the simulated scenarios with those in the current system (baseline). We find that poverty line and poverty gap UBI programs would not be viable. Spending neutral UBI programs could potentially be viable in Botswana, Ghana and Zambia. If resources are targeted to the poor, a poverty line scenario is viable in Botswana, Ghana, Namibia, and South Africa. |
| Keywords: | Universal basic incomes, Fiscal policy, Fiscal incidence, Poverty, Fiscal impoverishment, Taxes, Sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | H22 I38 D31 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:2106&r=all |
| By: | Andreas Backhaus; Elke Loichinger |
| Abstract: | Female labour force participation rates have stagnated in sub-Saharan Africa since the turn of the millennium. This paper aims to explain this aggregate pattern by decomposing it into the labour supply behaviour of different birth cohorts and age groups. Using representative and repeated census data from a heterogeneous sample of sub-Saharan African countries, we show that declining female labour supply at early working age is explained by increasing school attendance among young female cohorts. |
| Keywords: | Labour supply, Gender, Sub-Saharan Africa, Demographic dividend, Female labour force participation |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-60&r=all |
| By: | Bryn Battersby; Ian Lienert |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the institutional arrangements of the macro-fiscal function in 16 African countries. Most ministries of finance (MoFs) have established a macro-fiscal department or unit, but their functions, size, structure and outputs vary considerably. Based on a survey, we present data on staff size, functional scope and the forecasting performance of macro-fiscal departments and identify common challenges in the countries reviewed. Some MoFs perform many macro-fiscal functions, but actions of various kinds are needed to strengthen their macro-fiscal departments. This paper provides some guidance for policy-makers in the region for enhancing the quality and scope of macro-fiscal outputs. |
| Keywords: | Macroeconomic and fiscal forecasts;Budget planning and preparation;Fiscal risks;Fiscal policy;Medium-term budget frameworks;macro-fiscal,macroeconomic,fiscal,function,medium-term,annual,forecasts,projections,policy analysis,fiscal strategy,ministry of finance,organizational,WP,MFD staff,MFD output,MFD characteristic,MFD director,MFDS monitor debt development |
| Date: | 2021–02–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2021/030&r=all |
| By: | Baah Aye Kusi (University of Ghana Business School, Ghana); Elikplimi Agbloyor (University of Ghana Business School, Ghana); Simplice A. Asongu (Yaoundé, Cameroon); Joshua Yindenaba Abor (University of Ghana Business School, Ghana) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the effect of foreign bank assets and presence on banking stability in the economies with strong and weak country-level corporate governance in Africa between 2006 and 2015. Employing a Prais-Winsten panel data model on 86 banks in about 30 African economies, the findings on how foreign bank assets and presence influence banking stability in strong and weak corporate governance economies under different regulatory regimes are reported for the first time in Africa. The initial findings show that foreign bank presence and assets promote banking stability. However, the positive effect of foreign bank assets and presence is enhanced in economies with strong country-level corporate governance, while the positive effect of foreign bank assets and presence is weakened in economies with weak country-level corporate governance. After introducing different regulatory variables (regimes), it is observed that the enhancing effect of foreign bank presence and assets on banking stability in the full sample and economies with strong and weak country level corporate governance systems is deepened or improved under loan loss provision regulation regime. However, under the private and public sector-led financial transparency regulations, the reducing effect of foreign bank presence and assets on banking stability in economies with weak corporate governance systems is further dampened. These findings show that the relationship between foreign bank presence and assets is deeply shaped by corporate governance systems and regulatory regimes in Africa. Hence, policymakers must build strong corporate governance and sound regulatory regimes to enhance how foreign bank operations promote banking stability. |
| Keywords: | Stability; Foreign banks; Regulation, Corporate governance; Africa |
| JEL: | G0 G2 G3 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:exs:wpaper:21/022&r=all |
| By: | Mimboe, Bernard |
| Abstract: | Using a spatial autoregressive model, this paper highlights the issue of strategic interactions in the provision of public inputs, which is an important dimension of territorial competition within a developing economic integration area. The results of the estimations, carried out using the maximum likelihood method in panel data, show that the countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (EMCCA) are developing strategic behaviours in the supply of public inputs, particularly in the public infrastructure sector. Consequently, EMCCA countries need to be aware of the existence of this phenomenon in order to improve their public input supply strategies, and also to improve their positioning on the international market for the location of economic activities. |
| Keywords: | EMCCA, public infrastructure, strategic interactions, territorial competition |
| JEL: | H41 H54 H77 |
| Date: | 2021–03–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:106563&r=all |
| By: | Ruth Cadaoas Tacneng; Klarizze Anne Martin Puzon; Thierno Barry |
| Abstract: | Using hand-collected survey and experimental data, we examine the determinants of financial literacy as well as the link between self-reported risk and elicited risk preferences in a least developed African country, Guinea. We measure financial literacy as the sum of three elements: financial knowledge, attitude, and behaviour. Our findings indicate that the lack of a significant relationship between our financial literacy measure and risk preferences is caused by the crowding out effects of financial attitude and knowledge. |
| Keywords: | Literacy, Risk attitudes, Africa, Investment decisions |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-58&r=all |
| By: | Klaaren, Jonathan |
| Abstract: | Influenced by processes of globalization and localization, many fields of social and commercial practice – including legal services – across Africa are undergoing rapid transformation. It should come as no surprise that these processes of globalization and transformation include the ongoing transformation of corporate lawyering. Lawyers from Johannesburg to Algiers – not to mention Khartoum and Ouagadougou – are experiencing and participating in rapid global change in their profession and everyday work. This paper identifies some of the questions and issues that emerge from this process, as well as providing a vignette of the South African corporate legal sector and tentatively outlining the emergence of an African corporate lawyering field. It does so in order to propose a research agenda into the trends and potential pathways of growth in this field. It does so in four steps, moving from a theoretical frame to one of the Global South to a portrait of the South African jurisdiction and ending with an agenda for African corporate lawyering. |
| Date: | 2021–01–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:qw4d8&r=all |
| By: | Segun Michael Ojo; Edward Oladipo Ogunleye |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of technological leapfrogging on manufacturing value-added in SSA. The study utilizes secondary data spanning 1990 to 2018. The data is analyzed using cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lags (CS-ARDL) and cross-sectional distributed lags (CS-DL) techniques. The study found that technological leapfrogging is a positive driver of manufacturing value-added in SSA. This implies that SSA can copy the foreign technologies and adapt them for domestic uses, rather than going through the evolutionary process of the old technologies that are relatively less efficient. If the governments of SSA could reinforce their absorptive capacity and beef up productivity through proper utilization of the existing technology. The productive activities of the domestic firms will stir new innovations and discoveries that will eventually translate into indigenous technology |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2103.16049&r=all |