Performance In Sub-Saharan Africa Research Articles

Inclusive Education and Health Performance in Sub Saharan Africa.

The study assesses the effect of inclusive education on health performance in 48 Sub Saharan African countries from 2000 to 2020. The study adopted the Driscoll/Kraay technique to address cross-sectional dependence and the GMM strategy to address potential endogeneity. The study employed three indicators of health performance which are the total life expectancy, the female life expectancy and the male life expectancy. Three gender parity index of educational enrolments are employed: primary education, secondary and the tertiary education as indicators of inclusive education. The findings of the study reveal that inclusive education enhances the health situation of individuals in Sub Saharan Africa. The findings further show that the health situation of both the male and the female are improved by inclusive education. The study recommends policymakers in this region to invest more in the education and the health sector so as to enhance the health performance of the citizens.

Water Infrastructure Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Investigation of the Drivers and Impact on Economic Growth

There is a strong link between water infrastructure and development outcomes. As such, water infrastructure challenges could have an adverse effect on the economy at large. This study investigates the drivers of water infrastructure performance and analyzes how investment in water infrastructure affects economic growth, focusing on a panel of thirty-one Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. An integrative theoretical framework using panel regressions was developed. The result showed that an increase in water infrastructure performance due to a 1% increase in per-capita income growth and trade openness was 0.2% and 0.03%, respectively, and the constraint on water infrastructure performance due to a 1% increase in population density was 0.76%. The result showed that the impact is mostly driven by the effect of per-capita income growth and population density on lower- and middle-income countries. Our results also revealed that one additional increase in water infrastructure investment leads to a higher impact on economic growth. We further complement our study by investigating the policy interventions that the support water infrastructure outcome effect. We found that investment in water infrastructure along with the provision of credit to the private sector is a strong driver of economic growth; however, access to credit beyond a certain threshold—relative to the level of investment in water infrastructure in these countries—investment in water infrastructure would lead to an adverse negative macroeconomic effect. The policy implications of this study are discussed.

The impact of tourism supply chain on sustainable performance in sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from Tanzania

PurposeThe fast-growth of tourism industry in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has increased supply chain activities that harm the environment. Although there are some studies which have investigated the impact of tourism supply chain on sustainable performance, little is known on the side of SSA. Based on the natural resource-based view (NRBV), this study examines the effects of green purchasing, green packaging and reverse logistics on sustainable performance in SSA.Design/methodology/approachThis study applies the structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the conceptual model based on the data collected in mid of 2020 from 167 firms in tourism industry in Tanzania.FindingsThe results demonstrate that green purchasing (GP) has positive effects on environmental performance (EVP) and social performance (SCP). Green packaging (GPa) has positive effects on EVP but no significant influence on SCP. Also, reverse logistics (RL) has positive effects on SCP but no significant influence on EVP. Besides, both EVP and SCP positively influence ECP and mediate the relationships between GP, GPa and RL with ECP.Originality/valueThis study provides a novel framework in sustainable tourism supply chain literature by empirically investigating the relationship between tourism supply chain practices and sustainable performance in SSA.

Trade Facilitation and Agriculture Sector Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa: Insightful Policy Implications for Economic Sustainability

This study investigates the impact of trade facilitation though costs, documents, and time to import and export—on agricultural sector performance (ASP) for a panel of 33 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 2005 to 2019. The empirical analysis is based on a dynamic system of generalized method of moments. The following findings are established. First, higher import costs, documents, and time significantly improve ASP, while exports negatively impact ASP. Second, while import costs promote trade in agricultural products through substitution effects, export costs impede it. Third, among other factors, improvements in human capital, gross fixed capital formation, population growth, and trade openness significantly improve agricultural sector performance. Fourth, the results of the robustness check further emphasize the importance of TF on ASP from various dimensions. The study concludes that improving TF procedures by reducing costs, documents, and time in cross-border trade remains crucial to boosting agriculture sector performance in SSA.

