Search

This paper presents a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model that assesses the impacts of the Covid‐19 pandemic on different economic sectors in Cameroon. A special feature of the CGE model used in this study is that it accounts for the importance of the informal sector in Cameroon. Indeed, more than 80% of the employed work in the informal sector, which is characterized by the precariousness and instability of income and employment over time and space. Simulation results suggest that economic sectors such as construction, education, hotels and restaurants and commerce should receive special attention, as they have experienced the most severe employments losses. This calls for a differentiated support from the government to protect employment in these industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impacts of the Covid‐19 pandemic on employment in Cameroon. Using data collected from a rapid survey led by the National Institute of Statistics, on a sample of 1,310 respondents from April to May 2020. These data show that a large proportion of workers suffered a wage cut (60.93%) and temporary job suspension (31.6%), and the smallest proportion suffered job loss (7.47%). The results of the logistic regression show that lower frequency of outgoings to work, difficulties in accessing transport services and the loss of customer confidence have a strong negative impact on both wage cuts and temporary suspensions of work. The closure (total or partial) of activities has increasingly enhanced job loss. Further, the log of odds show that workers in private firms are more affected than their peers in public firms, and the middle‐aged are the most affected group. So, it is recommended to revamp the old methods of activity into digital innovation that enables less physical touch and find an appropriate way to support those who have lost their jobs during this Covid‐19 pandemic, particularly in the private sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper seeks to understand if education can be an effective tool in achieving gender equality in labour force participation in Cameroon. For this purpose, the multinomial and binary logit models are estimated. The paper accounts for the potential endogeneity of education in the equation of labour force participation by using the instrumental variables approach. Data used are data on employment and the informal sector obtained from the National Institute of Statistics in Cameroon. The findings shed light on the negative impact of being a woman on the probability of getting a job. They also show that education and the interaction term between gender and education has a positive and statistically significant impact on the probability of working in the public and the formal private sectors. These results suggest that education yields a premium skill which offsets the negative effect of being a woman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the 'financial revolving door' hypothesis in Cameroon over the 1970-2010 period by extending the analysis to other types of capital flows such as Official Development Assistance (ODA) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The paper shows that a one-dollar increase in external debt leads to an increase in capital flight of 47-62 cents. This increase in capital flight mainly stems from changes in the private component of external debt. Capital flight is twice more sensitive to an increase in oil revenues than external debt. The paper further underscores the importance of the political and institutional environment. Even though corruption exacerbates the relationship, political and institutional stability helps to mitigate illicit capital outflows arising from an increase in external debt. With regard to the effect on ODA and FDI, the paper found it to be of little significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the amount of capital flight associated with the natural resources sector (oil and timber) in Cameroon. The paper adjusted the methodology proposed by Boyce and Ndikumana () to take into account the practice of misinvoicing in the oil and timber industries using data from World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) and COMTRADE. The results confirm that the natural resources sector, and in particular the oil and timber industry, is an important conduit of capital flight through trade misinvoicing. This finding underscores the need to improve governance in the extractive industries, as well as the quality of institutions, especially those that are in charge of trade transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses the Poverty Analysis Macroeconomic Simulator (PAMS), a World Bank framework and updates its interface with the Cameroon government macroeconomic framework to analyze the potential impact of the implementation of the HIPC initiative on poverty alleviation. According to the main findings, it is very likely that Cameroon would succeed in achieving the poverty Millennium Development Goal. However, this result would be feasible if and only if the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) is fully implemented. That is not very certain because of the failure already observed during the first year of PRSP implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses results from a survey on regulation, growth and performance of SMEs in Central and Littoral provinces of Cameroon's manufacturing and retail sectors. Trade regulation and company law have a negative impact on small and medium-size businesses, being more pronounced on the trading volumes of younger enterprises. Corruption in general, paying bribes to tax regulators, age of business owner and business location in the Littoral province impact negatively on trading volumes. Total registration cost impacts negatively on business trading volumes which then impacts on business performance and growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the determinants of borrowing, effects of borrowing on economic