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on Africa |
| By: | Bezu, Sosina (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Holden, Stein (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences) |
| Abstract: | Street vending of goods and services is a common phenomenon in urban areas of Africa. Although such street based self-employment activities often lack legal recognition and are sometimes criminalized, significant share of the youth labor force in urban areas earn their livelihood from such activities. This study examines whether street based self-employment is a viable livelihood with a potential for transition or a poverty trap for youth migrants. The study is based on a survey of 445 youth who are engaged in shoe shining and coffee vending activities in two urban areas in Ethiopia. We found that street based self-employment is indeed dominated by migrant youth. In this sample, 96% of those engaged in the street based self-employment are youth and 98% are migrants from rural areas or smaller towns. We found that the average monthly earning of these self-employed youth is better than the minimum wage in public sector and much larger than the official poverty line. We found that most of the youth consider this as transitory employment and accumulate skill and capital with a view to establishing their own enterprise or joining skilled employment. While young women are in general found to be less likely than young men to seek exit out of street based self-employment, education increases the likelihood that young women aspire for a change in their employment situation. Youth with better-off parents back home and those with larger network in their new residence are more likely to change their current occupation. |
| Keywords: | Informal employment; youth migration; youth unemployment; Africa; Ethiopia |
| JEL: | J20 J60 O15 O17 |
| Date: | 2015–06–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsclt:2015_004&r=afr |
| By: | Lukasz Grzybowski |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze the role of network effects and consumer heterogeneity in the adoption of mobile phones. We estimate the decision to adopt a mobile phone using panel survey data of South African households between the years 2008 and 2012, which includes interviews with all adult household members. We construct variables which approximate network effects on the household level and find that the greater the number of mobile phones in the household, the greater the likelihood that the other household members will also adopt a mobile phone. Moreover, network effects depend on who in the household adopts a mobile phone. Without within-household network effects the penetration of mobile phones of 76.4% in 2012 would be lower by about 9.9 percentage points. The decision to adopt a mobile phone is also explained by observed and unobserved consumer heterogeneity. |
| Keywords: | Mobile phones, Network effects, Consumer heterogeneity |
| JEL: | L13 L96 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:522&r=afr |
| By: | Milazzo,Annamaria; Van De Walle,Dominique |
| Abstract: | This paper is motivated by two stylized facts about poverty in Africa: female-headed households tend to be poorer, and poverty has been falling in the aggregate since the 1990s. These facts raise two questions: How have female-headed households fared? And what role have they played in Africa's impressive recent aggregate growth and poverty reduction? Using data covering the entire region, the paper reexamines the current prevalence and characteristics of female-headed households, and asks whether their prevalence has been rising over time, what factors have been associated with such changes since the mid-1990s, and whether poverty has fallen equi-proportionately for male- and female-headed households. Rising gross domestic product has dampened rising female headship. However, other subtle transformations occurring across Africa?changes in marriage behavior, family formation, health, and education?have put upward pressure on female headship, with the result that the share of female-headed households has been growing. This has been happening alongside declining aggregate poverty incidence. However, rather than being left behind, female-headed households have generally seen faster poverty reduction. As a whole, this group has contributed almost as much to the reduction in poverty as male-headed households, despite the smaller share of female-headed households in the population. |
| Keywords: | Housing&Human Habitats,Population Policies,Regional Economic Development,Rural Poverty Reduction |
| Date: | 2015–06–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7331&r=afr |
| By: | Christopher Blattman; Jeannie Annan |
| Abstract: | States and aid agencies use employment programs to rehabilitate high-risk men in the belief that peaceful work opportunities will deter them from crime and violence. Rigorous evidence is rare. We experimentally evaluate a program of agricultural training, capital inputs, and counseling for Liberian ex-fighters who were illegally mining or occupying rubber plantations. 14 months after the program ended, men who accepted the program offer increased their farm employment and profits, and shifted work hours away from illicit activities. Men also reduced interest in mercenary work in a nearby war. Finally, some men did not receive their capital inputs but expected a future cash transfer instead, and they reduced illicit and mercenary activities most of all. The evidence suggests that illicit and mercenary labor supply responds to small changes in returns to peaceful work, especially future and ongoing incentives. But the impacts of training alone, without capital, appear to be low. |
| JEL: | C93 D74 J21 O12 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21289&r=afr |
| By: | Boccanfuso, Dorothée (University of Sherbrooke); Larouche, Alexandre (Del Degan, Massé); Trandafir, Mircea (University of Southern Denmark) |
| Abstract: | While many studies examine the effect of primary education quality on labor market outcomes in developing countries, little is known about the effects at higher levels. We exploit the quasi-experiment provided by a large-scale education reform launched in Senegal in 2000 to investigate how quality improvements at the university level affect employment. Our difference-in-difference estimates suggest that young high-skilled workers experienced a nine percentage-point employment gain relative to older workers. They are also more likely to have "better" jobs (in the service industry or government), suggesting a reduction in the mismatch between the quality of high-skill labor demanded and supplied. |
| Keywords: | higher education, employment, impact analysis, quality mismatch |
| JEL: | I21 O15 O55 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9099&r=afr |
| By: | Nonso Obikili |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of political competition on economic growth. Using results from the 1994 and 1999 elections I show that municipalities with a decisive vote either for or against the dominant national party have grown faster than municipalities with more voter competition amongst various political parties. I show that in democracies, governments with more freedom to make decisions and less threat from opposition political parties are associated with faster economic growth and improvement in supply of some public goods. |
| Keywords: | Political Competition, economic growth, Democracy, Voting Behaviour |
| JEL: | P16 O47 D72 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:525&r=afr |
| By: | Rijkers,Bob; Baghdadi,Leila; Raballand,Gael J. R. F. |
| Abstract: | Are politically connected firms more likely to evade taxes? This paper presents evidence suggesting firms owned by President Ben Ali and his family were more prone to evade import tariffs. During Ben Ali?s reign, evasion gaps, defined as the difference between the value of exports to Tunisia reported by partner countries and the value of imports reported at Tunisian customs, were correlated with the import share of connected firms. This association was especially strong for goods subject to high tariffs, and driven by underreporting of unit prices, which diminished after the revolution. Consistent with these product-level patterns, unit prices reported by connected firms were lower than those reported by other firms, and declined faster with tariffs than those of other firms. Moreover, privatization to the Ben Ali family was associated with a reduction in reported unit prices, whereas privatization per se was not. |
| Keywords: | Trade Policy,Debt Markets,Microfinance,Markets and Market Access,International Trade and Trade Rules |
| Date: | 2015–06–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7336&r=afr |