Is the Ricardian equivalence hypothesis valid? : an empirical study for Ethiopia

There are two main dimensions of dealing with the topic of Ricardian Equivalence Hypothesis (REH) – the Keynesian proposition and the REH itself. According to the REH, today's borrowing to stimulate the economy or tax reduction – a substitution of debt for taxes -does not affect demand and consumption levels. However, the reverse is true for the Keynesian proposition. The objective of this paper is to test the validity of the REH in Ethiopia using annual data running from 1990 to 2011 by employing the bound testing – ARDL approach. The study included three main variables (the budget deficit, government consumption expenditure, and government debt) which contribute to the REH along with another variables. The result shows that government debt failed to fulfil REH. This implies that, in this study, we found limited evidence of the validity of the REH in Ethiopia

Application of Microsatellites in Genetic Diversity Analysis and Heterotic Grouping of Sorghum and Maize

Sorghum and maize are major cereal crops worldwide and key food security crops in Sub-Saharan Africa. The difference in the mating systems, maize as predominantly a cross-fertilizer and sorghum as a self-fertilizer is reflected in differences in visible phenotypic and genotypic variations. The reproductive differences dictate the level of genetic variation present in the two crops. Conventionally, a heterotic group assignment is made based on phenotypic values estimated through combining ability and heterosis analyses. However, phenotypic evaluation methods have their limitation due to the influence of the environment and may not reflect the heterotic pattern of the lines accurately. Therefore, more effective and complementary methods have been proposed for heterotic grouping of candidate lines. Estimation of molecular-based genetic distance has proven to be a useful tool to describe existing heterotic groups, to identify new heterotic groups, and to assign inbreds into heterotic groups. Among the molecular markers, microsatellites markers have proved to be a powerful tool for analyzing genetic diversity and for classifying inbred lines into heterotic groups. Therefore, the aim of this chapter was to elucidate the use of microsatellite markers in genetic diversity analysis and heterotic grouping of sorghum and maize

Testing the Ricardian equivalence hypothesis in the case of Ethiopia: An autoregressive-distributed lag approach

The Ricardian equivalence hypothesis (REH) suggests that when the government attempts to stimulate the economy by raising debt-financed government spending, consumption and demand do not increase but rather remain the same. The objective of this study is to test the existence of the REH in Ethiopia, using annual data from 1990 to 2011 and by employing the autoregressive-distributed lag cointegration approach. The study includes three variables (budget deficit, government consumption expenditure, and government debt) which contribute to the REH along with another variable. The results show that only the budget deficit and government consumption expenditure fulfil the REH. However, government debt fails to fulfil it. Thus, limited evidence of the existence of the REH is found in Ethiopia

The Impact of External Debt on Human Capital Development and GDP Growth in HIPCs: a Comprehensive Approach

The growth theorists argue that human capital development/accumulation (HCD/A) is vital for economic growth. However, the level of external debt accumulation determines HCA and its effect on economic growth. Besides, the impact of external debt on growth is still debatable. Further, the external debt-growth relationship could be non-linear instead of linear, and external debt can affect growth through the HCD channel. Therefore, this study aims to look at the impact of foreign debt on HCD and growth in heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) employing seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR) and other alternative simultaneous equations models (SEMs) from 1990–2017. The result indicates the link between foreign debt and HCD is negative and non-linear, but only non-linearity is observed between foreign debt and growth. Besides, external debt affects HIPCs growth through the HCD channel. Therefore, the study recommends essentializing solid macroeconomic policies, strengthening institutional performance, appropriate debt management strategies, and investing borrowed funds in productive projects

