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This study contributes to the sustainable development literature by investigating the impact of the shadow economy on sustainable development in a panel of 30 African countries over a period of 2000–2017. The study employs parametric and nonparametric panel estimation techniques. The novel moment panel quantile regression method is also used to produce robust outcomes across the distribution of the explained variable in the presence of location shifters, scale variants, endogeneity, and outliers. The results reveal that the shadow economy reduces sustainable development in Africa. The study concludes that conscious efforts are needed to ensure that the shadow economy issue is addressed to enjoy the benefits of sustainable development in the African region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of entrepreneurship has generated swathes of interest from a variety of stakeholders seeking to address economic challenges in Africa. At the heart of this interest is the fact that the businesses created by entrepreneurs create employment opportunities which, in turn, have the potential to reduce poverty at all levels of African society. Yet, while research into entrepreneurial activity is well established in the developed countries of the western world, there remain large gaps in knowledge about key issues such as why entrepreneurs in Africa start businesses, how these businesses are sustained, and the specific contextual influences and challenges which affect African entrepreneurs' decision-making and behavior. In this introductory paper, we highlight the importance of attempting to understand how African entrepreneurs, working outside the strictures of strong formal institutions, navigate difficult challenges and make decisions using fragments of informal traditions originating from prevalent African philosophies such as Ubuntu. We also draw attention to the need to assess the notion of entrepreneurial business success or failure in Africa from a cultural context perspective which takes into account considerations aside from the solely rational-economic. We conclude with a series of questions which remain largely unanswered but will, we trust, be addressed in future research on entrepreneurship and Africa's cultural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article suggests a revised perspective for technology policies in Africa, one that focuses more on the direct facilitation of economic production at domestic levels. Up until now there has been a strong tendency for public investment in science, technology and innovation (STI) to be confined to national science councils and higher education bodies with little direct impact on national production. The article argues that STI investment as conventionally understood needs to be supplemented by policies that stress facilitation of its use, an argument also made strongly by a recent World Bank publication and indirectly by UNCTAD in its recently published report on African development. This is likely to be especially important in small-scale and informal sectors and will certainly require support on the part of local and national governments (and aid related bodies). Hopefully we will then begin to enjoy a scenario in which the gross financial inequalities that have beset Africa for so long will begin to be modified to the ultimate benefit of all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates digital inequalities in usage within African informal sectors. In particular, we examine whether the uneven digital diffusion is embedded in pre‐existing socio‐economic inequalities. After identifying three segments of informal firms, we rely on multivariate and decomposition analyses to identify predictors of usage of digital technologies for business purposes and explain usage gaps between segments. Our findings suggest that digital inequalities are rooted in the vertical heterogeneity of informal sectors, with some firm characteristics significantly predicting professional use of digital technologies. In addition, we find that there are both common and segment‐specific levers for addressing digital inequalities between informal firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A definitive element of labor market is gender-based occupational segregation. Most previous studies on the subject of gender and labor have concentrated on gender mainstreaming and glass ceiling in formal economy with little attention to gender and informal economy. Hence, there has been very little attention to men venturing into female areas of traditional informal economy of Africa. This article, therefore, contributes fresh insights and interesting new knowledge on the emerging gender dynamics in contexts of Africa's informal economy usually dominated by women. This article investigates men's involvement in hairdressing, an area commonly considered as women's jobs, the factors that led men to engage in hairdressing, the unique challenges male hairdressers face as a result of working in a female-dominated field, and their coping mechanisms. Qualitative and quantitative data gathered were analyzed through Content analysis (qualitative data) and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS; quantitative data). Quantitative data were analyzed at univariate and bivariate levels. The results show that a large percentage of the customers prefer Male Hairdressers as they believe male hairdressers are good at the profession. Findings suggest the country's high unemployment rate is, largely accountable, for men's venturing into the Hairdressing Industry as an adaptive mechanism in complicated and precarious socioeconomic context and tidal system of social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is interested in explaining the causes of the simultaneous evolution between economic and informality growth. Using a large annual panel of African countries with a time series of 25 years, our results are paradoxical: the effect of growth on the informal sector becomes contradictory in the presence of high corruption rates. When the corruption rate is low (>1.3577), growth is indirectly related to the informal sector and vice versa when it is high (<1.3577). The results, which highlight a previously unknown paradox, contribute significantly to the existing literature on the subject and are robust to alternative specifications. It is therefore desirable for policymakers to improve the transparency of interactions between firms, public and private agents to fight corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to examine the nonlinear threshold effect of shadow economy on sustainable development in Africa while providing additional evidence on how this nonlinear threshold effect play out in economies with high and low developed financial/credit markets. