Search

Abstract: This paper empirically examines the growth effects of stabilisation funds and fiscal rules in oil‐rich African countries, using Nigeria as a case study. The analysis captures the ‘international standard’ of the two fiscal instruments by empirically comparing the effects of Nigerian instruments with those of non‐African oil‐exporting countries (i.e. Norway and Mexico). The results show that the fiscal instruments are effective in Nigeria and that the effectiveness is comparable to that of non‐African economies, implying that the Nigerian instruments meet ‘international standard’. The paper also discusses the development policy implications of the results, one of which is that the fiscal instruments can be used to control risky behaviours of economic agents in oil‐rich African economies. For example, since the instruments are effective in increasing growth (i.e. real GDP growth) and limiting its volatility, they can be employed to control increases in demand for and supply of risky sex caused by increases in real per capita income during oil booms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a production function to examine the channels through which remittances affect output per worker in 31 Sub-Saharan African countries from 1980 to 2010. Lagged remittances increase physical capital per worker, average years of schooling and total factor productivity, but the effectiveness of remittances varies with the income level of the recipient nation. Although remittances have increased both physical capital and total factor productivity among the upper middle income nations, among the lower middle income, they have increased only the physical capital. Meanwhile a reduction in institutional risk has encouraged investment and efficiency, but its relationship to the effectiveness of remittances has been inconclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to investigate the factors that influence citizens' support for costly economic reforms in sub-Saharan Africa. This is relevant for several reasons, but the most obvious perhaps is that economic reform will be difficult if faced by strong resistance from citizens. In this paper, individual data from Round 4 of the Afrobarometer surveys is used to investigate how support for economic reforms is influenced by factors falling under the following broad categories: (i) Economic variables; (ii) group identity and fairness variables; (iii) Institutional and state/government variables; (iv) Demographic and control variables. An individual's trust in the president and the belief that the government manages the economy well are two of the most significant and robust factors. This is in keeping with the results found in Williamson (The Political Economy of Policy Reform, Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC, ). Another robustly significant variable is satisfaction with how democracy works in the country. Variables related to ethnic identity and community membership also play a significant role in support for costly economic reforms, which is in line with the theories put forward by van de Walle (African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 1979-1999. Cambridge University Press, New York, ). Females are less likely to support economic reforms, while individuals with higher levels of education are more likely to support economic reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses and compares two transformative moments of technologically mediated change in East Africa, the construction of the Uganda railway between Mombasa and Lake Victoria (1896-1903) and the introduction of fibre-optic cables that landed into the ports of Dar Es Salaam and Mombasa in 2009. The paper uses discourse analysis to examine how technologically mediated connectivity has been represented by political and economic actors during these transformative moments. In both cases we explore the origins of the expectations of connectivity and the hope and fear associated with them. Building on Massey's notion of power-geometry and Sheppard's concept of positionality, the paper focuses on power relationships in discussions of connectivity and asks how people understand the abilities of transformative technologies to modify positionalities and alter relational distance and proximity. Ultimately, by examining historical and contemporary expectations of connectivity in East Africa, this paper works towards more grounded and historicised understandings of the coming-together of technology and connectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper attempts to analyse the conditional β-convergence and its sources for 32 African countries over the period 1960-2008. The augmented Solow model with both gross domestic product ( GDP) per worker and per capita income is estimated using the dynamic system generalized methods of moments ( GMM) technique with the panel data. This is the first study on the sources of conditional β-convergence for African countries. According to the results of the augmented Solow model, income convergence rates are lower than those of GDP per worker. Moreover, total factor productivity convergence, human capital convergence and capital labour convergence are contributing towards the convergence of GDP per worker in Africa. This means that growth in the poorest African countries is being augmented by 'catch-up factor,' which is good news for them. However, convergence in terms of GDP per worker is not being fully translated into income per capita convergence. The demographic structure in the African continent with its record of persistent population growth has played an important role in lowering the income convergence of its countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African economic history has undergone impressive revitalization in the past decade. Much of the recent work is, quite naturally, inspired by developments in economic history at large, and increasingly - indirectly or directly - using markets as the organizing principle in understanding how economies evolve over time. More specifically, recent work assumes that markets create the possibility to use resources more efficiently, which, theoretically, enables economies to grow as long as institutions adjust and enable the population to exploit the arising opportunities. That is, the current works in African economic history are to a large extent grounded in Smithian