African Economic Research Consortium Repository

Communities in DSpace

Select a community to browse its collections.

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

1. Policy Briefs
Concise summaries that present research findings and policy recommendations on key economic issues to inform policymakers and stakeholders.
2. Research Papers
In-depth studies and scholarly articles that explore various aspects of economic theories and empirical research, contributing to academic discourse and understanding.
3. Working Papers
Preliminary reports on ongoing research that are circulated to encourage discussion and suggestions for revision before final publication.
4. Theses and Dissertations:
CPP Thesis: Rigorous academic research focused on pertinent policy issues, typically by candidates of the Collaborative PhD Program. CMAP Thesis: Scholarly works by Master's candidates involved in the Collaborative Master's in Economics Program, showcasing original research in the Economics sector. CMAAE Thesis: Advanced research endeavors by Master's students under the Collaborative Master's in Agricultural and Applied Economics, contributing to knowledge in agricultural economics and related fields CMAAE Thesis
5. Other Publications
A diverse range of documents including, but not limited to, conference papers, book chapters, and research updates that do not fall under the conventional categories.

Recent Submissions

Item

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Income Inequalities in Cameroon: The Influence of Employment Status

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-08-12) DEFFO, Rodrigue NDA'CHI; TCHOUMDOP, Michèle Estelle NDONOU; KAMGA, Benjamin FOMBA

Due to interruptions and closures of activities resulting from social distancing measures implemented to limit the spread of the virus, individuals have seen their incomes reduced, increasing poverty and pre-crisis inequalities. These inequalities have been exacerbated by measures such as the increase in family allowances, which only benefit civil servants. The objective of this study is to analyse the contribution of the activity situation due to COVID-19 to household income inequalities in Cameroon. The data used are those collected from 604 households by CEREG as part of an IDRC-funded study on the impact of public policies related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal. The Gini and Theil inequality indices show increased income inequality in households where the head is not employed. The conditional quantile regression shows that employment status has a significant and higher effect during severe restrictions on the incomes of typical households in the 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles. On the other hand, this increased the distribution of income inequalities within households in the first three quartiles, more than 70% of which can be explained by the change in behaviour resulting from the loss of employment by the heads of household. This result is confirmed by the fact that the share of employment in the formation of income inequalities fell during severe restrictions, according to the Shapley decomposition.

Item

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on School Attendance in Kenya

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-08-05) Oleche, Martine; Muriithi, Moses; Kamau, Paul; Njoka, John; Ngigi, Samuel

Shocks, whether idiosyncratic or covariate, have been common in many parts of the world and are a development challenge. Shocks ordinarily manifest themselves in many forms, and they affect households and sectors differently depending on the nature and the status in which a household finds itself in when it strikes. Theoretically, shocks of any nature adversely affect human capital development in a country. The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the most recent and severe shocks that brought the entire globe to a halt. This paper was designed to investigate how COVID-19 affected school attendance in Kenya as a form of human capital development. Kenya’s gains in human capital development have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit the country in March 2020. Arguably, the COVID-19 pandemic worsened the education sector due to closure of schools for a period of at least seven months (March October 2020). While some learners were able to transition to online studies, most students especially in public schools, stayed at home without any form of learning. The results show that presence of COVID-19 incidences reduced the probability of children attending school. Being a male child and child belonging to a single parent household head had a reduced probability of school attendance. Households with higher incomes had an increased probability of school attendance while controlling for COVID-19 incidences. Children from elderly household heads had a reduced probability of school attendance when controlling for COVID-19 incidences. In future, there is need to put measures that can support public primary schools to cope with such shocks, e.g. acquisition of ICT gadgets, subsidised data bundles and basic media equipment that facilitates remote learning.

