Impact of imports of capital goods on economic growth in Ivory Coast
December 2024
One of the challenges facing Ivory Coast is the transformation of its agricultural production. This transformation involves the importation of capital goods. The study analyzed the influence of capital goods imports on the economic growth of Ivory Coast. Initially, a thorough literature review was conducted. Following this, the methodology was detailed, model variables were identified, and estimation was performed....
Impact of treasury single account on corruption in the Nigerian public sector
January 2024
This research looked at the impact of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) on the degree of corruption in Nigeria's public sector. The study was driven by the rising amount of public corruption, in which several agencies maintained numerous accounts without accountability. To combat this threat, the federal government implemented the TSA strategy. The question is, how does the Treasury Single Account Policy affect...
Export diversification and economic growth: Evidence from Zimbabwe
September 2023
This paper employed the Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model to examine the effects of export diversification on economic growth using Zimbabwe’s annual time series data for the period 1995 to 2020. The Herfindahl index (HI) was used as a measure of export diversification. The control variables included are; capital, labour, direct investment, GDP per capita, the number of export products and secondary...
Food Prices and Economic Well-Being in Sub-Saharan Africa
August 2016
Over the years, Sub-Saharan Africa has been one of the regions worst hit with the deleterious effects of food insecurity owing to the soaring prices of food items. Therefore, this paper examines the effects of rising food prices on economic well-being in 31 Sub-Sahara African countries from 2001-2012 using panel regressions. Findings from the study reveal that both contemporaneous and the initially prevailing food...
The Impact of Drought on Technical Efficiency of Smallholder Farmers in Hurungwe, Zimbabwe
August 2016
Increasing drought frequencies due to climate change, pose a serious threat to rain-fed farmers in rural Africa where the policy thrust points to improving efficiency of these farmers. This article uses cross sectional data collected from 411 randomly selected farmers and applies the stochastic frontier method (SFM) to investigate the extent to which drought influences technical efficiency of smallholder farmers in...
TESTING THE VALIDITY OF WAGNER’S LAW IN THE NAMIBIAN CONTEXT: A TODA-YAMAMOTO (TY) GRANGER CAUSALITY APPROACH, 1991-2013
August 2016
This paper examines the validity of Wagner’s (1883) hypothesis on the direction of causality between sectoral public expenditures and economic growth in Namibia for the period 1991-2013. It focuses on public expenditure on education, health and capital goods. Wagner law states that an increase in economic activity would lead to an increase in public expenditure while Keynesian law states that an increase in public...
Determinants of Commercial banks’ interest rate spreads in Botswana
August 2016
The paper investigated the determinants of commercial banks’ interest rate spreads in Botswana using time series cross-sectional analysis for the period of 2004Q1 to 2014Q4. Factors empirically tested are bank-specific, industry-specific and macroeconomic data. Results indicate that bank intermediation, GDP, inflation and bank concentration are positively related to interest rate spread. The negative sign of the...
Do Economic Policy Decisions affect Stock Market Development in Ghana?
August 2016
The Efficient Market Hypothesis proposes that macroeconomic policy actions do not influence stock market development but the Tobin’s q theory argues otherwise. This paper uses the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique to investigate the impact of macroeconomic policy on the development of the Ghana Stock Exchange for the period 1991-2011. The paper finds government revenue and exchange rate reduce stock...
The Response of Banking Sector Development to Financial and Trade Openness in the Presence of Global Financial Crisis in Africa
August 2016
Africa’s financial system is strongly bank-based and so this paper investigate whether economic growth, financial openness and trade openness contribute to the development of the banking sector in the presence and absence of global financial crisis. The results from PMG/ARDL suggest that banking sector develops independently of economic growth in lower-middle and high income countries while it develops as demand...
Impact Assessment of the SADC FTA on SACU Member States: A CGE Analysis
December 2015
This paper provides a quantitative assessment of the implications for Southern African Customs Union (SACU) members of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) Free Trade Area (FTA). Specifically it addresses the following policy questions that are of concern to SACU policy makers: *What are the costs and benefits of regional trade liberalisation and economic integration for individual Member States of...
