African Development Review-Revue Africaine De Developpement最新文献

In the context of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), characterized by abundant natural resources and persistent challenges in economic growth, this paper explores the effect of economic complexity (EC) on natural resource depletion (NRD) from 1997 to 2017. To this end, the study employs data mainly from the World Development Indicators on 36 SSA countries. Using both the pooled ordinary least squares and the two-step system generalized method of moments estimation techniques, the results indicate that EC significantly contributes to reducing the exhaustion of natural resources in SSA during the study period. The findings equally suggest that government expenditure on education, as well as gross domestic product per capita, exert a reducing effect on NRD, while energy use, foreign direct investment, and urbanization are vectors of resource exhaustion in the region. The results remain consistent when an alternative measure of EC is applied as well as when different estimation strategies are used. This offers scope for a reminder for proper management policies to be edited and applied regarding these mostly nonrenewable resources.

Empirical evidence on the benefits of international ownership for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) financial performance is either not available for most African and Middle Eastern countries or presents mixed results. In this paper, we investigate this further by examining the effects of ownership structure on firm performance, using financial data covering SMEs in 60 African and Middle Eastern countries, for the years 2006–2015. Results from pooled ordinary least squares and random-effects estimations indicate that international ownership is significantly positively correlated with firm performance for (most of) Africa and the Middle East. Examining the interaction of international ownership with capital resources, we find that internationally owned firms do not use capital more efficiently than locally owned firms, implying that internationally owned firms use international resources—other than capital—more efficiently.

Promoting decentralization is currently high on the global agenda. To date, the existing literature in the African context, and more specifically in Cameroon, has not established a link between the size of local authorities and the efficiency of their infrastructure spending. This study therefore attempts to fill this gap in the literature by empirically examining the effect of population size on the efficiency of local public spending in Cameroon. Using the two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis model on a sample of 100 communes for the period 2017–2020 to estimate composite efficiency scores and the censored Tobit model to determine the effect of population size on the efficiency of local public spending, the results show that population size and density positively and very significantly affect the efficiency of local public spending. In light of these results, we recommend that the state make population size the main allocation key for transfers and subsidies to local authorities and that communes organize themselves into inter-municipalities to benefit from economies of scale and curb spillover effects.

This paper calculates the trade efficiency of China's exports to Africa by considering trade inefficiency factors, such as Chinese aid to Africa and Chinese contracted projects. Based on a stochastic frontier gravity model and data for China's exports to 38 African countries from 2010 to 2020, this study draws the following conclusions. First, trade inefficiencies, such as China's aid and contracted projects, play a positive role in promoting China's export trade to Africa. Second, the efficiency of China's export trade to Africa varies significantly in different regions, among which countries with high export trade efficiency are concentrated in North and South Africa. Third, the trade potential and trade expansion space of China's exports to Africa vary significantly among different product sectors, which provides much space for promoting trade policy. We highlight that China's government should develop differentiated regional trade policies due to regional heterogeneity in terms of export trade efficiency between China and African countries.

The study investigates the effect of FinTech on financial inclusion in Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states over the period 2011–2021, while also looking at the transmission channels. The study adopts a battery of econometric techniques such as ordinary least squares (OLS), the two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) and the Driscoll and Kraay covariance estimator. The study finds that FinTech (proxied by digitization) deepens financial inclusion (access to loan) and a decline in the number of bank branches in SADC member states. This is logical since the operations of FinTech are digital. This implies that an attempt to promote financial inclusion by traditional means such as building physical bank structures may be limited, especially in Africa where large swathes of the populace remain unbanked. As expected, FinTech (measured by automated teller machines [ATMs]) increases the number of bank branches in SADC. We also find that mobile cellular subscription, the share of population with access to electricity and Internet access and mean years of schooling are important transmission channels of FinTech to financial inclusion in SADC. In general, the result shows that FinTech enhances and deepens financial inclusion in SADC member states. The research and policy implications are discussed.

