Employment In Sub-Saharan Africa Research Articles

FDI, institutional quality and gender employment in Sub-Saharan Africa

With the widening saving-investment gap and the limited domestic financial resources to drive development imperatives in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), foreign direct investment (FDI) is considered a viable and sustainably promising option for boosting employment generation and closing gender gaps in employment. This paper provides critical insights into the gender and age-based employment effect of FDI in SSA and the role of institutional quality in shaping the relationship. The two-step generalized method of moments modelling framework was adopted to analyse relevant data of 29 SSA countries over the 2000-2021 period. The results revealed that FDI has a significant employment-enhancing effect irrespective of gender and age considerations. We also find that institutional quality amplifies this effect. Efforts should, therefore, be concentrated on improving institutional quality, the success of which will appeal to foreign investors and attract more foreign investments.

Does investment in education and health impact youth employment outcomes? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Labour engagement, underutilization and unemployment has dominated discourse in development literature in developing economies. It tangentially dictates the direction of migration, gross domestic output and in some cases, youth restiveness. This study investigated the unique relationship between investment in human capital proxied by spending in education and health and its effects on youth employment outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Annual data spanning 1995–2017 were obtained from 40 SSA countries comprising 920 macro panel observations. The bootstrap-based bias correction for the panel fixed effects estimation technique was employed to improve on the analytical corrections. Findings suggest that human capital investment comprising private and government health expenditures, primary, secondary and tertiary education expenditures were found to have varying significant impact on youth employment in SSA. The policy implication is that to reverse the perennial problem of youth unemployment in SSA would require serial consistent disproportionate investment more in education than in health.

The effects of innovation on the quantity and quality of jobs: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT Technological innovation is widely considered a primary source of economic growth and policies to encourage firm-level innovation remain key, even though its impact on employment remains indeterminate. Using the World Bank Enterprise survey on a sample of enterprises across sub-Saharan Africa, specifically Ghana, Kenya and Zambia, this study investigates: first, the effect of innovation on employment; second, the relationship between innovation and quality of employment and lastly, whether the type of innovation is important in isolating the effect of innovation on employment in sub-Saharan Africa. The results indicate that innovation has employment-enhancing effects in the subregion. In addition, novelty in product innovation is a more important source of employment for the firms in sub-Saharan Africa. In terms of innovation and the quality of employment, this study finds that process innovation is associated with a change in the labour composition mix in favour of unskilled workers.

Globalization and Women's Employability in Sub-Saharan Africa

The objective of this paper is to analyze the effects of globalization on female employment in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The GMM estimator was used in the econometric approach based on panel data from 39 Sub-Saharan African countries covering the period from 1995-2018. For further analysis, the sample was divided into four subgroups of regions including Central, Eastern, Western and Southern regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. The estimation results revealed that globalization measured by the openness rate and FDI flows significantly affects women's employment. This effect is positive for the openness rate and negative for FDI. This can be explained by the high representation of women in the informal sector whose main activity is trade. The results also showed a significant effect of socio-economic variables, particularly Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Policymakers, in their efforts to stimulate economic growth, should put in place policies and programs that promote trade liberalization and women's empowerment.

Mondialisation et employabilité des femmes en Afrique subsaharienne

The objective of this paper is to analyze the effects of globalization on female employment in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator was used in the econometric approach based on panel data from 39 sub-Saharan African countries covering the period 1995–2018. For further analysis, the sample was divided into four subgroups of regions including Central, Eastern, Western and Southern regions of sub-Saharan Africa. The results of the estimations reveal that globalization measured by the rate of openness and the flow of foreign direct investment significantly affects women’s employment. This effect is positive for the openness rate and negative for foreign direct investment. This can be explained by the high representation of women in the informal sector whose main activity is trade. The results also show a significant effect of socio-economic variables, particularly the gross domestic product. Policymakers, in their efforts to stimulate economic growth, must put in place policies and programs that promote trade liberalization and women’s empowerment.