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses 37 African economies between 2009 and 2017 in a dynamic GMM panel model that controls for country, year and technological effects to ensure consistency and reliability of results and findings. Findings: The results reveal that there is an inverted nonlinear U-shape nexus between the size of shadow economy and sustainable development in both short run and long run in Africa and across economies with high and low developed credit/financial market. Also, the threshold points beyond which the size of shadow economies dampens sustainable development is lower for economies with high financial/credit market development and higher in the long run. Practical implications: These results have policy implications and recommendations and suggest that shadow economies can be beneficial to sustainable development particularly when the size of shadow economies are restrained from increasing beyond certain thresholds/levels. Moreso, to restrict the adverse effect of shadow economies on sustainable development, policymakers can rely on developing their financial/credit markets to tame the destructive nature of shadow economies on sustainable development. These results are robust to technological, year/time and country effects. Originality/value: To the best of the author's knowledge, this study examines for the first in the context of Africa, the nonlinear effect of shadow economies on sustainable development under low and high developed financial markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The setting up by the African Union of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which should govern matters relating to, inter alia, trade in goods and services, investment, trade facilitation, intellectual property rights, and competition policy is a step in the right direction. However, this paper argues that the limited inclusion of informal economy actors such as informal cross border traders (ICBTs) appears to undermine the potential of the AfCFTA as the architecture for inclusive socio-economic development in Africa. The paper advances the need for African countries to craft policies which are sensitive to and respond to the circumstances of ordinary people on the ground and not a wholesale application of policies such as neoclassical integration theory, the outcome of which deserts ordinary people. Such policies must be transcendental to the extent of being informed by views from the ground, which does not appear to be the case with the AfCFTA on the score of ICBTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Bamboo is still a traditional material that requires additional development before it can be considered as a modern and reliable alternative to steel, wood, and concrete. When compared to the huge volumes of information available on timber and concrete, bamboo has a little quantity of information. When it comes to estimating bamboo structures, there are not many options. As a result, pinpointing the key qualities and events that aid or impede bamboo's integration into the construction sector is vital. Design/methodology/approach: Factor analysis (FA) was used for summarizing and reducing data to significant ones in identifying barriers, benefits and potentials of using bamboo materials for construction. In this method, small number of factors was aimed at to explain most of the variances observed in a much larger number of variables. The goal was to identify not-directly-observable barriers and opportunities based on a larger set of observable or measurable indicators identified from literature. It attempted to identify underlying challenges and potentials that lay the patterns of bamboo material usage in the construction sector. Findings: From the results of FA, six specific components with loadings greater than 0.5 were kept for both the barrier and the advantages of using bamboo Lack of awareness on bamboo material, Unorganized supply chain, Exclusion from standards, Outperformance of industrial products, Lack of innovation and institutional support and Bamboo's mechanistic limitation was considered to be the root causes of all barriers. On the other end, structural suitability of bamboo, viable timber alternative, meeting sustainability's demand, attractive economic model, cost effective material, positive social implications were labeled as benefits of bamboo. Finally, major recommendation regarding research, facility, institutionalizing and resource management were forwarded. Originality/value: Ethiopia is a major bamboo producer in Africa. The bamboo sector, on the other hand, remains a part of the undeveloped and informal rural economy, preventing it from reaching its full potential. Despite technological advancements, bamboo is not commonly used in construction. As a result, using bamboo as a building material is frowned upon. In order to take effective action to accommodate bamboo as an alternative building material, significant challenges, benefits, and potential of the material must be stated with this purpose in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using time series data from Uganda covering the period from 1991 to 2017, this paper applies autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing approach to examine the long‐ and short‐run relationship between education and the shadow economy. We find evidence of the long‐run relationship. The results indicate that an increase in both primary and secondary school enrolment significantly reduce the size of the shadow economy in the long run, all else equal. The above relationship is robust to alternative specification and estimation methods. We also uncover bidirectional causal relationship between education and the shadow economy. In the short run, increased school enrolment reduces the shadow economy but in an insignificant manner. At the policy level, the existence of a negative relationship between education and the shadow economy suggests that mitigating informality requires reforming education system to address issues of quality. Additionally, addressing informality may require improving the economic and financial environment so that the needs and obstacles faced by individuals and or businesses are handled. Furthermore, reforming the political and institutional environment may go a long way into mitigating the expansion of the shadow economy in Uganda and Africa in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid renewed debates and theorizing about informality and the role of informal workers in Africa and across the globe, there remains little in the way of class-based understandings of Africa's informal workers and of informal worker politics. Marxists, especially Analytical Marxists, have been slow to study and consider the role and potential role of informal workers in geopolitics and class struggle across the Global South, and Africa, in particular. Drawing on ethnographic field work and interviews conducted in Sierra Leone, and broader informal worker-led struggles and events across Africa and the Global South, this work argues for a renewed understanding of collective action and class formation among informal workers. JEL Classification: J0, J2, J6 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigated the impact of financial development on shadow economy in Africa, using data for 41 African countries. The informal outputs, computed by Elgin et al. (2021), and the three financial development indicators were sourced from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) respectively. The dynamic panel quantile regression technique was employed as it captures better the nature of the African economy and the heterogeneous nature of the shadow economies. The study shows that average FIA and FID in Africa is 0.074 and 0.160 respectively; suggesting that accessing credit from financial institution, as well as the coverage of credit and other financial services in Africa is low, and could be accompanied with high degree of bottlenecks. The FIE on average is 0.520; suggesting that credits from financial institution in Africa are used for their intended purposes. However, financial development must be pursued alongside other macroeconomic goals, particularly urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a well-established practice of many Sub-Saharan African (SSA) governments to aid entrepreneurs within both the formal and informal sectors to enhance their performance and growth. Unfortunately, there is no agreed method by which governments can differentiate between entrepreneurs and target them with the appropriate promotion policies. Thus, despite the good intentions, entrepreneurship policy initiatives have been incorrectly targeted, poorly implemented, and without the desired results, since different entrepreneurs may require different forms of assistance. Some scholars have suggested that without a context-specific classificatory guide, policymakers are unlikely to be accurate in their