Firm Performance Under Infrastructure Constraints: Evodence from Sub-sahara African Firms

The poor business environment mainly poor infrastructure is found to has paramount importance in explaining Africa's disadvantage relative to other similar countries. To cope with this poor supply of electricity, firms adopt different mechanisms to reduce the resulting effects. The commonly adopted coping strategy is an investment in self-generation of electricity. This study examined the role of investing in self-generation in mitigating the outage loss and evaluated the outage loss differential between �firms that invested in self-generation and those that did not, using World Bank Enterprise Survey data collected from �firms operating in 13 Sub-Saharan African countries. The result obtained shows that, though self-generation has reduced the amount of outage loss for fi�rms that invested in self-generation, these firms continue to face higher unmitigated outage loss compared to firms without such investment. In spite of this, �firms that invested in self-generation would have incurred 36%-99% more than the current amount of outage loss if they do not engaged in self-generation. Similarly, �firms that did not invest in self-generation would have reduced their outage loss by 2% - 24% if they had engaged in self-generation. The study thus, recommended a di�fferential supply interruption to be followed by public authorities based on �firms' degree of vulnerability to power interruptions

Firm Performance Under Infrastructure Constraints: Evodence from Sub-sahara African Firms

The poor business environment mainly poor infrastructure is found to has paramount importance in explaining Africa's disadvantage relative to other similar countries. To cope with this poor supply of electricity, firms adopt different mechanisms to reduce the resulting effects. The commonly adopted coping strategy is an investment in self-generation of electricity. This study examined the role of investing in self-generation in mitigating the outage loss and evaluated the outage loss differential between �firms that invested in self-generation and those that did not, using World Bank Enterprise Survey data collected from �firms operating in 13 Sub-Saharan African countries. The result obtained shows that, though self-generation has reduced the amount of outage loss for fi�rms that invested in self-generation, these firms continue to face higher unmitigated outage loss compared to firms without such investment. In spite of this, �firms that invested in self-generation would have incurred 36%-99% more than the current amount of outage loss if they do not engaged in self-generation. Similarly, �firms that did not invest in self-generation would have reduced their outage loss by 2% - 24% if they had engaged in self-generation. The study thus, recommended a di�fferential supply interruption to be followed by public authorities based on �firms' degree of vulnerability to power interruptions

Firm Performance Under Infrastructure Constraints: Evodence from Sub-sahara African Firms

The poor business environment mainly poor infrastructure is found to has paramount importance in explaining Africa's disadvantage relative to other similar countries. To cope with this poor supply of electricity, firms adopt different mechanisms to reduce the resulting effects. The commonly adopted coping strategy is an investment in self-generation of electricity. This study examined the role of investing in self-generation in mitigating the outage loss and evaluated the outage loss differential between �firms that invested in self-generation and those that did not, using World Bank Enterprise Survey data collected from �firms operating in 13 Sub-Saharan African countries. The result obtained shows that, though self-generation has reduced the amount of outage loss for fi�rms that invested in self-generation, these firms continue to face higher unmitigated outage loss compared to firms without such investment. In spite of this, �firms that invested in self-generation would have incurred 36%-99% more than the current amount of outage loss if they do not engaged in self-generation. Similarly, �firms that did not invest in self-generation would have reduced their outage loss by 2% - 24% if they had engaged in self-generation. The study thus, recommended a di�fferential supply interruption to be followed by public authorities based on �firms' degree of vulnerability to power interruptions

Mathematical Modeling of the Interaction Between Langerhans Cells and the Spread of HIV Infection

In this research work, we propose a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equation used to model the interaction between Langerhans cells and HIV infection. The model consists of five compartments, namely, susceptible Langerhans cells, infected Langerhans cells, susceptible T-cells, infected T-cells and free HIV particles. The biology of interactions of Langerhans cells with HIV and mathematical preliminaries which plays a crucial role in our entire research work was described. By presenting a theoretical framework related to the infection mechanism, a biologically meaning full assumption was considered. Furthermore, the positivity of the model solution, the equilibrium point (both virus free and endemic equilibrium) of the model was shown and its stability was investigated. Finally, by using a numerical simulation the developed model was studied and the results concluded that the numerical simulation matches the analytical solution as expected

