Economic policy, does It help life expectancy? an african evidence of the role of economic policy on longevity.

This paper evaluates some factors that affect longevity in Africa, with the aim of offering an insight on how government economic policy and consumption spending affect the lives of people in developing countries. Government economic policy was found to be contributing in a negative manner to life expectancy in the countries in our sample. It was also found that apathy between the civil service (the embodiment of institutions) and political office holders to be the greatest stumbling block against the success of governmental economic policy, this creates a hole in institutions since they remain the pipe through which revenue is disbursed and policies are implemented for the general good of the populace. After interacting institution with economic policy economic policy had significant effect on life expectancy it was likely that institutions were either circumvented or ignored, leading to possible short comings on the overall effect that government economic policy would have had on life expectancy

Foreign Aid and African Exporters: Help or Harm?

Abstract Export growth is pursued by many developing countries as a path to economic prosperity. Consistent with this goal, many foreign donors have attempted to use aid to promote African exporters. The relationship between foreign aid and exports is a complex one as aid comes from different sources and has varied destinations in the recipient country. In this paper, we utilize a panel data set of African countries from 1970-2008 to examine the impact of foreign aid on exports. The results find that aid designated for sectors such as infrastructure and education have a positive impact on exports while those going to agriculture and industry do not. Results also show that both multilateral and bilateral aid has a positive impact on exports. Also, less concessionary official development assistance does at least as well, if not better, in boosting exports as does more grant-based effective development assistance. There is significant evidence that natural resources and foreign aid are being viewed by donors, and functioning, as complements. Evidence finds that sound economic policy by the recipient to be an important factor in export growth and that better policy can act as a substitute for foreign aid. These results suggest the important of properly directing aid to the right sectors and promoting sound economic policies by recipient countries. Keywords: Foreign Aid, Exports, Natural Resources, Afric

M P R A Munich Personal RePEc Archive Gender Comparison, Schooling and Sociability Ratings in Nigeria Evidence from Youth Survey in Ife Town

Abstract This study investigates factors that affect sociability ratings among youths between 10 to 30 years of age in Nigeria, using a survey carried out in Ife town. The results show that in- school females were likely to socialize more than out of school females. Schooling was found to be affecting youth sociability rating in general. There was also a noticeable level of reduced socialization among out of school youths as it was found that they were less likely to interact as much as in-school youths owing to their family backgrounds. The implication of the findings is that schooling does affect the level of social interaction among youths in general since youths out of school had some level of inferiority complex that prevented them from socializing with inschool youths

Foreign Aid and African Exporters: Help or Harm

Export growth is pursued by many developing countries as a path to economic prosperity.  Consistent with this goal, many foreign donors have attempted to use aid to promote African exporters.  The relationship between foreign aid and exports is a complex one as aid comes from different sources and has varied destinations in the recipient country.  In this paper, we utilize a panel data set of African countries from 1970-2008 to examine the impact of foreign aid on exports.  The results find that aid designated for sectors such as infrastructure and education have a positive impact on exports while those going to agriculture and industry do not.  Results also show that both multilateral and bilateral aid has a positive impact on exports.  Also, less concessionary official development assistance does at least as well, if not better, in boosting exports as does more grant-based effective development assistance. There is significant evidence that natural resources and foreign aid are being viewed by donors, and functioning, as complements.  Evidence finds that sound economic policy by the recipient to be an important factor in export growth and that better policy can act as a substitute for foreign aid.  These results suggest the important of properly directing aid to the right sectors and promoting sound economic policies by recipient countries. Keywords: Foreign Aid, Exports, Natural Resources, Afric

Do Institutions Reduce Gender Discrimination? Evidence from Labor Market Participation Rate in Some Selected African Countries.

The study investigates the role of social-political institutions on gender discrimination and female employment in five selected African countries, Ghana, Cameroon, Botswana, Kenya and Egypt. The methodology used is the quantile regression analysis, which is based on the premise that estimating the conditional sample median will tend to the distributional median allowing us to obtain consistent estimates. Quantile regressions have some obvious advantages over the ordinary least squares estimation technique they include the fact that they are more robust against outliers in the response measurements, it also allows for the measurement of central tendency and statistical dispersion to obtain a comprehensive analysis and finally the recent quantile regression wrapper (qreg) developed by Machando and Silva (2013) allows for obtaining heteroscedastic errors robust estimates. The results of the study show that institutions matter in improving labor market participation rate for men and women in the countries in the sample. The results of the interactive variable also show that institutions actually do not improve the effect of economic policy effectiveness in promoting labor market participation. School enrollment had a higher significant effect on labor market participation rate for women than for men showing that unskilled men are likely to get hired than unskilled women therefore schooling was probably reducing unemployment more among women than in me