assessment of the growth capabilities of prospective candidates for specific promotion initiatives and this can explain some of the policy failures. This observation has motivated the present paper. Our objective is to provide a framework that helps identify the different contextual dimensions influencing formal and informal enterprise creation processes in SSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between financial development and economic growth has received much attention in developed countries in the last three decades. However, empirical study on how multidimensional levels of financial development affect the shadow economy in developing countries has received less attention. The paper's analysis begins with theoretical perspectives on the shadow economy's evolution. Using panel data from 42 African countries from 1990 to 2018, this paper addresses these research gaps by employing a battery of econometric techniques such as pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effects (FE), and system generalized method of moments (S-GMM). The results indicate that financial development is associated with a smaller size of shadow economy in Africa. On multidimensional levels, financial institutions (depth, access, and efficiency) have a negative and statistically significant impact on the shadow economy. Although financial markets are positively associated to the shadow economy, the greater impact of this is driven by financial depth and access. The findings suggest that African countries undertake credit market reforms to address financial market imperfections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the determinants of the informal economy is a crucial issue in economic development due to its far-reaching effects on development efforts. Previous studies focused exclusively on factors that can potentially reduce the relative size of the shadow economy. However, these attempts have not enjoyed much success to date in Africa, where informality has continued to thrive. We contend that realistic medium-term goals, as opposed to obligatory formalisation, could increase the output of informal businesses by providing enough infrastructure and a welcoming business climate, which would at the same time foster formalisation. Using OLS, FE and system GMM with data on 42 African countries covering 2003–2018, we find that infrastructure development reduces the relative size of the shadow economy in African countries. Our results remained consistent when we controlled for the effects of other determinants of the informal economy, employed other estimators, and used an alternative measure of the informal economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this examine the impact of income inequality and shadow economy on environmental degradation given the growing income inequality, shadow economy and ecological degradation in developing countries. Thus, this study is motivated to offer empirical insight into how income inequality and shadow economy influence the environment in African countries. Design/methodology/approach: Data from 29 countries in Africa between 2000 and 2017 were used, while the novel method of moments quantile regression of Machado and Silva (2019) and Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) (2012) granger causality is used as the estimation techniques. Findings: The results established the presence of cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity in the panel, while Westerlund panel cointegration confirmed the long-run cointegration among the variables. The results from the quantile regression suggest that income inequality increases environmental degradation from the 5th to the 30th quantiles, while from the 70th quantiles, income inequality reduces ecological degradation. The shadow economy negatively influences environmental degradation across the quantiles, strengthening environmental quality. Per capita income (economic growth) and financial development positively impact environmental degradation throughout the quantiles. However, urbanization reduces environmental degradation from 60th to 95th quantiles. The D-H causality established a two-way relationship between income inequality and environmental degradation, while one-way from shadow economy, per capita income and urbanization to environmental degradation were established. Originality/value: This study provides fresh insights into the nexus between shadow economy and environmental quality in the presence of higher levels of income inequality for the case of African region. The study applies quantile analysis via moment proposed by Machado and Silva (2019). This technique shows that the impact of income inequality and shadow economy on environmental degradation is heterogeneous across the quantiles of ecological footprints in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the relationship between urbanization, the informal economy, economic growth, and environmental degradation (CO2 emissions) have received considerable attention from multidisciplinary researchers, little work has been undertaken on how differences in the stages of development of different sub-regions of the countries studied may affect these relationships. This paper empirically explores the relationship between urbanization, the informal sector, economic growth, and CO2 emissions. A balanced dataset for a panel of 45 African countries subdivided into sub-regions was analyzed over the period 1991–2019. To achieve the objectives of the study, we used a vector autoregression panel (PVAR). The results demonstrated a bidirectional relationship between CO2 emissions and urbanization, CO2 emissions and economic growth, CO2 emissions and the informal sector, the informal sector and economic growth, and economic growth and urbanization. Furthermore, the empirical results of this study not only contribute in advancing the literature that addresses the relationship between human activity and the environment, but also warrant new insights into the importance of the stage of development in a sub-region in Africa for public policy decisions related to CO2 emissions reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa contributes the least to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it faces climate change's harshest consequences. Ramifications of climate change pose daunting multi-scalar urban challenges, specifically because urbanisation across most African countries is embedded in, linked to and defined by various notions of informality. However, there is limited theoretical attention to the confluence of African urbanisation, informality and climate change. This article addresses this issue by laying out three fundamental matters of this relationship. First, it analyses urban informality in the context of three domains: the informal economy, informal settlements and the state. Second, it highlights the significance of climate change to theoretical and empirical studies of informality. We propose that climate change poses challenges to the practice of informality and its contemporary theorisation, prompting new questions about how African informality is understood and framed. Finally, it discusses new perspectives on planning for climate change and urban informality that do not frame 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' approaches as necessarily mutually exclusive. Climate change fundamentally challenges life within informal economies and settlements, and its synthesis within debates on African urbanisation is urgently required. Notably, and in turn, the global discourse on climate change also requires specific attention to the theories and practices of informality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wild population of Siphonochilus aethiopicus (Zingiberaceae) is being eroded due to several pharmacological benefits and the hidden economy credited to its ethnobotanical uses in Southern