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"The authors present an integrated macroeconomic approach to monitoring progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Sub-Saharan Africa. At the heart of their approach is a macroeconomic model that captures key linkages between foreign aid, public investment (disaggregated into education, infrastructure, and health), the supply side, and poverty. The model is linked through cross-section regressions to indicators of malnutrition, infant mortality, life expectancy, and access to safe water. A composite MDG indicator is also calculated. The functioning of the framework is illustrated by simulating the impact of an increase in aid and a debt write-off for Niger at the MDG horizon of 2015, under alternative assumptions about the degree of efficiency of public investment. The authors' approach can serve as the building block of Strategy Papers for Human Development (SPAHD), a more encompassing concept than the current "Poverty Reduction" Strategy Papers. "--World Bank web site.
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Investments, Foreign --- Government policy --- Africa, Sub-Saharan --- Africa, Sub-Saharan --- Africa, Sub-Saharan --- Commerce. --- Economic policy. --- Foreign economic relations.
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"This paper reviews data and research on trade costs for Sub-Saharan African countries. It focuses on: border-related costs, transport costs, costs related to behind-the border issues, and the costs of compliance with rules of origin specific to preferential trade agreements. Trade costs are, on average, higher for African countries than for other developing countries. Using gravity-model estimates, the authors compute ad-valorem equivalents of improvements in trade indicators for a sample of African countries. The evidence suggests that the gains for African exporters from improving the trade logistics half-way to the level in South Africa is more important than a substantive cut in tariff barriers. As an example, improving logistics in Ethiopia half-way to the level in South Africa would be roughly equivalent to a 7.5 percent cut in tariffs faced by Ethiopian exporters. "--World Bank web site.
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Africa, Sub-Saharan --- Economic policy. --- Economic conditions
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Evidence for road expansion and electrification as drivers of job creation is limited and mixed, with most studies having considered either one or the other, and only in isolation. This paper estimates the average and heterogeneous impacts of road and electricity investments and the interaction of the two on job creation over the past two decades in 27 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Exploiting the exogenous location of ancestral ethnic homelands, a new instrumental variable is created for road accessibility, inspired by post-independence leaders' agenda of building roads to extend authority over the entire expanse of their country, and to promote nation building. Topography and lightning strikes-a key source of damage to electric lines and disruption of service-are used to instrument electricity supply. The paper finds positive and significant effects on employment from enhancing proximity to roads and to electric grids. Moreover, the interaction of the two enhances the effects, making them complementary investments. The impacts of both individual and bundled investments are positive, but with differences between men and women, workers of various ages, and countries at different stages of development. In urban areas, better access to roads and electricity promotes all types of employment. In rural areas, greater access induces a transition from low- to high-skilled occupations. These differential effects suggest that the structural transformation brought about by road and electricity expansion is primarily a rural phenomenon.
Africa, Sub-Saharan --- Economic conditions --- Economic policy.
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"The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is the flagship of U.S. commercial and development policy with Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper looks at the impact of the trade preferences that are the central element of AGOA on African countries' exports to the U.S. and puts them in the perspective of the development of the region. The paper finds that, while stimulating export diversification in a few countries, AGOA has fallen short of the potential impetus that preferences could otherwise provide African exporters. The impact of AGOA would be enhanced if preferences were extended to all products. This means removing tariff barriers to a range of agricultural products and to textiles and a number of other manufactured goods. There also needs to be a fundamental change in approach to the rules of origin. Given the stage of development and economic size of Sub-Saharan Africa, nonrestrictive rules of origin are crucial. For all countries in Africa, those that have and those that have not benefited from preferences, there are enormous infrastructure weaknesses and often extremely poor policy environments that raise trade costs and push African producers further away from international markets. Effective trade preferences (those with nonrestrictive rules of origin) can provide a limited window of opportunity to exports while these key barriers to trade are addressed. But dealing with the barriers is the priority. "--World Bank web site.
Africa, Sub-Saharan --- United States --- Commerce
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Africa, Sub-Saharan --- Economic policy. --- Economic conditions
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"The increase in food prices represents a major crisis for the world's poor. This paper aims to review the evidence on the potential impact of higher food prices on poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, and examines the extent to which policy responses will benefit the poor. The paper shows that rising food prices are likely to lead to higher poverty in sub-Saharan Africa as the negative impact on net poor consumers outweighs the benefits to poor producers. A recent survey shows that the most common policy response in sub-Saharan African countries is reducing taxes on food while outside the region price controls or targeted consumer subsidies are the most popular measure. Sub-Saharan African countries also have a higher prevalence of food-based safety net programs which are being scaled up to respond to rising prices. The review suggests that the benefits from reducing import tariffs on staples may accrue largely to the non-poor. Social protection programs show more promise, but geographic targeting is likely to be crucial in ensuring that benefits reach the neediest. The paper also argues that anti-poverty interventions ought to retain their focus on rural areas where poverty remains highest even after taking into account the adverse impact on the urban poor due to the rise in food prices. "--World Bank web site.
Food prices --- Poverty --- Africa, Sub-Saharan. --- Africa, Sub-Saharan --- Economic conditions.
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This book was written because at the time when Development Partners focus especially on rural mobility, it is worth trying to know how to achieve better aid effectiveness in rural transport. So far, most Development Partners and governments in SSA have relied on two overarching assumptions, which have led to massive road investments: (i) most households in rural areas in Africa are not connected to markets and therefore need a road passable for a truck (all the more as they are remote), (ii) roads with high level of service are crucial to achieve high economic impact. We demonstrate in this bo
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