Gender, Regulation Efficiency and Informal Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa

Regulation efficiency is essential in addressing the growing informal sector in developing countries because informality thrives with an inefficient legal and regulatory framework of an economy. This paper, therefore, seeks to explore the effect of regulations on informal employment across a panel of 36 sub-Saharan Africa from 2005 to 2018. The study includes both the business and labour aspects of regulation to analyse the effect. The fixed effect and GMM method of panel regression analysis was adopted to achieve the objective of the study. The result suggests that an increase in labour regulation efficiency is associated with a reduction in informal employment while there exists no significant relationship between efficient business regulation and informal employment. The study further investigates how the outcomes affect both genders and the output. The study suggests that efficient labour regulation is gender-specific, as the result is only consistent for the male. It is therefore imperative to incorporate more female gender-specific incentives in the social and labour regulations to compensate for the imbalance of social roles of women that may affect their choice to work in the formal or informal sector.

Women's Participation in Labor Force in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): A Review of Determinants and Impacts

Background: In the last few decades, there has been a significant increase in women's participation in gainful employment in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This scooping review has primarily aimed at assessing the key determinants and effects of women's involvement in the labor force in SSA.
 Methods: The authors did the review based on 19 articles selected from PubMed and goggle search. The selection considered only those published in the last 15 years, conducted based on large sample from Sub-Saharan African countries, and those exclusively related to women’s Labor Force Participation (LFP). More than 80% of the reviewed studies (16 of the 19) employed a cross-sectional study design with quantitative approaches.
 Results: The review witnessed that women's labor force participation in SSA is determined by various individual, household, and community characteristics. Women with lower fertility, living in poor economic condition (low wealth quantiles), and those with above primary education were more likely to participate in gainful employment. Other demographic factors explaining why some women participate in the labor force more often than others include women's age, marital status, number of under-five children, household size, and headship. Among the community variables, living in areas with better infrastructure (transport and communication) increased the likelihood of women’s participation in gainful employment. Nearly all studies showed significant positive impacts of women's labor force participation on several domains of women's life and household well-being, such as on women's nutrition, childcare, and health service utilization.
 Conclusion: The review implies that despite concerns about some adverse impacts of women's participation in gainful employment (such as on childcare), most of the studies indicated positive effects of LFP on women's and children's health, nutrition, and overall household well-being in SSA.

Decomposing Employment Growth in Selected sub-Saharan African Countries: The Roles of Structural Changes and Demographic Transition

The challenge of employment growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries goes beyond economic growth prospects to include structural and demographic dimensions. This study examines the relative contributions of structural changes and demographic factors to employment growth for a set of SSA countries using available annual data from 1970 to 2014. A decomposition approach is employed in the study using the Jobs Generation and Growth (JoGGs) method which generates results that show distributive components of employment, productivity and output changes over time in a system whereby the roles of economic structure and demographic changes could be observed. The study shows that the pattern of structural change in SSA countries has led to more low-productivity and vulnerable jobs generation. Rising shares of the traditional services sector in the economy has driven a large segment of employment into informal low-wage jobs. Major consequences of the nature of demographic changes in the SSA region are found to include decline in overall employment rate and large movement of the labour market towards less productive and low-wage employment. Social policies that address population and migration are therefore required to ensure that demographic factors do not further inhibit availability of productive employment in SSA.

Assessing adult farm labor statistics: Evidence from a survey design experiment in Ethiopia

Agricultural labor accounts for most of the employment in Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, few empirical studies have examined the reliability of farm labor measures emerging from household surveys. In this study, we report the results from a survey design experiment in rural Ethiopia that focus on the effects of survey respondent i.e., proxy vs self-report, on adult farm labor. Our results show that proxy respondents generate lower farm labor statistics relative to self-responses for men but not for women. The magnitude of the impacts for men reaches 3.9 percentage points or 4.3% lower rate of participation relative to the mean participation obtained from the self-report. Our results have implications for the current debate on the measurement of agricultural productivity and the collection of survey data in rural areas of developing settings.