well-being, and potential disparity in responses by sources of well-being, location and gender, while controlling for other correlates. The 2001 Cameroon household consumption survey and a range of survey-based econometric methods that purge parameter estimates of potential intra-cluster correlation, endogeneity and sample selection biases were used. Access to credit/borrowing is strongly associated with household economic well-being irrespective of source of well-being. Rural well-being is significally more contingent on credit access than urban well-being. Male-headed households rely more significantly on credit access to enhance well-being than their female counterparts. Higher levels of education associate more significantly with well-being enhancement than lower levels, more so for female-headed households than their male counterparts. To sustain the impact of credit on well-being, accompanying measures - availability of sufficient funds, quality services by lenders, physical infrastructures, healthcare and training - are required. These findings are useful in the context of economic recovery and poverty reduction under the current situation in Cameroon, where financial intermediation is limited and penetration is shallow. To better serve the needs of the economically active poor, a microfinance delivery model is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies and decomposes sources that explain household economic well-being in Cameroon. It uses the 2001 and 2007 Cameroon Household Consumption Surveys, synthetic variables constructed by the multiple correspondence analysis and econometric approaches that correct for potential endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity in a step-wise manner and simultaneously. Sources of well-being that explain poverty are then decomposed into growth and redistribution components. Variables that significantly explain household economic well-being are education, health, household size, fraction of active household members, working in the formal sector and area of residence. Decomposition analysis shows that the growth components largely account for changes in deprivation in terms of each regressed-income source. With the exception of the income source education, redistribution components slowed down progress in alleviating shortfall in other regressed-income sources. These results have implications for public interventions that affect education and health for all, labour market participation and infrastructure development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper illustrates how, in relation to globalization, formal and informal land institutions are prone to generate conflict over land rights and examines the implications of such conflicts on security levels of access to primary assets for the poor in two villages in Cameroon — Vekovi and Ekona. The land laws in Cameroon are an outcome of its colonial heritage and exist alongside the communal tenure system. As the issue of land awareness comes to the fore, engendered partly by population pressure, relative price changes and the commoditization of land, conflicts develop: farmer–grazer conflicts in Vekovi, and farmer–farmer and indigenous people–state conflicts in Ekona. The rent-seeking attitude of administrative and judicial authorities, who use inconsistencies in the dual tenure system, reduces the possibility of negotiating lasting solutions to land-related conflicts in these villages. The social cost of this behaviour is not limited only to mutual distrust but also includes the opportunity costs of both time and financial resources mobilized by the parties in conflict to follow-up legal procedures. The informal land tenure system generally operates in opposition to the national land laws in our case study villages, an atmosphere that generates or exacerbates conflict situations that create insecurity and restrict productivity-enhancing investments. Land markets are more buoyant in Ekona, which is relatively more cosmopolitan and with farm-to-market roads that are fairly developed, than in Vekovi, which experiences net out-migration and is poorly accessible. As a more homogenous society with strong traditional conventions, land transfer in Vekovi remains biased in favour of males, while Ekona enjoys gender neutrality in access to land. Conflict adjudication in the case study villages would be more legitimate if both formal and informal interpretations inform the land dispute settlement mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews theoretical frameworks for sectoral decomposition and assesses the within- and between-sector contributions to changes in aggregate poverty in Cameroon informed by the Shapley Value decomposition rule. Between 1984 and 1996 poverty remained a rural phenomenon in Cameroon. It became more widespread, deeper and severer in both rural and urban areas, but more so in urban than rural areas. While the within-sector effects disproportionately accounted for the increase in poverty in the period 1984–96, the between-sector contributions in both rural and semi-urban areas played a mitigating role on the worse effects of the increase in poverty. These findings infer the potential positive feedback effects of migration such as remittances, and/or increases in rural consumption expenditure in the face of rural underemployment, as effective strategies used by migrants to lift their families and villages out of the worse effects of poverty. The implication of this interpretation is that decision-makers need to better understand the factors that push or pull potential migrants. Rural–urban mobility could, therefore, be viewed as a strategy used by households to moderate the worse effects of poverty and a vector of shared growth. The implications for public policy, in terms of open unemployment and associated social and insecurity problems at the receiving end, point to the wisdom of addressing the push-factors via targeting more in favour of rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]