Item

EDUQUER LES ENSEIGNANTS EDUQUER LES ENFANTS

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-06-03) Sitati, Melap; Murebui, Rosemary

La disponibilité d’enseignants adéquats et qualifiés permet d’améliorer les résultats scolaires des apprenants. Des enseignants qualifiés et expérimentés créent un environnement d’apprentissage sûr et favorable à la santé mentale et émotionnelle des élèves. Des enseignants compétents et qualifiés préparent les apprenants à la vie au-delà de la salle de classe.

Item

La Relation Paradoxale Entre le Capital Humain et La Prospérité : Leçons Tirées D’études de Cas Sur le Burkina Faso

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-06-03) Siri, Alain; Combary, Omer

• L’amélioration des revenus des travailleurs passe par le développement de leur capital humain dans ses dimensions telles que l’éducation, la santé, la nutrition et les compétences. • L’augmentation de l’offre de services de développement du capital humain ne suffit pas à garantir une amélioration de leurs revenus. • L’amélioration des revenus nécessite la combinaison d’une expansion de l’offre et d’une augmentation des rendements de l’éducation et de la formation, de la santé et de la nutrition. • Une évaluation régulière des politiques permet de formuler efficacement des politiques liées au développement du capital humain qui favoriseront l’augmentation des revenus.

Item

Order Flow-Based Microstructure Analysis of the Spot Exchange Rate in Zambia

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-05-13) Phiri, Sydney Chauwa; Chisha, Keegan; Chipili, Jonathan M.

Traditional macroeconomic fundamentals have challenges in explaining nominal exchange rate movements at short horizons partly due to their inability to capture expectations. Using data from the Bank of Zambia, and an order flow-based microstructure model within a vector autoregressive (VAR) framework, this study establishes that order flows in the foreign exchange market in Zambia contain useful information in explaining daily exchange rate movements for the period 2016‒2020. Daily order flows of four out of 18 different customer types are found to contain information content with the interbank, manufacturing, households, as well as wholesale and retail being the most important. Cross-market order flows contain less information to explain daily movements in the kwacha/US dollar exchange rate. The policy lesson from the empirical results points to the central bank paying attention to the demand requirements by the four identified segments of the foreign exchange market that can potentially drive up the exchange rate and generate inflationary pressures.

Item

Investigating The Gender Wage Gap In the Nigerian Labour Market: A Distributional Approach

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-04-10) Nwosu, Emmanuel O.; Orji, Anthony

This study investigates the gender wage gap in Nigeria by extending the focus of the existing literature in two ways. First, we apply an extension of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition that relies on recentred influence function (RIF) regressions to analyze the gender wage gap at all points along the wage distribution. Second, we investigate changes in the gender wage gap between 2003/2004 and 2018/2019. The results unambiguously show that there is a significant gender wage gap in favour of men in Nigeria. This gap is statistically significant at all points of the wage distribution. Over time, we find that most of the wage difference is significantly accounted for by the wage structure effect, while the composition effect accounted for the wage gap at the lower end of the wage distribution during 2018/19. We also found a general decline in the gender wage gap along the entire wage distribution. In 2018/19, the gap is bigger at the bottom than at the top of the wage distribution, which is evidence in favour of a sticky floor in the Nigerian labour market. In terms of the contributions of individual covariates, we found that urban residence, unionization, education, public sector employment, and wage employment in agriculture has a significant reducing effect on the wage gap in favour of women. To address the gender wage gap in Nigeria, policy should focus more on ways to improve human capital among women and ensuring women are not segregated in top positions at the workplace. Key words: gender wage gap, quantile, recentred influence function, Nigeria, Nigerian labour market JEL Codes: C83; J08; J16; J21

Item

Explaining Food Insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Governance and Institutions

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-04-10) Gafa, Dede; Chachu, Daniel

