The Structure and Performance of Ethiopia's Financial Sector in the Pre- and Post-Reform Period with a Special Focus on Banking

financial sector development, growth, banking, financial liberalization, Ethiopia, Africa

Openness, Inequality and Poverty in Africa

This paper explores the relationships between openness, poverty and inequality in Africa. The analysis begins with a review of social development on the continent since 1980, followed by a discussion of openness and a lengthy exploration of the patterns of trade and finance that link Africa to the rest of the world. The macroeconomic policy framework that guided African policymaking over the last three decades is the lens through which poverty and inequality are further examined. The paper highlights the major factors underpinning openness and social development, and concludes with policy recommendations.Africa, inequality, income distribution, poverty, social development, globalization, international trade, debt, financial flows, economic growth, structural adjustment, liberalization.

Taxes and Tax Reform in Ethiopia, 1990-2003

tax reform, fiscal policy, distribution of income, incidence analysis, Ethiopia, Africa

Ethiopia's New Financial Sector and Its Regulation

sub-Saharan Africa, Ethiopia, conflict, economic reform

Finance and Poverty in Ethiopia: A Household Level Analysis

finance, Ethiopia, Africa, poverty, consumption smoothing

Static and dynamic states: the case of Estonian stative colour expressions

The aim of this study is to account for stative situations through the example of structurally different but semantically close colour expressions: the Estonian stative verbs derived from colour adjectives and colour adjectives appearing as the predicative. Stative verbs are assumed to be similar to copula constructions, with the aspectual distinction of temporary/permanent property. In this article, the stative colour expressions are analysed using the linguistic diagnostics developed for the determination of ontological properties of different types of states – the sc. Davidsonian and Kimian states (see e.g. Maienborn 2003). Analysis reveals that the copula construction with colour adjective as predicative is ambiguous, inclining to the Kimian states but also assigning properties characteristic to the Davidsonian states; the stative colour verbs, in turn, are true examples of Davidsonian states. In addition to the examination of the stative properties, the conceptual structure analysis of the colour expressions instantiating stative and dynamic states is given. The observer’s evaluation of the coloured object as a mental image is treated as part of the lexical information of the colour statives. Also, sentential and contextual phenomena of the colour statives are discussed

Debt issues in Africa: Thinking beyond the HIPC initiative to solving structural problems

This paper attempts to answer the following question: If the HIPC Initiative is fully successful and managed to write-off all debt that is owed by Africa, will the debt problem be over? The answer is ‘no’. This pessimist answer is arrived at by examining the historical origin of African debt and the structural problems the continent is confronted with. The literature about the origins of the African debt crisis lists a number of factors as its cause. The oil price shocks of 1973-74 and 1978-79, the expansion of the Eurodollar, a rise in public expenditure by African governments following rising commodity prices in early 1970s, the recession in industrial countries and the subsequent commodity price fall, and a rise in real world interest rate are usually mentioned as major factors. Surprisingly, almost all the literature starts its analysis either in the early 1970s or, at best, after independence in 1960s. The main argument in this paper is that one has to go beyond this period not only to adequately explain the current debt crisis but also to propose its possible solution. The conclusion that emerges from such analysis is that the African debt problem is essentially a trade problem. Thus, long-run solution to debt points to the importance of addressing trade and trade related structural problems in the continent. – debt ; trade ; Afric

Ethiopian Macroeconomic Modeling in Historical Perspective: Bringing Gebre-Hiwot and His Contemporaries to Ethiopian Macroeconomics Realm

Much of the macroeconomic analysis in Ethiopia is hardly linked to the country’s pioneer development thinkers. The latter, however, articulated the Ethiopian development problems and what should be the appropriate policy direction to address them nearly a century ago. This articulated development thinkers of the early 20th century Ethiopia had captured the imagination of prominent Ethiopian historians and their students. Ethiopian economists seem to lag behind in appreciating the theoretical insight of these pioneer development thinkers. This article is aimed at bridging this gap. The paper will, first, reviews the economic ideas of theses reformer-intellectuals and then build a linear model based on the synthesis of their development thinking. The model is then solved to render analytically solutions that will give theoretical insights on historic and contemporary macroeconomic issues in Ethiopia. I argue that some important development concepts such as the deterioration of the terms of trade of developing countries, the vicious circle of poverty and structuralist analysis of North-South macro economic interaction has, contrary to the statement in existing development literature, has its origin in early 20th century Ethiopian Development thinking

Challenges Facing Trainees in Practical Skills Acquisition: The Case of Some TVET Colleges of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

The major purpose of this study was to investigate challenges facing trainees in practical skill Acquisition in Some TVET Colleges of Oromia regional state. To attain this objectives, 180 (81 male, 42 female trainees) and 41 male and 6 female trainers, totally (180) respondents were selected using simple random sampling from five Colleges of Oromia regional state. Moreover, 5 Deans, 5 training process owners and 10 head departments of each sample colleges were purposely selected and included in the interview. The central question is What are the major challenges facing trainees in practical skill Acquisition in same TVET Colleges of Oromia regional state? To this end,   Self report questionnaire and structural interview are the main tools for this research. The collected questionnaire is analyzed mainly by employing qualitative and quantitative approach. Simple percentage, mean and standard deviation are the main methods of data analysis. The analysis of data revealed that the major challenges facing trainees in practical skills Acquisition  are shortage of training materials, incompatibility of training material with occupational standards, less attention given by the college to industrial attachments and the gap of trainers in applying the existing materials at practical training session. Likewise, there are trainers, who were carelessness in demonstrating their professional knowledge during practical skill training. The preparation of TTLM is different from college to college. Based on the  findings, recommendations  were made for concerned body  to  complement  the  colleges effort in the provision of basic  training tools with given special packages and  the  colleges  advised of effective industrial attachment schemes  that will enable trainees  to  identify and gain practical knowledge required for the workplace through hands-on experience in local industries. Furthermore, central preparation of TTLM is recommended for the uniform provision training throughout the country. More importantly, for the quality betterment of practical skill training, concerned authority are advice to adopt project based training instead of competency based training which is currently in practice. Keywords: Challenges, Assessment, occupational standards, trainees, trainers, center of competency, project based training, competency based training. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-4-02 Publication date: February 28th 202