Africa. This has called for the adoption of sustainable ways of cultivating the species without compromising its bioactive constituents. In this study, compost tea was brewed and applied at different dosages to potted S. aethiopicus to enhance its growth quality, phytochemical content, and elemental compositions. Treatments comprised 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.00 ( v v ) graded concentrations of compost tea, while water and undiluted compost tea were the control treatments. Results showed that dosages of compost tea had no significant effect on chlorophyl content or fresh and dry weights of rhizomes of S. aethiopicus. The longest leaves were recorded in plants irrigated with water only, while the shortest leaves were recorded in plants irrigated by 50% compost tea. A similar trend was observed in leaf width, except that equivalent values were recorded in all compost tea treatments while plants irrigated with undiluted compost tea were tallest. The highest and lowest flavanols were respectively recorded in 0.50 and 0.25 compost tea-treated plant samples, while undiluted compost tea yielded the highest flavonol and phenolic acids. The highest antioxidant contents were produced by the 0.25 compost tea-treated samples in the ABTS (2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)), FRAP (Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power) and ORAC (Oxygen Radical Antioxidant Capacity) assays, while the lowest were observed in plants irrigated with water only, although all compost tea-treated plants had equivalent effects on the ORAC content. The highest N, P, K, and Mn contents were produced in the 0.25-treated samples, while the minerals were least accumulated in samples treated with water only. All treatments had equivalent effects on Ca, Zn, and B yield, whereas the highest and equivalent accumulations of Mg and Na were recorded in the control treatments. Iron (Fe) and Cu were most influenced significantly by water whereas P, Ca and Zn tissue concentration was not significantly influenced by treatments. These results indicate that compost tea can optimize growth, mineral accumulation, phytochemicals, and antioxidants in S. aethiopicus. This approach serves as a greener and sustainable way of conserving overexploited indigenous medicinal plants such as S. aethiopicus to mitigate overexploitation of its wild relatives and preserve its genome from imminent extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies suggest that shadow economy has several implications for environmental sustainability. However, the relevance of financial development in the nexus between shadow economy-environmental sustainability remains an open question. This study examines the role of shadow economy and financial development in addition to economic growth, trade openness, and urbanization on the environmental sustainability of a panel of 30 African countries from 1991 to 2017. Specifically, the study investigates the effect of these variables on African countries' ecological footprint and bio-capacity. Findings based on the augmented mean group estimator reveal that shadow economy, financial development, economic growth, and urbanization intensify ecological footprint, while trade openness reduces it. Further investigations reveal that shadow economy, economic growth, and urbanization reduce bio-capacity while trade openness increases it. The interactive term of the shadow economy and financial development shows that a strong financial system significantly moderates the adverse impact of shadow economy on environmental degradation. These results persist when common correlated effect mean group is used to re-estimate the models. Furthermore, Dumitrescu and Hurlin's non-causality tests show two-way causality between ecological footprint and shadow economy, bio-capacity and shadow economy, and financial development. Nevertheless, unidirectional causality is found from financial development to ecological footprint and shadow economy, economic growth to ecological footprint, biocapacity, and financial development. Lastly, the policy implications of the results are discussed in line with these economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the effect of information and communication technology (ICT) diffusion on the shadow economic activities in Africa for the period from 2000 to 2015. To this end, we use a panel data model on a sample of 48 countries. The results obtained show that the diffusion of ICTs, especially mobile telephony and the Internet, negatively and significantly affect the size of the shadow economy in Africa. The level of education, capital stock, economic growth, and financial development also contribute to reducing the size of the informal economy in Africa. However, our results suggest that informal activities are motivated by the abundance of natural resources and migrant remittances. Robustness checks are done through the system generalized method of moments and a change in the measurement of the shadow economy confirms the validity of the results. We recommend to decision‐makers to implement public policies facilitating the access and the use of new telecommunications tools and services and to improve the institutional framework to encourage private economic agents to invest in formal activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article challenges the role of COVID‐19 crisis narratives in shaping social policy choices in Africa. The COVID‐19 pandemic has focused attention on Africa's vast informal economies, both as a symbol of the continent's intense vulnerability to the ravages of the pandemic, and as a puzzle in the face of the uneven and limited effects of COVID‐19 across the continent. Indeed, an examination of statistical and documentary evidence reveals an inverse relationship between COVID‐19 fatalities and the size of African informal economies, and a perverse relationship between best‐practice COVID social protection responses and levels of COVID‐19 mortality. Scrutinizing the evidence behind African COVID‐19 crisis narratives raises questions about the ability of donor‐led digitized social protection paradigms to address social needs in highly informalized, low‐resource environments. This article highlights the role of crisis narratives as an exercise of power geared to remastering, homogenizing and reimagining African informal economies in ways that facilitate particular types of development intervention, sidelining alternative, more socially grounded policy perspectives. Through a closer examination of historical and contemporary realities in Africa's vast and varied informal economies, the article highlights the need to decolonize social policy by privileging local needs and policy perspectives over global policy agendas in the interest of transformative rather than palliative policy responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the growing levelof informal economy in emerging economies, this study examines the role of the informal economy in the ecological footprint for the case of Africa. The relationship between official economy, trade openness, governance indicator, financial development, and urbanization on ecological footprint is also investigated. Applying data from 1991 to 2017, this empiric utilizes panel estimation procedures to account for cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity in panel data. The results establish the presence of cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity across countries in Africa. Furthermore, long-run cointegration is confirmed using Westerlund panel cointegration. Driscoll-Kraay's (DK) estimation technique shows that informal economy, official economy, governance, financial development, and urbanization have significant positive impacts on ecological footprint, implying that they contribute to environmental degradation. However, trade openness has a negative and significant effect on ecological footprint, improving environmental quality. Similarly, the Dumitrescu-Hurlin (DH) Granger causality test reveals a two-way relationship between the informal economy and ecological footprint and formal economy and ecological footprint. However, the study finds a one-way connection from urbanization and financial development to ecological footprint and from ecological footprint to governance indicators and trade openness. The implications of the findings for a sustainable environment are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: tobacco epidemic is a real public health problem in the world and in Africa. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence and identify factors associated with smoking among adults living in the Moungali district. Methods: we conducted a cross-sectional analytical study of 800 adults. Two-stage random sampling was used to select subjects in the Moungali district, Brazzaville, in September 2021. Binary logistic regression using the ascending stepwise method allowed identification of the associated factors. The adjustment of the model was verified by the Hosmer Lomeshow test. Data were collected via the Kobo collect V1.30.1 app. and analyzed with the Stata 15.0 software. Results: smoking prevalence was 4.63%, 95% CI [3.37-6.31]. Males (AOR=8.36 95% CI [3.74-18.72], p-value < 0.0001), alcohol consumption (AOR=2.6 95% CI [1.11-6.11], p-value = 0.028), and professional activity (formal or informal sector) (AOR=3.91 95% CI [1.16-13.11], p-value = 0.027) were factors significantly associated with smoking. Conclusion: this study highlights that smoking is a stronger risk factor in men than in women. In addition, alcohol consumption and professional activity in the formal or informal sector are also factors associated with active smoking. Preventive actions focusing on these factors are necessary to effectively fight smoking in adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a systematic literature review of 109 empirical articles published between 1977 and 2017 in English and French on management accounting (MA) in Africa. Our main results are synthesized into seven larger themes and an evidence-based explanatory framework regarding MA in Africa. This framework suggests that MA in Africa is subject to various antecedents, some of which are specific to African countries and contexts. In addition, we find that current MA practices and systems may have mainly hampered, rather than fostered, performance and development in many African countries and enterprises. However, our review also shows overall that such critical views on MA in Africa are rather found in internationally ranked English-language journals, than in less esteemed English-language and Francophone journals. According to our analyses, the more critical findings can largely be explained by the overriding paradigm of neopatrimonialism, while the less critical and more positivist findings rather adhere to contingency thinking. Finally, the present review highlights a need for more research about MA in the informal African economy, the connection between MA and development-related sustainability issues, such as civil wars and environmental management, and the impact of the increased presence of China on MA in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is key to industrialization in Africa and must be aligned with industrial policy. A challenge for African countries is to design and implement innovation and industrial policies that take into account the unique structural nature of African economies, in which the informal sector is prevalent. This paper argues that a measurement programme focused on innovation in the context of local economic development is imperative for setting industrial and innovation policy in Africa. Policies tend to speak and respond to those phenomena that have been subjected to measurement programmes. Is there space for designing new measures of innovation in Africa that include the informal sector? We propose a novel methodology and framework for measuring informal sector innovation, based on a local innovation and production systems approach. We end the paper with a proposal for using the evidence gathered from this methodology and a continental strategy that lends itself to direct policy intervention that has local economic development and upgrading of value chains as a goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The informal economy absorbs a large share (more than 80%) of the labour force in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We examine whether a high level of informality tends to exacerbate the spread of the COVID-19. Using publicly available data for a cross-section of 46 SSA, we find evidence that confirms this hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the relationship between digitalization and the shadow economy in 42 African countries using unbalanced panel data from 2003 to 2016. We begin by drawing on modernization theory to hypothesize that digitalization efforts in African economies represent an augmentation of public service delivery as well as a channel through which the size of the continent's informal economic activity might be reduced. We employ the fixed effects estimation technique as its baseline estimator while correcting for potential endogeneity concerns using an instrumental variable two‐stage least squares technique. We show compelling evidence that digitalization is associated with a decrease in the size of the shadow economy in Africa. However, evidence of a larger influence is driven by the availability of telecommunications infrastructure and the expansion of government online services. These findings suggest that policymakers should invest more in digital technology to formalize Africa's hidden economic activity, particularly to fill the post‐COVID‐19 financing gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the relationship between firms' mobile money use and their productivity using a sample of 994 formal and 1,499 informal, predominantly micro-, small- and medium firms from Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Our findings reveal a positive and statistically significant relationship between mobile money use and labor productivity for informal firms. The effect also appears to be stronger for female-led than for male-led informal firms, suggesting that mobile money could be a valuable tool to promote gender equity in Africa's informal sector. In contrast, for formal firms, the effect vanishes once all relevant controls are accounted for. Thus, for formal firms, mobile money may be insufficient to overcome the impediments of their business environments in Africa. Further, a complementary fsQCA reveals configurations of conditions that appear important for informal firms to truly benefit from the productivity enhancing potential of mobile money. The combination of founders' education, firms' location, their sector and their use of traditional bank accounts appear particularly crucial. The fsQCA findings give additional nuance to our regression results. Overall, our findings suggest that firms more exposed to transaction costs benefit more from mobile money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the role of an intermediary, Palladium, in Zimbabwe as it bridges the divide between formal and informal sectors and the process through which it connects these sectors. We conduct in-depth, qualitative interviews structured around our case study of the market building activities of the Livelihoods and Food Security Program in rural Zimbabwe. Recognizing the institutional discontinuities, whereby activities in the formal and informal sectors do not necessarily connect, brings the role of intermediaries to the fore, as they attempt to bridge these divides by leveraging resources and engaging in collaborative arrangements through institutional work. This