Foreign ownership and firm performance in Sub-Saharan Africa

Our study investigates the effects of foreign ownership on firm performance with respect to profitability, productivity, export intensity, and skills acquisition in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. This is particularly important given that in the last three decades, the stock of FDI has increased by over 20,000% in SSA countries. To achieve the objectives of this paper, we employed firm- and country-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys and the World Bank Development Indicators, respectively. Results of the least squares dummy variable (LSDV) and propensity score matching (PSM) estimations showed that foreign ownership was positively associated with higher levels of financial profitability, productivity, exports, and skilled labour acquisition. Policy implications were deduced from the findings.

Foreign Aid, Trade Openness and Economic Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Panel Cointegration Investigation

The objective of this paper was to investigate the impact of foreign aid and trade openness on economic performance for a panel of 30 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1970–2017 using panel cointegration techniques. The findings obtained in this paper suggest that foreign aid has contributed significantly to economic performance in SSA while trade openness has been detrimental to economic performance during the period under consideration. Also, the combined effect of aid and trade openness has enhanced economic performance. From a policy perspective, the study suggests that more should be done so that the benefits from aid inflows would result in sustained economic performance. Also, the external trade sector should be given the needed attention it deserves. Keywords: aid, trade openness, economic performance, panel cointegration, sub-Saharan Africa DOI: 10.7176/DCS/12-2-02 Publication date: February 28 th 2022

Liquidity risk and bank financial performance: an application of system GMM approach

PurposeThis study aims to examine the effect of liquidity risk on deposit money banks’ (DMBs) performance in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study also tests the interaction effect of liquidity risk and nonperforming loans on the performance of DMBs’ in Sub-Saharan Africa.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a two-step system generalized method of moment to test the influence of liquidity risk on DMBs’ performance in Sub-Saharan Africa. A sample of 50 listed banks across six Sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Zambia, Kenya and Tanzania, were used. The bank performance proxy used are return on asset and return on equity, while net interest margin is used for robustness check.FindingsThe study’s findings reveal a significant and negative association between liquidity risk and bank performance. Moreover, the relationship between the nonperforming loan and bank performance is negative and significant. Furthermore, the interaction effect of liquidity risk and nonperforming loans on bank performance is found to be significantly negative for the two proxies of bank performance. The result is robust for the alternative bank performance measurements and econometric model, which adequately addresses endogeneity tendency.Originality/valueTo the best of the researchers’ knowledge, this is one of the earliest empirical studies that examine the effect of liquidity risk on DMBs’ performance across Sub-Saharan African countries. This study further differs from previous studies with the interaction term of liquidity risk and nonperforming loan included in the model.

Washington Consensus Reforms and Lessons for Economic Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa

Over three decades after market-oriented structural reforms termed “Washington Consensus” policies were first implemented, we revisit the evidence on policy adoption and the effects of these policies on socio-economic performance in sub-Saharan African countries. We focus on three key ubiquitous reform policies around privatization, fiscal discipline, and trade openness and document significant improvements in economic performance for reformers over the past two decades. Following initial declines in per capita economic growth over the 1980s and 1990s, reform adopters experienced notable increases in per capita real GDP growth in the post-2000 period. We complement aggregate analysis with four country case studies that highlight important lessons for effective reform. Notably, the ability to implement pro-poor policies alongside market-oriented reforms played a central role in successful policy performance.

Natural Resources, International Commodity Prices and Economic Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa (1990–2019)

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the link between windfall gains and losses of income associated with commodity exports and economic performance in a panel of 45 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period from 1990 to 2019. Windfall gains and losses of income are measured in terms of fluctuations in a country-specific commodity terms of trade (CTOT) index in which each commodity is weighted by the ratio of exports of that commodity in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). The CTOT index therefore reflects the commodity export specialisation for individual countries. The data on CTOT are taken from the International Monetary Fund. Additionally, we use changes in real GDP per capita as our SSA economic performance measure. We employ a random coefficient model that yields individual estimates for each of the countries included in the analysis. Our approach is based on the assumption that the effect of windfall gains and losses on real GDP per capita growth varies across different SSA countries. Our main conclusion can be elaborated as follows: first, natural resources have undoubtedly contributed to higher economic growth in SSA countries since 1990. Second, when SSA countries are analytically divided into two groups depending on their commodity export specialisation, we find that resource-rich countries—in particular oil rich—are the best economic growth performers during the observation period. Finally, we find that windfall gains from commodity exports are not significantly associated with increased real GDP per capita growth in most agriculture-exporting countries.