Impact of Environmental Quality on Health Status: A Study of 12 Southern African Development Community (SADC) Countries between 2000 and 2008
December 2015
This paper used two panel data models estimated by the random effects and fixed effects approach to establish the impact of environmental quality on health status in 12 SADC countries between 2000 and 2008. Proxies of environmental quality used in the paper are carbon emissions, access of people to improved water sources and improved sanitary facilities. Health status was measured by infant mortality rate. Environmental...
Informal sector labour demand: Evidence from Zimbabwe’s urban informal metal sector
December 2015
This paper investigates the major determinants of labour demand in Zimbabwe’s urban informal metal sector. Furthermore, the study looks at employment trends in the urban informal metal sector. The paper employs the ordinary least squares (OLS) technique and three stage least squares (3SLS) to take care of the endogeneity problem. The study establishes that Zimbabwe’s urban informal metal firms use paid and...
Import Penetration, FDI Inflows and Non-Oil Export Performance in Nigeria (1981-2012): A Cointegration and Error Correction Analysis
December 2015
The paper investigates the effects of import penetration and FDI inflows on the performance of Nigeria’s non-oil exports in the period from 1981-2012 using the methodology of ARDL (Bounds test) approach to cointegration and error correction analysis. The analysis indicates that import penetration impacted positively on the performance of Nigeria’s non-oil export in the short run, though its long run impact...
An Investigation of the Relationship between Capital Levels and the Performance of Banks in Zimbabwe from 2009 to 2013
December 2015
The revision of minimum capital requirements by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe from US$12.5 million to US$100 million in July 2012 sparked considerable debate as to the likely effects of such a policy. The paper thus investigates the relationship between capital levels and the performance of banks in Zimbabwe for the period 2009-2013. To that end, we used semi-annual time-series data for fourteen banks. Data from...
Fixed Income Market Efficiency: Evidence from Kenya’s 10-Year Local Currency Bond
December 2014
This paper tests for long memory in the yield changes and volatility of Kenya’s benchmark 10-year government bond, in order to evaluate the informational efficiency of the local currency market. Using the ARFIMA-FIGARCH model the statistical properties of yield changes and volatility are simultaneously estimated. Evidence of long memory in both yield changes and volatility are conclusively demonstrated. This...
The Impact of Bank and Stock Market Developments on Economic Growth in Zimbabwe: 1988 To 2012
December 2014
The paper examines the short and long run impact of bank and stock market developments on growth in Zimbabwe using annual data from 1988-2012, inclusive. The study uses a financially-augmented production growth function and applies the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach and the error correction mechanism to simultaneously examine the short and long run relationships. Bank and stock market developments...
Capital Account Liberalisation and Foreign Direct Investmentin Nigeria: A Bound-Testing Approach
December 2014
This study focuses on the neoclassical counter-revolution framework to investigate the relationship between capital account liberalisation and foreign direct investment in Nigeria for the periods 1980-2011. The technique of analysis employed is the Bound-Testing Approach. This technique, which was later re-parameterized to investigate the short-run dynamics, is primarily used to ascertain the long-run equilibrium...
Credit Demand Amongst Farmers in Mukono District, Uganda
December 2014
The role of credit in promoting economic activity cannot be underestimated. Nevertheless, credit extension to the agricultural sector in Uganda is dismal compared to other sectors. This study uses cross sectional data collected from 127 farmers in Mukono District, Uganda to shed some light on access to, and the characteristics of demand for credit among the farming communities. We employ the binary logit model...
Determinants of Informal Employment: A Case of Tanzania’s Construction Industry
December 2014
This paper analyses the determinants of informal employment in Tanzania’s construction industry. A Logit regression model is employed in estimating factors that influence the choice of type of employment (formal versus informal) for micro and small entrepreneurs (MSEs). The results reveal that higher earnings in the informal compared to the formal settings – given the professional status of the micro and...
Determinants of Commercial Banks’ Interest Rate Spread in Namibia: An Econometric Exploration
June 2014
This paper investigates the determinants of commercial banks interest rate spread in Namibia, using a panel data analysis of bank level dada. It applied the OLS technique to identify the bank-specific variables that have been influencing interest rate spread in Namibiaover the period 2004 – 2011. The results of the study indicate that deposit market share, liquidity levelsand operating costs are the main...