Does Foreign Aid Promote Trade? Evidence from Some Selected African Countries

Will aid given to specific sector promote growth? Will bilateral aid be more effective than multilateral aid in export promotion? This paper fills a gap in the literature by studying the implications of aid channeled specifically to trade and export oriented growth.Many African Countries look towards increase in trade driven growth as a means of improving living standards and boosting growth of their economies. Aid given to trade in desperately poor countries can be of tremendous advantage to such countries. We investigate some peculiar components of temporal self limiting aid (often referred to as development assistance)to sectors that can affect trade in developing countries. Aid to four sectors was found to have significant impact on trade although the presence of natural resources tends to reduce the effectiveness of aid in promoting trade. Institutions and government economic policies were also found to be weak in the African countries in our sample reducing aid overall effect on trad

Rethinking Regional Energy Policy: Towards Averting Another Energy Crisis. Do Threats Matter in The Supply and Generation Process?

The study investigates the dynamics surrounding potential threats to energy security and sustainable electricity production from a regional perspective, by identifying a host of factors that are likely to affect sustainable energy production and supply using seemingly unrelated regression estimation, which produces efficient estimates by solving two unrelated regression simultaneously. Our results show that the identified threats to energy generation matter considerably. Energy security which we described as the level of diversification in regional specific energy generating sources is probably being affected by regional specific level of industrialization and domestic energy consumption. Issues of over dependence on specific sources of energy supply (particularly nuclear production sources) were also found to have a negative effect on energy security and probably increase the risk of future failure in energy supply. Energy policy was also found to have a significant effect on energy security. The impacts of various constraints on electricity production were also considered. It was found that many factors affect electricity output production in regions particularly environmental factors that affect consumption and the generation process. Keywords: Energy Security, Electricity production, Seemingly Unrelated Regressio

DOES FOREIGN AID PROMOTE TRADE? EVIDENCE FROM SOME SELECTED AFRICAN COUNTRIES

Will aid given to specific sector promote growth? Will bilateral aid be more effective than multilateral aid in export promotion? This paper fills a gap in the literature by studying the implications of aid channelled specifically to trade and export oriented growth. Many African Countries look towards increase in trade driven growth as a means of improving living standards and boosting growth of their economies. Aid given to trade in desperately poor countries can be of tremendous advantage to such countries. We investigate some peculiar components of temporal self limiting aid (often referred to as development assistance) to sectors that can affect trade in developing countries. Aid to four sectors was found to have significant impact on trade although the presence of natural resources tends to reduce the effectiveness of aid in promoting trade. Institutions and government economic policies were also found to be weak in the African countries in our sample reducing aid overall effect on trad

DOES COMMERCIAL BANK LENDING INCITE GROWTH? THE IMPACT OF COMMERCIAL LENDING ON REAL SECTOR GROWTH IN NIGERIA

The study investigates the effect of bank lending on growth in Nigeria using a sample of data from 1989 to 2012; 23 years the method of estimation used in the study is the quantile regression estimation method. It was found that commercial bank lending was having a negative effect on growth while institutions were not sufficiently protecting customers from the negative effect that often arise when banks liquidate. Central bank policies were found to be minimizing bank losses and helping to drive economic growth in general. The policy implication of the finding is that lower interest rates and less stringent conditions are likely to increase bank lending in general and this could have far reaching effect in driving growth in Nigeria

Estimating the long run effects of exchange rate devaluation on the trade balance of Nigeria.

This paper attempts an empirical investigation of the impact of currency devaluation on Nigeria trade balance using the Johansen co-integration and variance decomposition analyses from 1970-2010; whether exchange rate devaluation improves or worsens trade balance has been at the centre of literature debate over time with varying empirical evidences for developed and developing nation. The empirical results indicate that there exist a long-run stationary relationship between trade balance and its determinant- domestic income, domestic and foreign money supply, domestic interest rate and nominal exchange rate; as employed in the study. Also, there exists an inelastic and significant relation between trade balance and its determinants. Our major findings include; exchange rate induce an inelastic and significant relation on trade balance in the long run, there exist no short run causality from exchange rate to trade balance and money supply volatility contributes more to variance in trade balance than exchange rate volatility. The paper concludes with important implications for policy makers because it provides evidence supporting that fact that level of money supply has a major impact on trade balance adjustment and that devaluation of the exchange rate worsens the trade balance of Nigeria in the long run