The burgeoning literature on global food (in)security suggests that sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is lagging the rest of the world despite a period of decline in the prevalence of severe undernourishment. Using panel data covering 34 countries in the region for the period 2000 to 2015, this study examined the correlates and causes of food insecurity in SSA with emphasis on the role of domestic food production, governance, and institutions. The report also provides evidence on the mediating role of governance by examining how the quality of governance and institutions influence the effectiveness of domestic food production on food insecurity in the region. The POLICY BRIEF Explaining Food Insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Governance and Institutions Dede Gafa and Daniel Chachu October 2023 / No.797 2 Policy Brief No.797 paper uses an instrumental variable strategy. The findings suggest that domestic food production and improvements in governance quality, measured by economic freedom and government effectiveness, are fundamental drivers of food security in SSA. We also found that improving the quality of governance would enable countries to better translate domestic food production to reductions in the depth of food deficit and the prevalence of undernourishment. Nonetheless, in the absence of adequate domestic food production, governance reforms alone would be impotent in fostering food security in SSA. The paper further suggests that finding the right balance between State interventionism and market oriented policy reforms is essential to promote food security among African countries

Item

Crop Diversification, Household Nutrition, and Child Growth: Empirical Evidence from Ethiopia

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-04-10) Tesfaye, Wondimagegn Mesfin

Recently, there is a resurgence of interest in crop diversification as a strategy to deal with a variety of issues, including malnutrition in the context of a changing climate and poorly developed markets. However, the empirical evidence base to justify this policy position is thin. This research seeks to contribute to the growing literature and the policy discourse by providing empirical evidence on the impact of crop diversification on child growth using panel survey data, combined with historical weather data. The study finds that crop diversification has a positive but small impact on child growth. Results from analysis of heterogeneous effects POLICY BRIEF Crop Diversification, Household Nutrition, and Child Growth: Empirical Evidence from Ethiopia Wondimagegn Mesfin Tesfaye October 2023 / No.795 2 Policy Brief No.795 show that the positive effects are more pronounced in areas with limited access to markets. The study demonstrates that the positive effects of crop diversification on child growth could be mediated through its positive impacts on household diet diversity, diet quality, and income.

Item

The Puzzling Relationship between Human Capital and Prosperity: Lessons from Case Studies on Burkina Faso

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-04-05) Siri, Alain; Combray, Omer

The development of human caapital is recognised as being a significant factor in the growth and prosperity of individuals and Countries. An increase in levels of education,training, and improvement of health and nutrition, will lead to a rise in the incomes of the citizenry. Also, since the beginning of the 1980s, the Burkina Faso government has prioritised the evelopment of human capital in the conduct of public policy. To quote only a few figures, public expenditure on education, which represented only 1.4% of the GDP in 1996, was increased to 6% of the GDP in 2018. In regard to public expenditure on health, it almost doubled, increasing from 1.1% of the GDP in 2003 to 2.4% of the GDP in 2018.

Item

Skills that Shine

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-03-30) Macharia, John; Onsomu, Carol Bisieri; Mwangi, Stephie

In Kenya, youth unemployment rate is 3 times higher than adult unemployment and remains on an upward curve, despite efforts of the Government of Kenya (GOK) to bridge the gap through implemented and ongoing reforms like the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Kenya Youth Employment and Opportunities Project (KYEOP)

Item

The Devil is in the Details: On the Robust Determinants of Development Aid in G5 Sahel Countries

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2023-09-28) Bayale, Nimonka; Kouassi, Brigitte Kanga Kouassi

The authors are very grateful to the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) for the financial support. Thanks to the Chair of thematic research Group C (Finance and Resource Mobilization) Victor Murinde (SOAS, University of London, UK) and our resource persons, including Issouf Soumare (Université Laval, Canada), Alessandra Guariglia (University of Birmingham, UK), Bo Sjö (Linköping University, Sweden) and Prosper Dovonon (Concordia University, Canada) for their insightful comments during the research phase, especially in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data. The lead author would also like to thank the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) for the use of their facilities during the completion of this paper as a Research Fellow with the Macroeconomic Policy Division (MPD) of the UNECA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. However, the views expressed are those of the author and do not represent that of the United Nations (UN) or the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) and the AERC. Finally, the authors are very grateful to the anonymous reviewers and the Editor-in-Chief of Comparative Economic Studies, whose comments have greatly improved this paper.