growth models, labelled after Adam Smith's work on the mechanisms of long-term growth. This paper critically discusses the explanatory value of the Smithian growth models for understanding the long-term economic development in Africa. The latter is best described as recurrent growth episodes, and we argue that while Smithian models can account for initial periods of growth, they fail to explain why the growth was not sustained. We use the boom and busts of cocoa production in Ghana in the twentieth century as a case in point. We show that the decline in cocoa production was not caused by state policies distorting the functions of the markets, as the Smithian growth models suggest. Instead, the decline in production was an outcome of changes in the ecological and institutional conditions that caused the initial growth. The irony is that it was the initial growth in cocoa production that altered the conditions, making further growth in production impossible. We capture these changes - for the first time ever - by combining the concepts of forest rents and involutionary growth in an African case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of the institutional environment on the performance of 291 microfinance institutions in 34 sub-Saharan Africa countries during the period 2006 to 2014, by analysing the unbalanced panel data using fixed effects and generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation techniques. The panel regression results demonstrate strong evidence that a strong institutional environment has a positive effect on the performance of microfinance institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. More specifically, the findings reveal a positive and significant relationship between business freedom and microfinance performance in sub-Saharan Africa. These vital findings not only provide useful information to policy makers and key microfinance industry players, but also highlight the impact that institutional qualities have on microfinance performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Antipode is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This introduction distills the key findings and messages from the papers published in this issue, which consist of eight case studies on the causes and effects of capital flight from Africa. The case studies contribute to the literature by providing evidence that enables us to assess the validity and generalizability of the findings from cross-sectional and panel data studies. The evidence from the case studies confirms important empirical regularities on the causes of capital flight. In particular, the results confirm that external borrowing fuels capital flight, and that trade misinvoicing is an important channel of capital flight, especially in the case of natural resource-rich countries. The studies also underscore the important role of good institutions in alleviating the risks of capital flight, while political instability is found to be a driver of capital flight. The evidence from case studies provides valuable insights for the design of strategies aimed at curbing and preventing capital flight from Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the role of structural transformation in view of the remarkable growth performance of Sub‐Saharan African countries since the late 1990s. Our analysis covers 41 African countries over the period 1980 to 2014 and accounts for structural transformation by employing the analytical frameworks of (1) growth decomposition and (2) growth regression. Even though the low‐productive agricultural sector continues to employ most of the African workforce, our results reveal that structural transformation has taken place and that it has contributed significantly to African growth in the period 1980‐2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sub-Saharan Africa ( SSA) has long suffered from lagging productivity and excessive levels of indebtedness. Using both parametric and non-parametric techniques, this paper examines the impact of external debt on labour productivity growth and convergence across SSA economies over the period 1970-2010. The results indicate the presence of debt-overhang effects, regardless of model and sample specification. Debt reduction through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and Multilateral Debt Relief initiatives enhanced growth but was not successful in offsetting the debt-overhang effects. Moreover, excessive levels of external debt were responsible for divergence in output per worker over the early 1990s. Although this trend was reversed over the 2000s, reduction in debt through the debt relief initiatives seems to have been insufficient in helping heavily indebted countries in SSA catch up with the labour productivity levels of the best-performing economies in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether political instability leads to volatile inflation using a panel of 49 African countries. The study uses novel measures of political instability, particularly the state failure index and state fragility index. In the field of political instability and inflation volatility, this is the first study to measure inflation volatility as the conditional variance of inflation estimated from GARCH (1, 1) model. Adopting the system-generalized method of moments estimator for linear dynamic panel models for the sample period 1985-2009, the study documents a positive statistically significant effect of political instability on inflation volatility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Studies indicated differences between transnational family life for migrant mothers and fathers and that the effects on their “left‐behind” children differ according to who migrates. Yet little is known about why these differences exist. This paper aims to fill this gap by comparing transnational and nontransnational African families with parents living in Europe to understand their different family structures. We analyse three datasets with information on migrants from five African origin countries in eight European countries. Our analyses reveal important differences between transnational and nontransnational families and between transnational mothers and fathers. Transnational mothers are more often single, have children from multiple relationships, and start family life earlier than transnational fathers and nontransnational parents. This