Picking the Right Arrow for the Target: Modelling the Economic Impact of Remittance on Agribusinesss Entreprenuership and Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa

The consequences of conflictual views on modelling the economic impact of remittances on agribusiness entrepreneurship and economic growth, has been present for a long time in the economic literature, albeit in a somewhat scattered way. This has attracted wide-spread criticism for agribusiness inititaives and its failure to address rural unemployment within the context of youth participation in the global food markets. This paper provides a summary of the global evidence published in the thematic area of international migration-remittance and sustainable development with emphasis on the financialisation impact of remittance on agribusiness entreprenuership and economic growth. The paper selectively reviews over 100 documented cases that offer insights into the methodological approaches for empirical modelling of remittance studies around the world. The paper bridges different stands of literature in economic and business management sciences and exemplifies the new complementaries between remittance, agribusiness and supply chain developments. Much as the paper advances no particular theory for modelling the economic impact of remittances on agribusiness entreprenuership and growth, it clearly offers insights into picking the appropriate methodological approaches for empirical estimation of the net effects of remittances on agribusiness entrepreneurship and rural youth employment in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The paper pinpoints ample evidence and brings a case for use of randomized experimentation approaches in Sub-Saharan Africa prone to the vagaries of weather- shocks and climate change. The paper further elaborates the nexus between remittance and contemporary development themes of poverty reduction and inequality, investment and savings, labour supply participation and economic growth. The experimental evidence reported around the globe showed that remittances have positive effects on poverty reduction but negative ramifications for labour supply, education, and economic growth. The analysis made a startling discovery which demonstrated that although, remittances reduced labour supply participation in developing economies; it significantly increased consumption of luxury goods in migrant households and made no positive contribution whatsoever to economic growth. This sorepoint courts new attention on resolution of the dilemma of remittance on economic welfare and advances an immediate redress of the emerging crises of methodological misuse in Development economics. Specifically the paper finds penalties with choice of methodological approaches for modelling the economic impacts of remitance on agribusiness entrepreneurship and economic welfare and advocated the inculcation of political economy perspectives in order to intergrate the multidimensionality of the complicated linkages of remittance to agribusiness entrepreneurship, rural youth employment and sustainable economic growth.

A Socio-Economic-Political Dimension of Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa

The paper adopts a broader perspective in studying the determinants of employment. The main objective of the study is to assess the impact of social and political variables on employment levels after accounting for macroeconomic factors. In addition, the paper adopts a gendered dimension to the labour market, as relatively more women tend to be unemployed or have vulnerable jobs in the informal sector. The Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares is applied to analyse the drivers of employment. Data for Sub-Saharan Africa is collected from 1991 to 2016. The findings indicate that higher economic growth; more access to finance and education, low corruption as well as political stability positively affect employment. There is thus evidence to extend existing employment analysis and policy making beyond economic factors to embrace social and political constraints.

Effect of economic sectors on employment in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The motif of this study was to determine the effect of economic sectors on employment in Sub-Saharan Africa, given that the Sub-Saharan African region had had about two decades of sustained economic growth. Thirty Sub-Saharan African countries were used in this study, their data that was obtained and used spanning from the year 1990 to the year 2015. The study made use of the traditional neo-classical aggregate production function in the estimation of the regression results. The software program that was used in data analysis was STATA. Hausman test was undertaken and it determined that fixed effects estimations were preferred to random effect and as a result fixed effects were utilized in the study in carrying out regression analysis. On effect of economic sectors on employment, foreign direct investment was found to negatively influence employment though the influence was not statistically significant. The export and agriculture variables negatively and statistically significantly influenced employment. All the other variables in the study were found to positively and statistically significantly influence employment. Empirical results established that the gender gap in employment was maintained in the whole period of the study with more men being employed than women.

The effect of demographic characteristics on employment in Sub- Saharan Africa.