Item

The Impact of Network Coverage on Adoption of Fintech Platforms and Financial Inclusion

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2023) Mothobi, Onkokame

We study the effect of mobile network coverage on adoption of financial technologies and financial inclusion. Using georeferenced survey data for nine sub-Saharan Africa countries combined with information on towers, we find that financial inclusion is positively influenced by coverage. We estimate that investment in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) towers to a radius of 2km per household would increase financial inclusion by 6% in Mozambique and 3% in Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal. In countries where mobile money is common, investment in Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) would have a larger impact on financial inclusion. We also find no gender disparities in digital financial inclusion. However, financial inclusion inequalities are still explained by differences in incomes, education level and location.

Item

Inclusion Financière, Interopérabilité et Développement du Marché dans la Communauté de l'Afrique de l'Est

(2023-07) Cracknell, David

La révolution de la finance numérique en Afrique de l'Est a contribué à une évolution rapide des services financiers, et en particulier des services basés sur l'argent mobile. Aujourd'hui, la capacité d'un client à effectuer des transactions de bout en bout d'un fournisseur à l'autre est considérée comme un élément important pour la poursuite du développement rapide du secteur financier. L'interopérabilité est censée promouvoir l'inclusion financière en favorisant un accès plus large et moins coûteux à une large gamme de services financiers. Le présent document répond aux questions concernant les avantages de l'interopérabilité du point de vue du secteur, la proposition de valeur attendue pour les clients et les structures tarifaires. Il établit comment l'interopérabilité a fonctionné dans la pratique en Afrique de l'Est. De ce point de vue, il détermine les facteurs qui ont influencé le succès ou le manque d'interopérabilité et examine l'impact de l'interopérabilité sur l'inclusion financière. Le document se tourne vers l'avenir en évaluant comment la technologie financière peut améliorer l'interopérabilité. Il présente les leçons que l'Afrique subsaharienne peut tirer de l'Afrique de l'Est en matière d'inclusion financière, de développement du marché et d'interopérabilité. En guise de conclusion, cette étude examine les implications des résultats de la recherche pour l'interopérabilité future. En l'absence de données exhaustives, le document s'est appuyé sur des recherches secondaires approfondies suivies de discussions avec 30 interlocuteurs principaux. Les interlocuteurs régionaux et internationaux sont des régulateurs, des décideurs politiques, des spécialistes des paiements, des bailleurs de fonds et des spécialistes du secteur financier. L'étude souligne les résultats impressionnants en termes de valeur et de volume des paiements qui peuvent être dérivés d'une plateforme interopérable, en citant l'évolution des plateformes bancaires numériques M-Pesa de Safaricom et Equity Bank au Kenya. Toutefois, les conclusions remettent en question les avantages supposés de l'interopérabilité des systèmes, en notant l'interopérabilité limitée réalisée à ce jour en Afrique de l'Est, qui résulte en partie des positions commerciales et concurrentielles adoptées par les participants de l'industrie. La position des régulateurs et des décideurs politiques évolue à mesure que s'accroît la pression en faveur de la mise en œuvre de plateformes interopérables au niveau national et que la définition de l'interopérabilité évolue pour inclure l'interopérabilité des données et des paiements. La technologie financière, en particulier les plateformes partagées, la banque en tant que service et les solutions basées sur l'informatique en nuage, peuvent améliorer l'interopérabilité, mais la politique doit évoluer pour soutenir ces progrès.

Item

The Impact of Changes in Nutritional Policy on the Determinants of Child Stunting: The Case of Rural and Urban Zambia

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2023-07) Bwalya, Richard; Kalinda, Thomson

This paper evaluates the impact of changes in nutritional policies on the underlying determinants of child stunting in Zambia using data from the 2010 and 2015 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS). Regression results show that although there are commonalities across rural and urban areas as well as between 2010 and 2015 in terms of the determinants of child stunting, significant differences between the regions and periods exist, which may have implications for the design of interventions. Decomposition results show that differences in the levels of endowment account for the majority of the observed differences in stunting between rural and urban areas for both periods, implying that interventions aimed at overcoming rural-urban disparities in child nutrition outcomes need to focus principally on bridging gaps in socioeconomic endowments.