Assessing Gender Gap in Wage and Self-Employment: Evidence from Ethiopia

This study analyzes the status of the gender gap in labor force participation in Ethiopia. The factors that influence men’s and women’s decision to work and how much to work in wage and self-employment are assessed. The study mainly used data from the recent round of the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey (ESS 2018/19). The Heckman selection model is used to analyze factors that affect the participation of women in wage and self-employment. To decompose gender gaps in economic outcomes (i.e. wage and sales), the study applied the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method. The participation of women in wage employment is found to be significantly lower than men while controlling for individual and household level predictors. Women with tertiary education show higher participation in wage employment compared to women with no such education. Age, household headship, and wealth are additional factors that positively associate with women’s participation in wage employment. Marriage, residence in rural areas, having a large family size, and non-labor income are factors associated with lower participation of women in wage employment. The participation of women in ownership of non-farm household enterprises is found to be relatively higher than men while relevant individual, household, and business level characteristics are accounted for. The business sales of women-owned businesses are significantly lower than those owned by men. Women’s ownership of non-farm enterprises is negatively associated with their level of education. Though having tertiary education is negatively associated with participation in self-employment, its effect on business sales is positive. Sales are also positively associated with a business license, the number of hired workers, and operating costs. Family size and residing in rural areas are factors associated with less participation of women in selfemployment. The Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis results show that the unconditional wage gap between men and women is estimated to be 62.7%. Of this gender wage gap, 26.2% is explained while the remaining 73.8% is unexplained. Differences in age, education, religion, marital status, household headship, wealth, and occupation account for the explained part of the wage gap. Likewise, the unconditional sales gap for non-farm enterprise owners is estimated at 80.6% where 36% of it is explained by model predictors. Education, religion, wealth, business license, operating cost, and residence are factors that contributed to the explained part of the sales gap. Narrowing the gender gap in labor market participation and economic outcomes will require interventions ranging from improving the education status of women to shaping the role and responsibilities of women in society

Assessing Gender Gap in Wage and Self-Employment: Evidence from Ethiopia

This study analyzes the status of the gender gap in labor force participation in Ethiopia. The factors that influence men’s and women’s decision to work and how much to work in wage and self-employment are assessed. The study mainly used data from the recent round of the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey (ESS 2018/19). The Heckman selection model is used to analyze factors that affect the participation of women in wage and self-employment. To decompose gender gaps in economic outcomes (i.e. wage and sales), the study applied the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method. The participation of women in wage employment is found to be significantly lower than men while controlling for individual and household level predictors. Women with tertiary education show higher participation in wage employment compared to women with no such education. Age, household headship, and wealth are additional factors that positively associate with women’s participation in wage employment. Marriage, residence in rural areas, having a large family size, and non-labor income are factors associated with lower participation of women in wage employment. The participation of women in ownership of non-farm household enterprises is found to be relatively higher than men while relevant individual, household, and business level characteristics are accounted for. The business sales of women-owned businesses are significantly lower than those owned by men. Women’s ownership of non-farm enterprises is negatively associated with their level of education. Though having tertiary education is negatively associated with participation in self-employment, its effect on business sales is positive. Sales are also positively associated with a business license, the number of hired workers, and operating costs. Family size and residing in rural areas are factors associated with less participation of women in selfemployment. The Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis results show that the unconditional wage gap between men and women is estimated to be 62.7%. Of this gender wage gap, 26.2% is explained while the remaining 73.8% is unexplained. Differences in age, education, religion, marital status, household headship, wealth, and occupation account for the explained part of the wage gap. Likewise, the unconditional sales gap for non-farm enterprise owners is estimated at 80.6% where 36% of it is explained by model predictors. Education, religion, wealth, business license, operating cost, and residence are factors that contributed to the explained part of the sales gap. Narrowing the gender gap in labor market participation and economic outcomes will require interventions ranging from improving the education status of women to shaping the role and responsibilities of women in society