corresponds closely to what family sociologists have found make “fragile families” among nonmigrants. Our work thus indicates that policies aiming to improve migrants' lives need to consider the disadvantages that particularly migrant women experience in maintaining their family life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper studies the role played by the quality of property rights in the linkages of international capital flows into sub‐Saharan African (SSA) economies. Using panel data of 36 SSA countries over the period 1996–2015 and the ARDL procedure with the Pooled Mean Group regression method appropriate for non‐stationary panel data estimation, we account for the joint effects of property rights quality and openness to foreign capital flows on economic growth. We uncover the existence of a property rights quality threshold beyond which property rights either amplifies the spillovers effects or attenuates the negative effect of capital flows on economic growth. For instance, it takes a level of property rights of at least 60 to have a positive long‐term impact of capital flows on economic growth in natural resource‐poor African countries. The quality of property rights matters more to obtain spillover effects of capital flows on growth in natural resource‐poor countries than in their peer natural resource‐rich countries. Finally, with regard to the countries' income levels, capital flows have significant long‐term spillovers effects on economic growth in advanced African economies than in their low‐income peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Internacional del Trabajo is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper assesses the extent to which Sub- Saharan Africa ( SSA)'s business cycle is synchronized with that of the rest of the world ( Ro W). SSA's business cycle has not only moved in the same direction as that of the Ro W, but has also gradually drifted away from the G7 in favor of the BRIC. Trade with the BRIC has been the strongest driver of this shift. As fiscal policy stances in SSA and the BRIC are not synchronized, they have not caused output correlation. Also, financial openness, which is at an early stage in SSA, has acted as a neutral force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses an instrumental variables approach to estimate the relationship between trade openness and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Instrumental variables estimates show that economic growth has a significant negative contemporaneous effect on trade openness, while trade openness has a significant positive effect on economic growth. A 1 percentage point increase in the ratio of trade over GDP is associated with a short-run increase in growth of approximately 0.5% in a given year; the cumulative long-run effect on the level of GDP per capita is larger, reaching about 2%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the effect of changes in international financial markets on the debt dynamics in sub‐Saharan Africa in recent years. A key development is the rise of the private sector as both a lender and a borrower in African debt markets, a process that is associated with the growing integration of the region into global financial markets. The article argues that the Debt Sustainability Framework of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank has taken some steps to account for this growth of private sector, cross‐border debt, but such steps still fall short of what is needed. A full appreciation of the importance of private debt implies, first, that debt sustainability in sub‐Saharan Africa be understood in the context of countries' integration in global financial markets and the global liquidity cycles that characterize those markets and, second, that the interplay between private and public debt be monitored in order to provide a fuller picture of the impact of private sector debt on fiscal sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims at examining the debt threshold effects on economic growth in Africa. Non-dynamic and dynamic panel threshold regression approaches are used. The findings indicate that the estimated debt threshold is sensitive to the estimation technique used and to growth control variables included in the estimation. Existence of nonlinearities in the debt-growth nexus cannot be denied. The findings show that while low debt is neutral or growth-enhancing, high debt is consistently detrimental to growth for all the cases considered. This study shows that caution is needed when suggesting a debt threshold since this can be sensitive to modelling choice and to growth control variables. Nonlinearities in the debt-growth nexus are established but further analysis is needed to suggest a policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue that the answer to the question of whether the impact of corruption on development is homogenous, is no. Our optimism rest on how development may be conceptualised. When equated to a narrow measure in economic-wise which fundamentally ignores critical issues, then there is a possibility the outlook could be positive. But when conceptualised using a broad-based approach such as sustainable development, then the outlook could be negative. We assess a panel of 22 economies in Sub-Sahara Africa with the most recent dataset (1996-2013) from the World Bank and other reputable agencies. Our finding is quite robust. It holds in pooled OLS, Fixed effects and GMM within IV settings; and it also holds for different measures of institutions and different measures of development using growth per capita GDP and genuine wealth per capita, respectively. Taking stock of major policy blue-prints of selected countries in the region on the fight against corruption, we are able to point out that institutions play important role in insulating citizens against the devastation caused by corruption. Overall, through this comparison, we are able to signal that both incidental and systematic corruption poses a long-term threat to sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on literature about the failure of economic growth in Africa. Topics discussed include his argument on the wrong emphasis of cross-sectional literature on income and growth and his suggestion in the book "Africa: Why Economists Get It Wrong," on the need for a change in emphasis on the study of economics at the macro level in Africa.