When Boys Read better than Girls: The Correlation between Gender Disparities in Schooling Participation and Reading Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan African countries have made remarkable strides in closing the gender gap in primary enrolment and more girls than ever are attending school. With the existing gender differentials in youth literacy rates, an important question is whether they are learning as well as their male classmates. This article explored factors that contribute to gender gaps in reading for sixth-grade pupils from 61 396 pupils from 15 countries in the third evaluation of the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ III). Within-class sex differences in test score performance are estimated using ordinary least squares regression models. This is done by analysing the factors associated with female learning that inhibit school attendance and class participation. The results show a female disadvantage in reading in a little under half of the countries studied, which differs from the consistently observed female reading advantage in other parts of the world. Factors that prevent girls from fully attending and participating in school such as domestic responsibilities and hostile school environments explain part of the female disadvantage in reading, indicating that households and schools need to ensure that girls can attend and participate fully in their classes without distractions or fear.

Effect of Exchange Rate Volatility on Tax Revenue Performance In Sub-Saharan Africa

Efforts to spur growth in sub-Sahara Africa have been intensified amid structural and institutional constraints. Tax revenue, the chief source of funding for developmental purposes in SSA remains low and unstable. In fact, the SSA sub-region finds it difficult generating tax revenue up to 20 per cent of GDP. One factor that has not caught the attention of policymakers in terms of its impact on tax revenue performance is exchange rate volatility. Using macrodata spanning 1984 to 2017 for 21 countries, we provide empirical evidence from a panel autoregressive distributed lag technique to show that exchange rate volatility is directly harmful to tax revenue performance, and indirectly through trade openness.

Ways to win: strategic choices, institutions and performance in sub-Saharan Africa

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyse the effects of market-based and nonmarket-based strategies on firm performance in African countries. This study also investigates host country institutions' effect on the relationship between firm strategies and performance in these countries.Design/methodology/approachData of 1,276 firms in five African countries were obtained from two different sources: The World Bank Enterprise Database and The Global Competitiveness Report. Two-stage least squares regression was applied.FindingsBoth market-based strategies and corporate political activity (CPA)improve firm performance in the African countries included in the analysis. Institutional development also has a direct positive impact on firm performance. However, the effect of CPA weakens as the host country shifts towards more efficient, market-oriented institutions. Furthermore, the results show that local African firms benefit more from institutional development than foreign firms.Originality/valueThe paper confirms and extends our understanding of the dynamic fit between institutions and strategy by highlighting the moderating role of institutional development on CPA and market-based strategies in enhancing firm performance.

Authoritarian Leadership, Conflicts and Economic Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The goal of the paper is to analyze how the authoritarian leadership could impact economic performance in the region of Sub-Saharan Africa in the post-colonial period until currently. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: Authoritarian leadership and power abuse led to a number of armed conflicts in the region since its formal independence. This may be accounted as one of the reasons, for which the region lags in terms of economic development compared to developed countries. The research comprises of qualitative and quantitative methods, including comparative analysis, basic statistics, and correlations. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: First, the literature review was conducted with the application of comparative and system analysis. Next, based on the available World Value Survey and Global Governance Indicators data, empirical analysis of the power indicators and economic growth relations in sub-Saharan Africa was performed. The results are discussed in the context of the ideas anchored in the theory of public choice and new institutional economics. RESEARCH RESULTS: The results indicate the existence of a power paradox, which burdens development of the region, people rely on strong leaders despite the fact that strong leadership leads to power abuse and economic crises. The attitudes to politics, democracy and trust are particular for the region and may be related with this problem. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The lack of control mechanisms over the exercise of public authority in politically unstable Sub-Saharan African countries contributes to the consolidation of unfavorable attitudes and the abuse of power by privileged position by political leaders. The focus should be placed on reinforcement of institutional capacities and accountability for power abuse.