Tanzania’s Revealed Comparative Advantage and Structural Transformation
June 2014
This study examines Tanzania’s structural transformation by using the revealed comparative approach using export data for 2001, 2002 and 2011, at the second level of the Harmonised System (HS). Using global data, the study finds that for 2002 and 2011, agricultural products, fish and minerals have comparative advantage over other product groups. For the periods 2001 and 2011 for which Tanzanian data is used, these...
The Textile and Clothing Sector in Botswana: Challenges and Opportunities
June 2014
This paper considers the performance of the Textile and Clothing (TC) sector in Botswana and reviews various national and international incentive schemes aimed at developing TC exports. The analysis shows that domestic policies and preferential trade regimes helped establish the sector and still play a central role in its continued operation. However, the sector has failed to take advantage of existing trade preferences...
Does Efficiency Wage Hypothesis Hold in Tanzanian Labour Market?
June 2014
The primary objective of this paper is to test the hypothesis of efficiency wage in the context of Tanzania labour market. The test is facilitated via estimating the correlation between firm level productivity and firm level weighted average wage in Tanzania manufacturing enterprises. The study uses panel dimension of the data to estimate Cobb Douglas’ production function that controls for time invariant...
The Impact of Microfinance on Household Welfare in Botswana
June 2014
The study investigated the impact of microfinance on household welfare in Botswana using a nationally representative sample of 503 households and an econometric model adapted from Coleman (1999). The results suggested that microfinance had no significant effect on household welfare, which is consistent with Okurut and Bategeka (2006); Banerjee et al (2013); Coleman (1999). Household welfare is positively and...
Determinants of Inequality in Cameroon: A Regression-Based Decomposition Analysis
December 2013
This paper applies the regression-based inequality decomposition approach to explore determinants of income inequality in Cameroon using the 2007 Cameroon household consumption survey. The contribution of each source to measured income inequality is the sum of its weighted marginal contributions in all possible configurations of sources as sanctioned by the Shapley value decomposition rule. Regressed-income sources...
The Determinants of Inflation in Botswana and Bank of Botswana’s Medium-Term Objective Range
December 2013
This study is motivated by the high and unstable episodes of inflation in Botswana over the last 20 years or so. This is despite the Bank of Botswana’s (BOB) concerted effort to keep inflation at its minimum and stable over time. More specifically, it has been attempting to bring down and keep inflation within the medium-term objective range of 3 to 6percent. The objectives of this study are, therefore, to: (a)...
An analysis of tourism contribution to economic growth in SADC Countries
December 2013
The study how the tourism sector can be an engine of economic growth in SADC member countries. The paper found the contribution of tourism to GDP, employment, export receipts and investment is significant. Although this sector’s contribution to the economy varies among SADC countries, the the study found that Seychelles and Mauritius rely heavily on tourism vis-à-vis its contribution to GDP, employment,...
Consumption Response to Diaspora Remittances in Zimbabwe
December 2013
This paper explores the impact of remittances on private consumption in Zimbabwe for the period 1980 to 2007. An augmented Keynesian consumption function which incorporates income, remittances, exchange rate, taxation, inflation and an economic and political instability dummy variable is postulated for this purpose. We also postulate a remittance equation with consumption, income, financial deepening, inflation, trade...
Welfare Effects of Higher Energy and Food Prices in Botswana: A SAM Price Multiplier Analysis
December 2013
Using a social accounting matrix (SAM) multiplier framework, the paper examines the welfare effects of higher prices of internationally traded energy and food commodities on economic sectors in Botswana. These are adverse supply–side shocks to Botswana since the country is a net importer of energy and food commodities. The findings indicate that the effects of these shocks are heavily concentrated on very few...