This study aimed at establishing the effect of demographic characteristics on employment in Sub Saharan Africa. The study used data ranging from the year 1990 to the year 2015 that was obtained from the data banks of World Bank and FAOSTAT. The panel data that was obtained and used was for 30 Sub-Saharan African Countries. The traditional Neo classical production function was utilized in this study in estimating the regression results. Hausman test was carried out and it determined that fixed effects estimations were preferred to random effects and as a consequence, random effects estimations were made use of during the analysis of data. In establishing the relationship between demographic characteristics and employment, demographic characteristics, imports and services sectors variables were found to statistically and significantly influence employment. However, domestic capital was found to negatively influence employment though this was not statistically significant, while exports was found negatively and statistically significantly influencing employment.

Effect of economic growth on employment in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The study aimed at investigating the effect of economic growth on employment in Sub-Saharan African. The study employed secondary data that was sourced from the World Bank, World development indicators and FAOSTAT covering 30 Sub Saharan African Countries for the period 1990 to 2015. The study employed the traditional neo-classical aggregate production function in its estimation of the regression results. The panel data obtained was analysed using the STATA software program. Hausman test was used and it determined that fixed effects estimation was preferred to random effects estimation and therefore fixed effects regression was used during the analysis. Empirical results on effect of economic growth on employment established that total employment, women in employment and men in employment statistically and significantly influenced economic growth and on the other hand economic sectors which comprised of domestic capital, imports, exports and services sectors statistically and significantly influenced economic growth.

Trade Openness and Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa: Should We Regulate the Labor Market?

This study analyzes the effect of trade openness and labor market regulation on youth employment in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It covers a panel of 41 countries over the period 2002-2017, a period determined by the availability of the relevant data on labor market regulation. The results obtained using pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and instrumental variable-two-stage least squares (IV-2SLS) estimators reveal that trade openness and labor market regulation rigidity have a positive and significant impact on youth employment in SSA. More interestingly, trade openness negatively and significantly affects youth employment in more rigid labor markets in SSA. This result remains robust in several robustness tests. Finally, this study also examined the case of young women’s employment in SSA.

The inequality of opportunity and youth employment in Sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT The present study has aimed to determine how factors beyond the control of youths (15–29 years) have determined their chance to find employment opportunities in six Sub-Saharan Africa countries (The Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo), Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Uganda, and Zambia). Data from the school-to-work transition surveys from 2014 and 2015, carried out by the International Labor Office, was utilised. For each country, the Human Opportunity Index, as developed by the World Bank, was calculated. Second, the contribution of each factor to that index was calculated. The results showed that while the Congo had relatively high employment dissimilarity, originating from given circumstances, Madagascar, Malawi, and Uganda had comparatively low employment dissimilarity indices. Likewise, the study detected that among factors beyond the control of youths that determined their chance to find employment, particularly parental occupation, was found to be a fundamental driver of creating a difference in employment chances for their offspring. Overall, the results implied that effort-based inequalities and not inequality caused by factors beyond individual control played a significant role in explaining the status of youths in the labour market.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Education

ABSTRACT The heat of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) in the form of automated technologies in industrial production processes is on the global world. This has raised worries regarding the potential impact of the 4IR particularly on the future of jobs in developing countries. The study investigates the impact of the 4IR on industry labor employment, with particular emphasis on the role of tertiary education in SSA from 2000 to 2018. Due to the dearth of adequate data relating to the elements of 4IR such as robotics, internet of things (IoT), and cloud technologies, the study is benchmarked on the technology achievement of SSA countries, tertiary education attainment, and some elements of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) like mobile phone technology and internet densities. The study employed instrumental variable regression, within the framework of the System GMM estimator, covering the 48 SSA countries. The result shows that technology achievement index (TAI), technology, mobile, mobile phone technology, and education exert a positive effect on industry labor employment in SSA. This suggests that advancement in the elements of 4IR will eventually bring about improvement in the level of industry labor employment. Based on these findings, the study recommends that the governments of SSA countries should embark on structural reforms of the educational system as well as massive investment in ICT penetration and diffusion. These efforts will produce digital manpower to fit into the new job environment while offsetting the immediate job losses occasioned by the 4IR