institutional intermediation is operationalized through processes of rationalization and trust building. We highlight the role of intermediation that reinforces an emergent basis for multi-stakeholder approaches to solve complex problems in Africa – involving private actors, community leaders, and the state – towards shaping ways of building more efficient markets for marginalized groups and facilitating market activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The informal sector is dominant in developing economies, and the vast majority of the poor rely on it. There is much to learn about informal firms—the "businesses of the poor"—as little is known about the drivers of their performance. The present paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature by analyzing how labor productivity of informal firms in developing countries depends on the level of education of the manager or the main decision‐maker of the firm. Using survey data for 3,854 informal or unregistered firms in 18 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, we find that labor productivity is 28% to 33% higher when the manager has secondary or higher education versus only primary education or no education. The finding is robust to various robustness checks including parametric and semi‐parametric specifications and confirmed using instrumental variables estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant proportion of trade in Africa takes place informally. In this paper we postulate that informal trade is more sensitive to securityrelated trade costs than formal trade. To test this hypothesis, we combine unique aggregated survey data on Uganda's informal crossborder trade with formal customs data and exploit the spatial and time variation of the South Sudanese civil war to causally identify the impact of conflict on different types of trade. Our preferred estimates suggest that the civil war reduced Uganda's informal exports to South Sudan by as much as 80%, compared to an estimated effect of 12% for formal exports. Further, we show that the impact of the conflict on formal exports is driven entirely by a reduction of industrial goods exports while exports of agricultural products continued to flow, presumably reflecting necessities in consumption for which willingness to pay is high. Taken together our results are consistent with the hypothesis that security‐related trade costs have heterogeneous effects on different types of international trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current humanity is experiencing extraordinary levels of material and ideal connectivity. Change being constant and stability exceptional and provisional; one has to expect a significant acceleration of change in the next hundred years. The core question is therefore: What kind of future is being shaped for the next generations, our grandchildren and greatgrand children? Without going too far back in time, it is fair to say that the current world was shaped by two different, successive and antinomic global processes: imperial expansion, colonization and domination on the one hand, and resistance, struggle for liberation, and the search for a more equitable world order on the other hand. Against all the odds, European imperialism, civil war, wars of aggression, and Western ostracism, China was an influential actor in the struggle for liberation of Africa from colonialism, got its rightful place in the international world order and is now the second economy of the planet. Globalization resulted in the emergence of a de facto multipolar world, with different models of societies and organizational cultures. These are dialectic processes constantly in operation, but there is however a third crucial area of interest, generally taken granted, that of people and culture. Peaceful relations and sustainable economic development backed by greater cultural and demographic connectivity are better options for the construction of a novel future for humanity. Universities and higher education institutions can play an important role in spearheading and implementing these new orientations for the construction of a future peaceful and sustainable human world in which war will be outlawed. This paper outlines what academics can do to promote such a vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa was once expected to be the heartland of COVID-19 cases and deaths—a monumental disaster waiting to happen. Yet, while Africa accounts for 17.2 percent of the world population, it thus far accounts for only 4 percent of COVID-19 deaths and 2.7 percent of cases globally. What does this appreciable disparity reveal or occlude about the management of public health emergencies in African cities? This essay explores lessons learned from addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in urban Africa, ranging from early and aggressive responses to community-led initiatives and sound public health policies derived from longstanding experience with infectious disease such as the Ebola epidemic. COVID-19, I argue, opens a critical space for defamiliarizing commonsense representations of African cities. We must move beyond the default assumption that “cities in Africa just don’t work” and instead pay critical attention to hybrid and adaptive governance systems emerging across urban Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of fiscal impulses on macroeconomic variables within a New-Keynesian DSGE framework featuring an informal economy that allows for the examination of the effectiveness of automatic stabilizers in stimulating some selected sub-Saharan African (SSA) economies during crises. Stabilizers were modelled such that fiscal instruments react to their own lagged values and the official sector output. The results indicate that tax hikes lead to sizeable tax evasion and reallocation of factor inputs from the official sector to the shadow sector making the standard aggregate estimates of fiscal policies ineffective while government spending shocks slow down activities in the shadow sector. The findings also showed that automatic stabilizers on government spending (income taxes) stabilized the economy by reducing (raising) output levels even in the presence of the shadow economy. For policy implications, effective implementation of government policies should incorporate the informal sector in macroeconomic modelling, especially for countries with a large informal sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of social security is not a new phenomenon in Africa. Before the introduction of formal social security systems, local communities had their unique traditional ways of protecting their members from the hazards and vicissitude of life. This paper provides an overview of social security in Africa. Arguably, high unemployment in the region has contributed to the rise of the informal sector. Nevertheless, this sector has been precluded from the existing formal social security arrangements. Through an extensive and systematic review of literature on social security, it was established that existing formal social security systems in Africa are fragmented and lack inclusivity. The findings revealed that most of the population is excluded from formal social security schemes because they work in the informal sector. However, the existing formal social security schemes are generally labour-centred and state-regulated. The recommendations include transforming existing social security measures to include the informal sector and other vulnerable groups. The social security narrative needs to be revisited in light of the low coverage. There is a need to integrate and synchronise existing formal social security strategies with traditional social security arrangements in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the potential African nations offer for management scholarship and challenges addressed in African management scholarship. It talks about the impact of weak institutional infrastructure and human and financial resource constraints in opportunities for value creation and the implementation of new market-entry strategies in informal markets. It talks about entrepreneurship and labor mobility in African nations and challenges in job creation from Africa's large labor pool.