Item

Identification and Estimation of Quadratic Food Engel Curves: Evidence from Cameroon

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2023-07) Wirba, Ebenezer Lemven

In this paper we estimate quadratic food Engel curves using data from the 2001, 2007 and 2014 Cameroon household consumption surveys. To address potential mismeasurement of regressors, we employ the heteroscedasticity-based identification strategy. Exploratory non-parametric analyses suggest quadratic forms for the food Engel curves. The regression results in this study confirm these patterns. At lower spending levels, unit increases in total spending increase the food budget share, while at levels above the spending thresholds, unit increases in total spending reduce the food budget share. We also find evidence of major shifts in the quadratic food Engel curves over time. These findings suggest that reducing taxes on food items would be more beneficial to poor households.

Item

Contract farming and access to formal credit in South Africa: A case of small scale sugarcane growers in the Felixton Mill area of KwaZulu-

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2023) Sifundza, Sandile Bongani

Sugarcane farming is one of the most important agricultural enterprises in South Africa and most of the people working in the agricultural sector are employed in the sugar industry. Sugarcane farmers and sugar mills contribute significantly to the economic survival of rural communities and towns where sugarcane is grown, in terms of employment opportunities. However, in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal, smallholder sugarcane farmers are faced with a serious problem of low productivity, partially caused by lack of access to formal credit. Formal financial institutions do not adequately provide credit to smallholder farmers, since they are considered to be non creditworthy and lack the required collateral. In the agricultural sector, one of the alternatives in solving the problem of inability to access formal credit is contract farming. Therefore, the main purpose of the study was to investigate the role of contract farming in improving access to formal credit for small-scale sugarcane farmers in the Felixton mill area in the KwaZulu-Natal province. The specific objectives were to (a) determine the status of access to formal credit for smallholder sugarcane farmers; (b) identify factors that determine smallholder sugarcane farmers’ access to credit from formal financial institutions; (c) identify factors that may lead sugarcane farmers to participate in contractual agreements; and (d) determine whether participating in contracts promotes access to formal credit for smallholder sugarcane farmers. In total, 220 small-scale sugarcane farmers were sampled for the survey, using a proportional stratified random sampling procedure. In analysing the data, both descriptive analysis and an econometric model were used in the study. The data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS 20.0). Two logistic regression models were estimated. One was estimated to identify the factors and characteristics that influence access to formal credit for smallholder farmers. The other was estimated to identify the different factors that influence smallholder sugarcane growers to participate in contractual arrangements with other value chain players. The results of the study indicate that most of the small-scale farmers in Felixton were credit constrained, as only 19% of the farmers had access to credit from formal credit sources. A majority of the farmers (94%) engaged in contractual agreements with other actors in the value chain. The results of the logit model revealed that engagement in contractual agreements by small-scale sugarcane farmers was statistically and positively influenced by farmers’ age, gender and whether or not they had received training in sugarcane production. Engaging in contract farming was also statistically, but negatively, influenced by access to the market and access to formal credit.

Item

Identifying possible misspecification in South African soybean oil future contracts

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2021-01) Nordier, Jean-Pierre

Soybean crushing¹ plants operate on a crush margin, which is the monetary difference between the combined sales value of mainly soybean meal and soybean oil and the cost of raw soybeans. However, given the high volatility in the prices of these three products, crushing plants normally secure these prices simultaneously. If not, they are vulnerable to the relative price variation between these three products.