This study uses annual balanced panel data for 25 sub-Saharan African economies over the period 1977-2009 to investigate the Granger causality relationship between trade openness and foreign direct investment ( FDI) for the region. We took advantage of recent developments in econometric testing techniques for Granger noncausality heterogeneous panels that takes into consideration the effects of cross section dependence across the units of the panel data set to analyse the trade- FDI nexus in the region. The empirical result of this study reveals a bidirectional causal relationship between trade openness and foreign direct investment in sub-Saharan economies. Concurrently, African countries should devote more emphasis for the promotion and attraction of FDI in order to expand their productive capacity to produce and export; in this way, by addressing supply-side constraints, FDI will have positive multiplier effects on trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remittances have become an important source of external finance in many developing countries. This article examines the relationship between remittances, institutions and economic growth in a panel of 26 African countries over the period 1980–2014. We apply the fixed effects (FE) and the two‐step system generalized method‐of‐moments (GMM) estimation methods. Our results show that there is a positive relationship between remittances and growth. We also find that institutions are an important determinant of economic growth. The interaction terms have a positive and statistically significant effect on economic growth. Thus, the growth effect of remittances is enhanced in the presence of strong institutions. Strong institutions are therefore germane in attracting greater remittance inflows to African countries. A clearer understanding of the channels through which remittance flows will enhance growth in African economies may assist policymakers to craft appropriate policies. In particular, a policy environment that promotes strong institutions would serve to attract more remittances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with development economist Thandika Mkandawire is presented. Among the issues he discussed include how having lived under colonialism for a memorable portion of his life has shaped his perspective on African development, writers either inside or outside economics whom he considers as influential on his thinking, and the importance of democracy to the developmental role of the state in Africa.

Abstract: Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) is one of the regions in the world most affected by food price volatility and production variability. Poor small‐scale farmers in this region are particularly vulnerable to this variability. As a result, households may be reluctant to adopt new agricultural water management (AWM) technologies when they involve more risk than what they mitigate. Despite risk's role in AWM investments, there have been few attempts to estimate the magnitude and nature of risk aversion in relation to this type of farm decisions. To partially close this gap, this article uses an experimental approach applied to 137 households in Northern Ghana. We find that more than 70% of households are moderately or slightly risk averse. This contrasts with other studies in SSA, where most household decision‐makers exhibit severe to extreme risk aversion. We also find that households that stand to lose as well as gain something from participation in games are less risk averse than households playing gains‐only games. This result suggests that most farmers’ current wealth put them at risk of falling into a poverty trap. Thus, the losses from the riskiest investments on AWM technologies may fall more heavily on the poor, suggesting that additional efforts be given to the creation of viable insurance mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The renaissance of African economic history in the past decade has opened up new research avenues for studying the long‐term social and economic development of Africa. A sensitive treatment of African realities in the evaluation of European colonial legacies and a critical stance towards the use of new sources and approaches is crucial. In this article, we engage with a recent article by Meier zu Selhausen and Weisdorf to show how selection biases in, and Eurocentric interpretations of, parish registers have provoked an overly optimistic account of European influences on the educational and occupational opportunities of African men and women. We confront their dataset, drawn from the marriage registers of the Anglican Cathedral in Kampala, with Uganda's 1991 census, and show that trends in the literacy and numeracy of men and women born in Kampala lagged half a century behind those who wedded in Namirembe Cathedral. We run a regression analysis showing that access to schooling during the colonial era was unequal along lines of gender and ethnicity. We foreground the role of Africans in the spread of education, and we argue that European influences were not just diffusive but also divisive, and that gender inequality was reconfigured rather than eliminated under colonial rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The challenges of malnutrition and urbanization in Africa demand the development of acceptable, affordable, nutritious complementary‐type foods. Biscuits (i.e. cookies; a popular snack) from whole grain staples are an option. The present study aimed to relate check‐all‐that‐applies (CATA) sensory profiles of sorghum‐cowpea composite biscuits compared to economic commercial refined wheat biscuits with hedonic ratings by low income consumers. In addition, the nutritional composition and protein quality, L*a*b* colour and texture of the biscuits were determined. RESULTS: The CATA method is suitable for rapidly determining which attributes consumers perceive in food products and relating these to acceptability. Consumers preferred the lighter, more yellow wheat biscuits with ginger, vanilla, sweet and cinnamon flavours compared to the stronger flavours (sorghum, beany and nutty) and harder but brittle, grittier, dry and rough textured sorghum or sorghum‐cowpea biscuits. However, a substantial proportion of consumers also liked the latter biscuits. The composite biscuits had higher dietary fibre content and a similar protein quality to the standards. CONCLUSIONS: Whole grain sorghum‐cowpea biscuits could serve as acceptable value‐added nutritious complementary snacks for consumers in sub‐Saharan Africa. The biscuits are simple to produce for the creation of viable small enterprises. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Usual debates about the diversity visa ( DV) programme revolve around the impact of DV initiated mass migration on African countries' development, on whether the programme sufficiently diversifies U.S. immigrant streams, and on whether there is a tradeoff in immigrant quality for diversity. This article seeks to extend the focus of these debates by examining the impact of the diversity visa programme on DV migrants at the micro-level pre- and post-migration. Based on in-depth interviews with sixty-one diversity visa lottery winners from Ghana and Nigeria, the article examines how this immigration policy has become a contextual determinant of immigrant incorporation. It argues that an account of the impact of immigration policies on immigrants pre- and post-migration must be added to theorization of state agency in shaping migration flows. It concludes with a discussion on ways the diversity visa programme can be modified to facilitate incorporation of DV migrants in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of information as well as some misperceptions about the distinction between the welfare consequences of higher versus more volatile cereal prices has limited the effectiveness of policy interventions during the recent food crises in many developing countries. This article proposes an integrated empirical strategy to investigate and compare the different effects of these two phenomena and tests it using nationally representative household survey data from four sub-Saharan countries. Results show that the negative impacts of a cereal price increase substantially outweigh the effects of price volatility on household welfare across the entire income distribution. The amplitude and the distribution of those effects depend heavily on specific factors, such as: the weight of food consumption over total expenditure; the budget share devoted to cereals; the substitution effect among food groups; and the relative number of net sellers versus net buyers accessing the market. We also show that volatility mainly harms the poorest quintile of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the aims, scope and author guidelines of the magazine, which is devoted to the study and analysis of development policy in Africa. Topics include the articles related to the economic and social development in Africa, the instructions on the preparation and submission of manuscripts and the Exclusive License Form to be signed by the authors for accepted papers.

We present a theoretical model of an imperfectly competitive loans market that is suitable for emerging economies in Africa. The model allows for variation in both the level of contract enforcement (the quality of governance) and the degree of market segmentation (the level of ethnic fractionalization). The model predicts a specific form of nonlinearity in the effects of these variables on loan default. Empirical analysis using African panel data for 110 individual banks in 28 countries over 2000-08 provides strong evidence for these predictions. Our results have important implications for the conditions under which policy reform will enhance financial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship on historical welfare development in Sub-Saharan Africa has uncovered long-term trends in standards of living. How the majority of rural dwellers fared, however, remains largely elusive. This study develops a new approach to reconstruct rural living standards in a historical context. It builds upon a well-established real wage literature, but moves beyond it to capture rural realities, employing sub-national rural survey, census, and price data. The approach is applied to a case study of colonial and early post-colonial Uganda (1915-70). The case study yields a number of findings. While the expanding smallholder-based cash crop sector established itself as the backbone of Uganda's colonial economy, farm characteristics remained largely stagnant after the initial adoption of cash crops. Smallholders maintained living standards well above subsistence level, and while the profitability of cash crops was low, their cultivation provided a reliable source of cash income. Around the time of decolonization, unskilled wages rose rapidly while farm incomes lagged behind. As a result, an urban-rural income reversal took place. The study also reveals considerable differences within Uganda. Smallholders in Uganda's banana regions required fewer labour inputs to maintain a farm income than their grain-farming counterparts, creating opportunities for additional income generation and livelihood diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. Motivated by the April 2015 World Bank Publication on MDGs, which reveals that poverty has been declining in all regions of the world with the exception of African countries, this study investigates the effects of a plethora of foreign aid dynamics on inequality-adjusted human development. Methods. Contemporary and noncontemporary OLS, fixed effects, and a system GMMtechnique with forward orthogonal