Since the first moves of decolonization, African countries have not overcome the negative effects of colonization and are still facing underdevelopment, poverty gap, and low share in world trade The interregional relationship established with the European countries after independence does not seem to fulfill the development promises the European Economic Community made at the beginning. With many regional economic communities and conflicting trade rules, regional integration in Africa is so complex that it is described as a spaghetti bowl, in line with Bhagwati's definition. In addition, all the delays and discussions surrounding the Economic Partnership Agreements and the uncertainties regarding the future of the relations experienced before the signing of the post-Cotonou Agreement in April 2021, have also strained the interregional relationship with the EU. The article aims to discuss Africa's development and regional integration problems by blending the Moral Economy approach and the Historical Discourse Analysis method. This article discusses the current development and regional integration problems in Africa from a moral economy approach, combining it with Discourse Historical Analysis. It considers regional integration as one of the norms that the moral economy of the EU-Africa interregional relationship has been based on and explores its construction within this moral economy from a historical perspective. The main concern of this article is to investigate the construction of the regional integration norm in parallel to the development co-operation discourse and to explain its role in obscuring the impact of EU development cooperation on the current development and regional integration process in Africa, as well as the problems in the EU-Africa interregional relationship itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: The Sustainable Development Goals target decent work for all, including youth, by 2030. In sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA), however, a "youth employment crisis" is now central to public and policy discourse. Consequently, the idea of "investing in youth" grows in importance, leading to a proliferation of interventions targeted to and specific to youth. Purpose: This article interrogates the framing of the problem as a "youth employment" crisis. Approach and Methods: The article brings together evidence from a range of sources and disciplines, indicates where the evidence supports the current policy orthodoxy and where it does not, and maps out an alternative framing. Five pillars of the dominant narrative about youth employment are identified: demography, violence and civil unrest, training and skills, rural economy and urban economy. Three critical dimensions of Africa's broader employment crisis are highlighted: economic risk, stability and protection. Findings: The dominant narrative about Africa's youth employment crisis foregrounds young people themselves, and strongly suggests that the crisis is all (and often only) about them. Little about the employment crisis, however, is youth‐specific. The "it's all about the youth" framing ignores that young people are caught up in a broader "missing jobs crisis" that reflects fundamental structural constraints within African economies. In other words, the problem is with the economy, not the young people. Policy implications: The emphasis on youth‐specific targeting and youth‐specific interventions is largely misplaced. Instead of initiatives that only or specifically target youth, priority should be given to broader structural issues which have the potential to deliver better and larger results, for both young people and others. Reframing the problem from a youth employment crisis to a missing jobs crisis is a necessary first step. We provide a counter‐narrative to support this shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study explores the link between financial development and the shadow economy in 45 African economies from 1991 to 2019. While overall financial indices show no clear impact on the shadow economy across the entire sample, a nuanced pattern emerges when considering income groups. In low-income countries, financial institutions' index significantly amplify the shadow economy, whereas in lower middle-income nations, broader financial market measures independently contribute to its expansion. This reveals a heterogeneous relationship between financial development and the shadow economy in Africa, emphasizing the income-specific dynamics influencing these interactions. • There is a heterogeneous relationship between financial development and shadow economy. • The income-specific dynamics influencing these interactions. • Financial development indices exert no discernible impacts on the shadow economy. • In low-income countries, financial institutions' index amplify the shadow economy. • In lower middle-income nations, financial market measures contribute to its expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millions of people living with disabilities in Africa already face a heightened risk of poverty, which will likely be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic unless interventions to address its social and economic impacts are disability inclusive. This paper draws on research on health and living circumstances of people with disabilities in Africa in the context of human and disability rights as enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). The paper also explores the pathways through which the current pandemic may increase the risk of poverty amongst people with disabilities, such as loss of income from disruptions to work, particularly in the informal sector, and higher future spending and productivity losses from disruptions to health care and other key services (e.g., rehabilitation, assistive devices). It also explores how social and economic responses to contain and respond to the pandemic should consider and be inclusive of the needs of people with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seed system interventions can spur agricultural growth and often focus on accelerating delivery of new varieties and good seed. The driving logic is that such modest investments can bring key gains, even to the poor and in challenging contexts. This article focuses on Africa and legumes, crops key for nutrition, soil enhancement, resilience to climate stress and rapid income generation. The default design for seed sector development, based on maize, proves inadequate for moving legume varieties and seed to smallholder customers. The article draws from a large dataset including 10,209 transactions from nine African countries. Findings show that legume seed is overwhelmingly bought (50% of transactions) - rather than saved, gifted, or obtained through a seed distribution - with 89% of purchases unfolding in the informal sector, mostly from local markets. Unlike with maize, farmers' use of agro-dealers to obtain legume seed is minimal. The article identifies six legume customer seed market segments, but only the two smallest are served by current strategy. Refinements to formal sector delivery can help extend reach (e.g. with small packs), but real advances demand strong informal sector innovations, such as expanding sale and seller categories to embrace traders and local markets. A recent multi-country review of seed legislation suggests there may be room for such expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study outlined how the microenterprises overcome numerous challenges common to