Making it to the PhD: Gender and student performance in sub-Saharan Africa.

Women’s underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) impedes progress in solving Africa’s complex development problems. As in other regions, women’s participation in STEM drops progressively moving up the education and career ladder, with women currently constituting 30% of Africa’s STEM researchers. This study elucidates gender-based differences in PhD performance using new survey data from 227 alumni of STEM PhD programs in 17 African countries. We find that, compared to their male counterparts, sampled women had about one less paper accepted for publication during their doctoral studies and took about half a year longer to finish their PhD training. Negative binomial regression models provide insights on the observed differences in women’s and men’s PhD performance. Results indicate that the correlates of publication productivity and time to PhD completion are very similar for women and men, but some gender-based differences are observed. For publication output, we find that good supervision had a stronger impact for men than women; and getting married during the PhD reduced women’s publication productivity but increased that of men. Becoming a parent during the PhD training was a key reason that women took longer to complete the PhD, according to our results. Findings suggest that having a female supervisor, attending an institution with gender policies in place, and pursuing the PhD in a department where sexual harassment by faculty was perceived as uncommon were enabling factors for women’s timely completion of their doctoral studies. Two priority interventions emerge from this study: (1) family-friendly policies and facilities that are supportive of women’s roles as wives and mothers and (2) fostering broader linkages and networks for women in STEM, including ensuring mentoring and supervisory support that is tailored to their specific needs and circumstances.

Promoting female economic inclusion for tax performance in Sub-Saharan Africa

This study explores whether female economic inclusion enhances tax performance in a sample of 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa from 2000 to 2018. The study’s empirical evidence is based on the generalized method of moments in order to account for endogeneity concerns. Three tax performance measurements are used, notably, total taxes revenue excluding social contributions, reported tax revenue derived from natural resources sources, and total non-resource tax revenue. Three female inclusion indicators are used, namely, female employment in industry, female labour force participation, and female employment. The following empirical evidences are documented; (i) There is a negative net effect from the enhancement of female employment in the industry on the total tax revenue. (ii) There is a positive net effect of female employment in the industry on the non-resource taxes. An extended threshold analysis is performed to establish the critical masses that could further influence tax performance positively. The following thresholds are established. (i) a minimum of 15.35 “employment in industry, female (% of female employment)” for the total tax revenue and (ii) a maximum of 23.75 “employment in industry, female (% of female employment)” for the non-resource tax revenue. These critical masses are crucial for sustainable development because, below or beyond these thresholds, policymakers should complement the female economic inclusion with other economic measures designed to improve tax performance in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Nexus of Market Risk, Dividend Policy and Commercial Banks’ Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract Research Background: The concept of risk is of great importance in any financial system, due to unstable economic situations and fluctuating environmental factors. Like other variables, risk has a significant effect on firms’ returns and profit. Purpose: This study aims at examining the relationship between dividend policy and performance taking cognisance of the uncontrollable risk (market risk). Research methodology: This study was modelled using 250 commercial banks from 30 selected Sub-Saharan African countries in the period 2008 to 2017. The Panel-Vector Error Correction Model was used to estimate the model. Result: From the long run analysis, a long run relationship between dividend policy, agency cost, and bank performance is evident. The disequilibrium will take about 39.5% yearly speed of adjustment to return to a steady state. There is an inverse relationship between Lending interest rate (market risk proxy) with bank performance while there is a positive relationship of foreign exchange rate (market risk proxy) and bank performance in SSA. Novelty: Market risk’s influence on the relationship between dividend policy and bank performance was firstly established. Therefore, it is recommended that the banking sector in SSA should focus more on endogenous factors and review some of their policies as these contribute more significantly to variations in their performance than exogenous factors.