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Education

ABSTRACT The heat of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) in the form of automated technologies in industrial production processes is on the global world. This has raised worries regarding the potential impact of the 4IR particularly on the future of jobs in developing countries. The study investigates the impact of the 4IR on industry labor employment, with particular emphasis on the role of tertiary education in SSA from 2000 to 2018. Due to the dearth of adequate data relating to the elements of 4IR such as robotics, internet of things (IoT), and cloud technologies, the study is benchmarked on the technology achievement of SSA countries, tertiary education attainment, and some elements of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) like mobile phone technology and internet densities. The study employed instrumental variable regression, within the framework of the System GMM estimator, covering the 48 SSA countries. The result shows that technology achievement index (TAI), technology, mobile, mobile phone technology, and education exert a positive effect on industry labor employment in SSA. This suggests that advancement in the elements of 4IR will eventually bring about improvement in the level of industry labor employment. Based on these findings, the study recommends that the governments of SSA countries should embark on structural reforms of the educational system as well as massive investment in ICT penetration and diffusion. These efforts will produce digital manpower to fit into the new job environment while offsetting the immediate job losses occasioned by the 4IR

The Impact of Household Wealth on Adoption and Compliance to GLOBAL GAP Production Standards: Evidence from Smallholder farmers in Kenya

Horticultural production for the export market has been credited for rural community growth and employment in Sub-Saharan Africa. To make the agri-enterprises competitive and profitable, smallholder farmers are now required to invest in food safety and production standards such as GLOBAL Good Agricultural Practices (GLOBAL GAP). Most often, the inability to afford capital has affected compliance with food safety production standards. However, farmers can use household assets to finance the agri enterprise ventures. The purpose of the study is to explore the impact of household wealth on the adoption of food safety certification standards. The study used cross-sectional data collected from 479 smallholder farmers in Kenya. The findings reveal that 49% of the households are categorized as wealthy and 51% as poorly endowed. The empirical findings on the willingness to adopt GLOBAL GAP certification reveal that membership to GLOBAL GAP affiliated farmers groups significantly influence on wealthier farmers to attain GLOBAL GAP certification status. Farmers groups facilitate joint investments that reduce the cost of investing in GLOBAL GAP assets such as grading shed, protective gear, shower rooms, disposal pits, incinerators, hessian coolers, packaging crates, soil testing kits and establishing food traceability systems. In comparison to poor endowed farming households, the well-endowed farmers have a relatively significantly better wealth index, an indication that they can easily raise capital investments to finance GAP certification. Finally, we observe that selling beans to GAP certified buyers significantly enables farmers to comply with the expected certified production standards.

Inequality and gender inclusion: Minimum ICT policy thresholds for promoting female employment in Sub-Saharan Africa

The study assesses how ICT modulates the effect of inequality on female economic participation in a panel of 42 countries in sub-Saharan Africa over the period 2004–2014. Three inequality indicators are used, namely: the Gini coefficient, the Atkinson index and the Palma ratio. The adopted ICT indicators are mobile phone penetration, internet penetration and fixed broadband subscriptions. Three gender economic inclusion indicators are also used for the analysis, namely: female labour force participation, female unemployment and female employment. The Generalised Method of Moments is employed as empirical strategy. The findings show that enhancing ICT beyond certain thresholds is necessary for ICT to mitigate inequality in order to enhance gender economic participation. First, for female labour force participation, a minimum threshold of 165.714 mobile phone penetration per 100 people is required for the Palma ratio. Second, minimum ICT thresholds for the reduction of female unemployment are: (i) 87.783, 107.486 and 152.500 mobile phone penetration per 100 people for respectively, the Gini coefficient, the Atkinson index and the Palma ratio; (ii) 39.618 internet penetration per 100 people for the Atkinson index and (iii) 4.500 fixed broadband subscritptions for the Palma ratio. Third, the corresponding ICT thresholds for the promotion of female employment are: (i) 120.369 and 85.533 mobile phone penetration per 100 people for respectively, the Gini coefficient and the Atkinson index and (ii) 30.005 internet penetration per 100 people for the Gini coefficient. The established thresholds make economic sense and can be feasibly implemented by policy makers in order to induce favourable effects on gender economic inclusion dynamics.