Using data for 22 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, this paper investigates the effects of public debt on economic growth in SSA countries covering the period 1990–2021. Relying upon the estimation of Panel Smooth Transition Regression and generalized method of moments method, our findings offer strong evidence that public debt nonlinearly impacts economic growth. More specifically, there exists a threshold beyond which public debt exerts a negative effect on growth. These results can be used to formulate economic recommendations that the public authorities could implement to improve public debt management and maintain stable economic growth.

In a context marked by an upsurge in the scale of climate change and its consequences in Africa, this article explores ways to increase the resilience of African economies. It aims to analyze the effect of industrialization on the continent's vulnerability to climate change (VCC). The sample used for this purpose consists of 41 African countries from 2010 to 2021. A dynamic panel model is estimated using the system generalized method of moments. Results show that industrialization reduces the VCC in African countries. It reduces their sensitivity to climate change while increasing their adaptive capacity. Furthermore, results show that industrialization is more likely to reduce the VCC in sectors such as ecosystems, habitat, health, and infrastructures whereas it increases vulnerability to climate change in the food and water sectors. The results, however, reject the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis between industrialization and VCC. These results are robust to the change in industrialization measures. Therefore, African countries would benefit from pursuing their industrial development through greater use of renewable energy. This can help them to sustainably reduce their VCC. In addition, they need to implement specific measures to adapt to climate change in the food and water sectors.

Agriculture is a very important sector in Africa's economic development, particularly in Burkina Faso, as it employs a large proportion of the population. Given the importance of labor in this sector, a good allocation of the different types of labor could help increase agricultural productivity in Burkina Faso. This research contributes to the literature by determining the specific contributions of each type of labor in enhancing cotton productivity. The sample of this research is 477 cotton farms, and a semiparametric stochastic frontier model has been used in the analysis. The results show that the proportion of wage labor has a nonlinear effect and contributes to improving cotton productivity when the number of educated people in the household increases. But family labor decreases cotton productivity when the number of educated people in the household increase. The comparison between the findings of the semiparametric and parametric frontier shows that technical efficiency is 72.44% when education is used as the channel through which production factors affect cotton productivity. However, this technical efficiency is 54.96% when production factors directly affect cotton productivity in the parametric frontier model. Promoting education in rural areas will help to increase the number of people educated and consequently improve cotton productivity.

The paper aims to investigate the legitimacy of the African Union by examining the socio-demographic determinants of citizens' support of African integration. To do this, we use Rounds 4, 5, 6, and 8 of the Afrobarometer survey data corresponding to more than 110,000 respondents. Using logistics regressions, we find that individual characteristics such as living area, education, employment status, political membership, freedom, living conditions, and Living Poverty Index (LPI) are significantly related to the probability of supporting African integration. The findings are largely robust to dynamics of regional integration, the African Union, and Regional Economic Communities (RECs). Thus, since African citizens' trust in the unification could be considered a condition of legitimacy in the process, our results suggest that more efforts should be made to gain credibility, especially as it pertains to the benefits of African integration.

This paper investigates the effects of institutional quality on tax revenue collection in sub-Saharan African countries. We include the six institutional quality indicators (i.e., voice and accountability, political stability, regulatory quality, rule of law, control of corruption, and government effectiveness) as explanatory factors for tax revenues and its components in a sample of 42 countries over the period 1996–2019. A system GMM approach was used for the estimations. Consistent with previous results, we find that institutional quality has positive and significant effects on tax revenue collection in sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, aggregate total tax revenues, direct taxes, income taxes, and goods and services taxes are positively affected by the six institutional quality indicators. Indirect taxes are positively associated with four indicators, with the exception of government effectiveness and political stability, while tax on international trade are affected by institutional quality factors, with the exception of control of corruption and voice and accountability. These findings indicate that sub-Saharan African countries should improve institutional quality to boost tax revenue collection.