start-up through 'open development' characterized by collective sharing of knowledge, tools, equipment and workforce amongst competing microenterprises, and belonging to trade/professional associations that ensure that knowledge becomes a public good that can be accessed by everyone who needs it. The study found that majority of the microenterprises studied experienced scaling-up from between a few months to around three years from inception, while only a few scaled-up after three years. This paper shows strong positive relationships between variables capturing open development activities (internal training programmes within enterprise, knowledge acquisition from competitors within the cluster, intra-family learning and training, open innovations) and incidence of scale-up. Incidence of scale-up was captured using significant increase in the size of the enterprise, capital base, business activity or turnover or gross sales relative to start up. The study concluded that clustering of small businesses in Africa facilitates open development and is a potential avenue to overcoming the financial constraints commonly associated with small firms and can thus be an enabler of industry growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: Youth employment has risen to the top of Africa's development agenda. But there is an often‐ignored tension between the current focus of policy and implementation on self‐employment and entrepreneurship, and the ability of employment in the informal economy to meet the commitment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to "decent work for all". Formal‐sector employment is more likely to offer decent work, but a policy focus on it can be dismissed as unrealistic, if not elitist. Purpose: This paper aims to review and synthesize evidence about formal‐sector employment in countries in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) and young people's engagement with it, for the purpose of bringing such employment more centrally into policy and interventions to address the continent's youth employment crisis. Approach and methods: The article reviews evidence provided by selected labour‐market surveys and recent research studies from SSA on formal‐sector employment and informal employment within the formal sector. Findings: Formal‐sector employment is concentrated in urban areas, as are the vast majority of young Africans who have completed secondary school, and it is more likely to provide decent work than other forms of employment. These facts make it a serious mistake to underestimate the role of employment in the formal sector in addressing Africa's youth employment challenge. Policy implication: A long‐term commitment to (a) the creation of new employment opportunities within the formal sector and (b) improving the governance of labour markets should be central to the co‐ordinated response to Africa's youth employment crisis. Building on the existing base of educated young people and formal‐sector employment in urban areas is likely to be the most effective way of creating a "decent work economy". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid expansion of mobile telephony in Africa has been the subject of many debates both in the academia and industry. However, such discourse has tended to focus more on the technology itself rather than its users. This article seeks to frame mobile phones as modern technologies whose contextual uses are heavily entangled in the unique socio-economic dynamics of the African continent. Here the focus is on the African informal economy and the culture it enables, the fractious nature of infrastructure and practices of repair, African notions of conviviality and their political role, and African traditions in the context of globalization. Through these various lenses the study considers the different ways in which the mobile phone becomes Africanized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The marketing literature is showing an increasing interest in Africa. This article addresses the contextual macro-level characteristics that such studies have in common, and traces the typical characteristics of African marketing systems back to their ultimately biogeographical foundations. These foundations include the north-south orientation of the main continental axis, the low presence of geological boundaries such as mountains and rivers, and Africa as the "cradle of mankind." Through their evolutionary consequences, these factors evolved into the aggregate marketing system traits typical to Africa, which include the existence of multi-level markets connected by traders, a sharp distinction between the formal and informal sectors, and an overwhelming presence of micro-entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers. This analysis generates new insights into, among others, the role of biogeographical factors in marketing systems theory and the potential sources of competitive advantage and disadvantage for the endogenous African firms inherent to the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to 'formal' electricity networks remains a key challenge in many African urban areas. Significant attention has been paid to how access to an electricity connection should be provided, with much less attention paid to how electricity infrastructures are operated and maintained. Attention to how utilities govern the challenges inherent to 'informality' in the production of 'formal' networked infrastructure is less common, especially in African cities. Moreover, with a few notable exceptions, studies on infrastructure maintenance and repair treat 'informality' as a subtext to broader examinations of the uneven urban landscapes produced through infrastructure and its mediating technologies. Drawing on a socio-technical approach to electricity infrastructures, this article explores how utilities engage with 'informality' to produce access to 'formal' electricity networks through everyday processes of maintenance and repair. To this end, the article uses the empirical case of Mozambique's national electricity company, EDM (Electricidade de Mocxambique, E.P.) and its transition to an electricity network mediated by prepayment technologies in the capital city Maputo. The article argues that a socio-technical approach to infrastructures provides key insights into how utilities implicate the spatial and socio-economic dimensions of 'informality' in the design, delivery, and maintenance and repair of 'formal' electricity networks. Utilities do so through pragmatic, situated practices that sustain and continually produce and reproduce infrastructures in cities. This highlights how infrastructures are always precarious achievements and service delivery is always a process in the making. The article is based on desk-work, archival work, and fieldwork conducted by the author in Maputo since 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informality is a critical theme in urban studies. In recent years, 'the everyday' has become a focus of studies on informality in African cities. These studies focus on particularity and place. They offer a useful corrective to top-down and universalising readings which exclude the daily experiences and practices of people from analysis. As we show in this article, everyday studies surface valuable insights, highlighting the agency and precarity which operates at the street level. However, a fuller understanding of informality's (re)production requires drawing together particularist accounts with wider and more structural tracings. These tracings offer insights into the ways in which state and financial processes influence and interface with the everyday. In this article, we use the case of housing in Delft, a township in Cape Town, to demonstrate this approach and argue for a multi-scalar and relational reading of the production of informality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]