Is it true that Good Institutions Alleviate the Resource Curse? A Re- assessment of Existing OLS Cross Country Evidence
December 2012
The paper tests the hypothesis that the effect of resources on growth is conditional on the quality of institutions, by further building on Mehlum, Moene, and Torvik’s (2006b) influential work. Advances are made by re-testing the hypothesis, using: (a) a dataset of up to 53 countries over the period 1984-2003; and (b) a resource abundance indicator that focuses on non-renewable resources alone rather than the ones...
Measuring the second economy in Zimbabwe
December 2012
The second economy in Zimbabwe have grown from less than 10% of official GDP at independence in 1980 to an all-time higher share of 70 percent in 2008 before subsiding to a still higher percentage share of 52% by end of 2009. The existence of such a sizeable sector of unrecorded domestic and international economic transactions has several implications relevant for policy. First, it suggests that cconsiderable efforts...
Determinants of Condom use in Botswana: An empirical Investigation of the Role of Gender
December 2012
This article is largely motivated by the observation that gender imbalance have tended to aggravate females susceptibility to HIV infection as men used their dominance to dictate on issues of sexual activity with their female counterparts. The paper analyses factors influencing the use of condoms by both sexes and discovers that both males and females respond in similar fashion albeit at differing intensities to...
Monetary Policy Shocks and Stock Returns Reactions: Evidence from Botswana
December 2012
This paper applies standard vector autoregressions (VAR) technique to quarterly data for Botswana for the period 1993-2010 to investigate the impact of monetary policy shocks on stock returns. Monetary policy is measured by changes in the 91 day Bank of Botswana Certificates rate. Our results indicate that positive interest rate innovations are associated with increases, rather than decreases, in the aggregate stock...
Dynamics of Governance, Investment and economic Growth in Nigeria
December 2012
There is a general argument that, in all countries, the process of economic growth, governance and investment/capital formation is closely intertwined. The importance of the soundness and effectiveness of governance in attaining increased investment and sustained economic growth cannot be overemphasized. The specific objectives were to estimate the short-run dynamics as well as the error-correction mechanism of...
The Impact of Increased Efficiency in the Transport Sectors? Energy Use: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis for the Botswana Economy
December 2011
Energy efficiency is viewed as a tool for achieving both sustainable development and environmental sustainability in Botswana and world-wide. This is premised on the standard wisdom that energy-augmenting technical progress reduces aggregate energy consumption. In the energy economics literature, there is disagreement as to whether the beneficial effect of energy efficiency stimulus on energy consumption is partially or...
DEFENSE EXPENDITURE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: THE NIGERIA EXPERIENCE 1977-2006
December 2011
The study presents empirical evidence on the relationship between the level of economic growth and defense expenditures in the case of Nigeria from the period of 1977 to 2006. The study employed the supply model based on the production function proposed in Feder(1983) as extended by Biswas and Ram(1986).It further explore the use of unit root tests and found that the variables of capital stock, labor stock, defense...
HOUSEHOLDS WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR IMPROVED WATER QUALITY AND RELIABILITY OF SUPPLY IN CHOBE WARD, MAUN
December 2011
This survey investigated the willingness to pay for an improved water quality and reliability in Chobe ward in Maun. On average, 54% of the households are willing to pay for improved water quality. It is therefore apparent that Chobe Ward, Maun residents in general regard water as an economic good as they are willing to pay for its provision. Those with a higher income were willing to pay for an improved water quality...
CREDIT RATIONING AND SME DEVELOPMENT IN BOTSWANA: IMPLICATIONS FOR ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION
December 2011
Economic diversification is a key policy goal for the Government of Botswana. SMEs offer a feasible option towards the actualisation of this goal. The expansion of SMEs in Botswana however is constrained by lack of access to bank credit. This constrained access to credit is argued in the literature to be due to the credit rationing behaviour of banks emanating from asymmetric information in credit markets. Constrained...
Are Devaluations Contractionary in Small Import-dependent Economies? Evidence from Botswana
December 2011
This study tests the contractionary devaluation hypothesis in the context of a small open import-dependent economy. Using an error-correction model that controls for monetary policy, fiscal policy, base country output and interest rates, the study finds that currency devaluations are contractionary in the long run and expansionary in the short-run. Other results are that increases in government consumption expenditure...
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