Farmer-to-farmer digital network as a strategy to strengthen agricultural performance in Kenya: A research note on ‘Wefarm’ platform

The potential to utitilize mobile phone innovations in providing customized agricultural information and services to improve smallholder farmers’ performance in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains largely untapped. This is at the backdrop of the increasing emergence and adoption of ICT services as a means of relaying agricultural information to small-scale farmers and extension workers. One such technology is ‘Wefarm’ in Kenya, an SMS-based knowledge-sharing platform that enables farmers to connect with their peers and exchange knowledge about their production systems. Even though targeted to improve farmers’ access to information related to agricultural production, marketing and financial services, the extent to which these goals are achieved has not been evaluated. A pathway to improve technology adoption is by proving that the technology can enable farmers to attain their livelihood objectives. This short research note, therefore, identifies critical knowledge gaps for which evidence is required to inform policy and practice to enable stakeholders to harness the potential of ICT based innovations offered for agricultural development in SSA.

Commodity Price Shocks And Macroeconomic Performance In Sub-Saharan Africa

This study investigated the relationship between commodity price shocks and output growth in Sub-Saharan African countries using panel data which covered the period between 2005 and 2017. Data for the study were sourced from the World Development Indicators (WDI). Data base of the World Bank, The IMF’S International Financial Statistics (IFM) and Publications of Central Banks of various countries selected. The study employed Generalized Movement Average (GMM) as the estimation technique. Findings from the study showed that positive changes in the prices of export commodities has little positive impact on macroeconomic performance in Sub-Saharan Africa while negative price change has negative and significant impact on macroeconomic performance in Sub-Saharan African countries during study period. Based on these findings, the study therefore concludes that the relationship between commodity price shocks and macroeconomic performance in Sub-Saharan Africa is asymmetric. The study recommends that countries in Sub-Saharan Africa should introduce and implement policies to withstand shocks that may come from commodity price shocks such as economic diversification not only in area of agriculture but also in the area of industrialization and manufacturing.

Innovation and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Why Institutions Matter? An Empirical Study Aross 37 Countries

Based on empirical panel data for a sample of 37 sub-Saharan African economies for 1996–2016, this inquiry examines the extent to which institutional quality explains the existing cross-country difference in economic performance in sub-Saharan Africa. While most of the existing studies focus only on the direct effect of institutional quality, this article investigates the direct and indirect effects of institutions. It also reflects on impact of the interaction between institutional quality and innovation on economic growth in developing countries. The evidence provides very strong support for the direct effect of institutional quality development on economic performance as well as for its indirect effect via its impact on innovation. However, the results do not support theories that argue in favour of interaction between institutional quality such as democracy, governance quality and innovation, thereby pointing to the need for better calibration of the numerous existing theoretical postulations and related empirical measures.JEL: D70, D72, O15, O30, O31, O55

Climate variability, absorptive capacity and economic performance in Sub-Sahara Africa

The high reliance of Africa’s GDP on agriculture makes its economic growth susceptible to climate change. The vulnerability of Africa is further worsened by the strong inter-linkage that the agricultural sector has with other productive sectors. To drive policy implications that transform economic performance in Africa, it becomes important to understand the linkages between climate and economy of the region. This paper examines the effects that climate change has on economic performance in sub-Saharan African nations. Based on cross-country panel climatic data that takes account of the absorptive mechanism, it estimates the contribution of climate change to economic performance in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The estimator is developed based on the OLS, Fixed Effect, and the Arellano-Bond (1991) Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator. The findings show that high temperature is a significant contributor to worsening economic performance in the SSA region. However, after accounting for the absorptive mechanisms, the relationship is no longer that strong. Specifically, after accounting for initial economic performance, social and political stability in the 2-stage GMM estimation, the estimate for temperature drops by 59%. This result confirms the hypothesis that the negative impact of climate change in the region is not absolute, and that building an overall stable socioeconomic environment in the region could assist in buffering the impact of climate change.