deviations are employed. The empirical evidence is based on an updated sample of 53 African countries for the period 2005-2012. Results. The following findings are established. First, the impacts of aid dynamics with high degrees of substitution are positive. These include aid for: social infrastructure, economic infrastructure, the productive sector, and multisectors. Second, the effect of humanitarian assistance is consistently negative across specifications and models. Third, the effects of program assistance and action on debt are ambiguous because they become positive with the GMM technique. Conclusions. Justifications for these changes and clarifications with respect to existing literature are provided. Policy implications are discussed in light of the post-2015 development agenda.We also provide some recommendations for a rethinking of theories and models on which development assistance is based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kenya joined the ranks of sub-Saharan African ( SSA) countries implementing targeted input subsidy programmes ( ISPs) for inorganic fertiliser and improved seed in 2007 with the establishment of the National Accelerated Agricultural Inputs Access Programme ( NAAIAP). Although several features of NAAIAP were 'smarter' than other ISPs in the region, some aspects were less 'smart'. However, the efficacy of the programme, and the relationship between its design and effectiveness, have been little studied. This article uses nationwide survey data to estimate the effects of NAAIAP participation on Kenyan smallholders' cropping patterns, incomes, and poverty status. Unlike most previous studies of ISPs, a range of panel data- and propensity score-based methods are used to estimate the effects of NAAIAP. The article then compares these estimated effects across estimators and to the effects of other ISPs in SSA, and discusses the likely links between differences in programme designs and impacts. The results are robust to the choice of estimator and suggest that, despite substantial crowding out of commercial fertiliser demand, NAAIAP had sizeable impacts on maize production and poverty severity. NAAIAP's success in targeting resource-poor farmers and implementation through vouchers redeemable at private agro-dealer shops likely contributed to its more favorable impacts than those of ISPs in Malawi and Zambia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We elicit willingness to pay for conventional, organic and/or food-safety-inspected tomatoes in a traditional African food market. We identify four elicitation methods that can be conducted with one respondent at a time, and use them in a field setting: the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak mechanism, multiple price lists, multiple price lists with stated quantities, and real-choice experiments. All four methods give similar results; showing that consumers are willing to pay a premium for organic and food-safety-inspected tomatoes. However, the size of the premium is significantly larger when consumers choose between alternatives than when they indicate their reservation price. The new multiple price lists with stated quantities were easy to explain in the busy market setting, gave the respondents the opportunity to determine the amount they wanted to buy, and had valuations in line with the other non-comparative valuation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article revisits a conventional wisdom that inorganic fertiliser use across sub-Saharan Africa is too low. This expectation that more farmers should be using inorganic fertiliser, and at higher rates, implies it is profitable to use rates higher than observed if farmers are rational expected profit maximisers. We obtain consistent estimates of the effects of applied nitrogen on rice production. We find the yield response to applied nitrogen to be low in the main rice growing farming system. Farmer behaviour is not inconsistent with expected profitability which is limited by a low yield response to applied fertiliser, high transportation costs, and low selling prices for rice in rural areas. In particular, we do not find any farmers for whom applied nitrogen is profitable that are not using fertiliser in the study sample for each of our survey years (2010 and 2012). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the responses to his book "Africa: Why Economists Get It Wrong," by economists Denis Cogneau, Jonathan Temple and Dietrich Vollrath. Topics discussed include his conclusion that the economists agreed that research has relied too much on misleading numbers and missing data and suggestions on how to get better economics for Africa.

The author comments on professor Morten Jerven's critique on mainstream economic analyses of the development in Africa. Topics discussed include his claim that Jerven failed to make sufficient emphasis on the quality of empirical arguments and Jerven's book "Poor Numbers" about the lack of quality of gross domestic product (GDP).

The article discusses various topics related to African countries, as of October 2016, including the African Ministerial Conference on Ocean Economies and Climate Change in Mauritius; international trade agreements of Egypt, and hosting of refugees from South Sudan by Uganda.

The article offers information related to technical, financial and economic conditions of various countries in Africa including the corruption in Nigeria, the chief executive officer (CEO) forum in Côte d'Ivoire from March 21-22, 2016, and the economic growth in Kenya for 2015.

The article offers information on economic and financial condition of Africa including the food crisis brought by drought in Ethiopia, the resume on oil trade of Iran to destinations in Egypt, and the financial aid of European Union (EU) on infrastructure and rural development in Mozambique.