Item

Scope effects in contingent valuation: an application to the valuation of irrigation water quality improvements in Infulene Valley, Mozambique

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2018-02) Graça, Manjate

This study uses the double-bounded bid elicitation format to test whether the willingness to pay (WTP) of 244 randomly selected residents of Maputo and Matola cities for wastewater quality improvements in the Infulene Valley is sensitive to internal and external scope. The Infulene Valley was selected because its wastewater is used as an input in vegetable irrigation. WTP was elicited and compared when the level of wastewater treatment was 100 % and when it was 50 %. The results show that the majority of those interviewed display high levels of knowledge regarding the risks associated with poor quality irrigation water, and that they have attitudes and perceptions receptive to a policy that aims to improve irrigation water quality. The WTP responses passed the bottom up (t= 15.28, p=0.000) and top down (t=14.07, p=0.000) internal and external (t=13.43, p=0.000) scope tests, suggesting that the level of wastewater treatment significantly influences households’ WTP. The following variables were statistically significant in the WTP model: income, age, education level, household size, gender, whether the household considers water scarcity as a priority issue, knowledge of the unsuitability of Infulene Valley water for vegetable irrigation, and whether the household is aware that the Infulene Valley is an important supplier of fresh vegetables to Maputo and Matola residents. The study concluded that the level of water treatment (high quality of treated wastewater) is a significant factor of preference over the alternative policy in wastewater treatment. The following recommendations derive from the study: policy makers should consider wastewater treatment planning and they should develop an irrigation water pricing system, as well as conservation practices to manage pollution problems at Infulene Valley. While this study provides an estimate of household values for irrigation water quality improvements in the Infulene Valley, is ultimately up to policy makers at the city and country levels to implement any changes.

Item

Milk production and marketing channel decisions of smallholder farmers in the Zambian milk value chain

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2019-07) Cheelo, Tulumbe

Dairy farming is a source of livelihood and a major income source for many of the rural Zambian farmers. The importance of the dairy sector cannot be overemphasised as its development has capacity to increase job creation and wealth generation. The sector makes insurmountable contributions to the nutrition status of the country and to the financial gains to the various value chain stakeholders. In an attempt to further develop these financial gains, several initiatives have been developed to encourage smallholder farmers’ participation in the sector, and more so, for women and the youth. Nonetheless, there is still low participation by these interest groups. This study aims to understand the factors that influence smallholder farmers’ decisions to participate in the Zambian dairy value chain, and particularly in terms of milk production and the selection of different marketing channels. The objectives of the study are therefore to: (i) determine the factors that influence smallholder farmers’ decisions to participate in milk production and the factors that influence milk volumes or milk production in Zambia, (ii) identify the factors influencing the choice of milk marketing channels among smallholder farmers in the Zambian milk value chain, and (iii) examine the characteristics of the youth and women in the milk production, as they compare with the characteristics of the control groups (non-youths and men).

Item

The impact of conservation agriculture adoption on farmer welfare: a comparative assessment of Kenya and Tanzania

(African Economic Research Consortium, 2021-05) Mpande, Brian

This paper used propensity score matching (PSM) technique and pooled cross-sectional data from 407 observations with 256 conservation agriculture (CA) adopters and 151 non-adopters from Kenya and Tanzania, to test whether CA causally improves smallholder farmer’s welfare. We find mixed results showing that CA has a statistically significant and positive impact on climate change adaptation, drought resilience, total maize production, food security, number of meals per day, household income, accumulation of productive assets, reduction of gender inequalities, improving social cohesion, reduced forest area cleared and soil health improvement. CA has a negative and statistically significant impact on total agricultural yield, agricultural production costs, and number of food insecure months, CA has no impact on addressing agricultural calendar bottlenecks. Since the cross-country analysis showed higher CA adoption rates in Tanzania relative to Kenya, policy could increase adoption rates in the latter by focussing on the less educated farmers, increasing access to input markets, demonstrating benefits from CA projects, and improving farmer mastery of CA technologies. The findings shed light on the role of sustainable agricultural practices and highlight cross-country experiences of CA technologies in improving the welfare of smallholder farmers.