Performance of general health workers in leprosy control activities at public health facilities in Amhara and Oromia States, Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease of public health importance and one of the leading causes of permanent physical disability. Nevertheless, the drop in prevalence following multidrug therapy has resulted in the neglect of leprosy. The annual incidence of leprosy has remained the same in Ethiopia since decades with more than 76% of the reported new cases coming from Oromia and Amhara Regional States. This study was aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and skill of general health workers in leprosy control activities at public health facilities in Oromia and Amhara Regional States. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2011 to February 2012 at different public health facilities in selected eight zones in Oromia and Amhara Regional States. A multistage sampling method was used to obtain representative samples. High and low endemic zones for leprosy were included in the study in both regional states. Data were collected from general health workers through a structured self-administered questionnaire and at on-site assessment of their performance. Baseline socio-demographic data, health workers' attitude towards leprosy and their knowledge and skill in the management of leprosy were assessed. Bloom's cut off point was used to describe the knowledge and practical skills of the respondents while Likert's scale was used for attitude assessment. RESULT: A total of 601 general health workers responsible for leprosy control activities at public health facilities were included in knowledge and attitude assessment and 83 of them were subjected to practical evaluation, with on-site observation of how they handle leprosy patients. These included medical doctors (4%), health officers and nurses with Bachelor degree in Science (27%), clinical nurses with diploma (66%) and health assistants (2.8%). The median age of the respondents was 26.0 years and females made up of 45%. Generally the knowledge and skills of the respondents were found to be poor while attitude towards leprosy was positive for the majority of the respondents. The result showed that 519 (86.3%) had poor knowledge. Overall 155 (25.8%) of the respondents had positive attitude towards leprosy while 205 (34.1%) had intermediate (mixed) attitude and 241 (40.1%) had negative attitude to the disease. Among 83 respondents assessed for diagnosis of leprosy only 15(18.0%) diagnosed leprosy correctly. Variation in knowledge and attitude indicated a significant difference (p < 0.05) among different health institutions, professions, gender, in-service training and years of experience. CONCLUSION: The current finding underlines that although leprosy control activities are integrated to the general health services in the country, the knowledge and skills of leprosy diagnosis, treatment and management by health workers was unsatisfactory. Hence, attention should be given to develop training strategies that can improve health worker knowledge and promote better leprosy management at public health facilities. This could be achieved through pre-service and in-service training and giving adequate emphasis to leprosy related practical work and continuous follow- up

The nexus of Environmental Sustainability and Agro-economic Performance of Sub-Saharan African Countries

The increasing concern of environmental degradation and climate change impacts of agricultural-based activities are becoming more pronounced in the Sub-Sahara region of Africa especially due to urgent drive to meeting food, healthy diet, and economic needs. In retrospect. This novel study explores the relationship between agro-economic performance, the Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Total natural rent, urbanization and environmental degradation vis-à-vis (Carbon dioxide emissions) in a carbon function. The empirical analysis is conducted using panel data for the period 1980–2014 for the selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The Kao test uncovers a cointegration between carbon dioxide emissions, Real Gross domestic product, Total natural rent, agriculture and urbanization. The panel Pooled Mean Autoregressive distributed lag model (PMG-ARDL) posits a positive and significant connection between the gross domestic product and CO2 emissions in the long run. Our examination asserts that agricultural value-added reduces emissions in sub-Saharan Africa while urbanization and natural resource rent both increases CO2 emissions in the long run. Also, the causality analysis reveals a bidirectional link between agriculture value-added and CO2 emissions. Essentially, policymakers in African nations must pay close attention to the issues of rural-urban drift as this leads to more emissions

Dataset of the impact of food insecurity on health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract Objectives The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have goals and targets, including food insecurity and health outcomes. Hence, information about socioeconomic variables that determine the health outcomes of people is essential for health-related research, planning, and policy development. Therefore, this data paper aims to present (describe) the dataset of eight socioeconomic variables for 31 sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries from 2001 to 2018. Data descriptions The dataset was official information obtained via open online sources from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the World Bank (WB), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It included 558 observations and eight variables, such as life expectancy (LEXP), infant mortality (INFMOR), the prevalence of undernourishment (PRUND), average dietary energy supply (AVRDES), Gross domestic product per capita (GDPPC), general government health expenditure (GOVEXP), urbanisation (URBAN), and mean years of schooling (MNSCHOOL). Moreover, all the data estimation is conducted by Statistical Software (STATA) version 15. This paper achieved its intended objective with a detailed and understandable description