The Demand for Private Health Insurance in Malawi

This study investigates the determinants of demand for private health insurance among formal sector employees in Malawi, a poor country with heavy pressure on under-funded free government health services. The study is based on membership in the Medical Aid Society of Malawi’s (MASM), three schemes, namely: the VIP, the best; the Executive, the intermediate; and the Econoplan, the minimum. The results indicate that formal sector employees prefer to receive medical treatment from private fee-charging health facilities, where health insurance would be relevant. The study finds that the probability of enrolling in any of MASM’s schemes increases with income and with age for the top and minimum schemes. More children and good health status reduce the probability of enrolling into the two lower schemes. The results suggest the potentially important roles that can be played by information and interventions that address the affordability factor such as through employer contributions that take into consideration income and family size.Health insurance; MASM; Multinomial logit

Competition, regulation and banking industry pricing conduct in Malawi

This study investigates the nature of competitiveness among banks in Malawi where the industry is concentrated and the institutional base is weak. The study uses a model incorporating bank-specific, industry-specific and macroeconomic determinants of conduct and performance, based on monthly data from January 2005 to March 2014. Key findings are asymmetric conduct with collusive price leadership in lending rates and competitiveness in deposit rates and overall high spreads. Apart from dominance, collusive price leadership was facilitated by regulatory stipulations in pricing in banks’ core and non-core business and an economic environment resulting in banks’ high profitability and diminished competitive pressure in lending rates. Further, monopolistic competition via outreach also put upward pressure on spreads most likely via costs as the literature suggests.Keywords: Collusive Pricing; Banks’ Risk Position; Banking Industry; Conduct and Performance; Malaw

Macroeconomic policy for employment creation: The case of Malawi

This paper looks at policies for achieving full and productive employment in Malawi. The polices are consistent with ILO's Global Employment Agenda. Monetary and fiscal policies consistent with employment creation is proposed

Macroeconomic policy for employment creation: The case of Malawi

This paper looks at policies for achieving full and productive employment in Malawi. The polices are consistent with ILO's Global Employment Agenda. Monetary and fiscal policies consistent with employment creation is proposed

Education Sector Foreign Aid and Economic Growth in Africa

This paper explores whether education sector foreign aid influences economic growth in Africa based on a panel of 32 countries over the period 2005 – 2017. The major novelty of the study is that on the supply side the major dependent variable, education aid flows, are disaggregated by education level. On the demand side, the recipient economies are accorded their income groups to account for capacities that complement the effects of human capital development on economic growth as well as the benevolent complementary or destabilizing effects of different political systems of government. The key findings are that: (i) education aid in aggregate form and primary education aid both enhance economic growth in low income countries; (ii) in middle income countries higher education aid is more important for economic growth than primary and secondary education foreign aid; (iii) democracies have a stronger tendency to allocate more education sector foreign aid to primary education, while in autocracies the orientation is towards higher education. The findings imply that low-income autocracies that allocate more education sector foreign aid to higher education than to primary education do so at the expense of economic growth. The same applies to middle-income democracies whose allocation orientation is more towards primary education compared to higher education

The Demand for Private Health Insurance in Malawi

This study investigates the determinants of demand for private health insurance among formal sector employees in Malawi, a poor country with heavy pressure on under-funded free government health services. The study is based on membership in the Medical Aid Society of Malawi’s (MASM), three schemes, namely: the VIP, the best; the Executive, the intermediate; and the Econoplan, the minimum. The results indicate that formal sector employees prefer to receive medical treatment from private fee-charging health facilities, where health insurance would be relevant. The study finds that the probability of enrolling in any of MASM’s schemes increases with income and with age for the top and minimum schemes. More children and good health status reduce the probability of enrolling into the two lower schemes. The results suggest the potentially important roles that can be played by information and interventions that address the affordability factor such as through employer contributions that take into consideration income and family size

The Demand for Private Health Insurance in Malawi

This study investigates the determinants of demand for private health insurance among formal sector employees in Malawi, a poor country with heavy pressure on under-funded free government health services. The study is based on membership in the Medical Aid Society of Malawi’s (MASM), three schemes, namely: the VIP, the best; the Executive, the intermediate; and the Econoplan, the minimum. The results indicate that formal sector employees prefer to receive medical treatment from private fee-charging health facilities, where health insurance would be relevant. The study finds that the probability of enrolling in any of MASM’s schemes increases with income and with age for the top and minimum schemes. More children and good health status reduce the probability of enrolling into the two lower schemes. The results suggest the potentially important roles that can be played by information and interventions that address the affordability factor such as through employer contributions that take into consideration income and family size

Extended Book Review Article: (Beyond) Agricultural Input Subsidies: The Recent Malawi Experience

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Malawi: food marketing liberalisation and household food security: preliminary results from baseline surveys

A baseline survey on food marketing liberalization in Malawi.The marketing of food crops, typically produced by smallholder farmers, was liberalised in 1987 in response to: ° rising transportation and other costs and falling commodity prices on the world market; and, ° structural problems within the state marketing board — the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) — which had over-extended its operations. These problems, combined with cross-subsidies on an extensive country-wide network of some 1,139 markets together with food crop marketing operations (including the maintenance of strategic grain reserves) led to unprecedented financial difficulties for ADMARC in the 1985-86 trading year. Private traders had always operated in Malawi and their operations had official recognition but no legal basis. Hence, their operations tended to be small-scale except where they operated as agents of ADMARC. The Agricultural General Purpose Act of 1987 established a legal basis for private trader operations defining eligibility criteria and rules of conduct. The market liberalisation programme has been implemented as part of wider reforms under the structural adjustment programmes initiated in 1981.The project is funded by USAID (Southern Africa Regional Programme)

The impact of market reforms on household food security in rural Malawi

A research paper on the impact of market reforms on food security in rural Malawi.Malawi is a landlocked country with a land area of 94,276 sq. km and a population of 8 million in 1987. Among Sub-Saharan African countries, its population density of 59 persons/km2 which is only surpassed by Rwanda, Burundi, Nigeria, and Uganda. Nearly 90% of the population is rural based, relying heavily on agriculture. This sector dominates the economy, producing 37% of the GDP and accounting for 90% of the export earnings. In addition to a lack of significant mineral deposits, these factors make Malawi a poor country in which access to arable land, its utilization, and convinient seaports are critical issues for smallholder production, income, and international trade. Moreover, the small tax base which has resulted in low government revenues has seriously constrained efforts to improve either the economic or social indicators of development such as life expectancy (45 years), infant mortality (153 per 1,000 population), nutritional status, primary school enrollment rate (62%), and per capita energy consumption 43 kg of oil equivalent (World Bank, 1988).The Food Security Research Project is financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, Bureau of Science and Technology; Bureau for Africa; and the Southern Africa Regional Programme; under a Food Security in Africa cooperative agreement (DAN-1190-A-00-4092-00) with the Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University and Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, University of Zimbabwe. We are particularly appreciative of the support we have received from USAID officials, including Allison Herrick, Eric Witt, Joshua Mushuari, Doug Pickett, and Brad Wallach of USAID/Zimbabwe; and our Washington-based project managers, Michael Yates (Science and Technology) and Patricia O’brien (Africa Bureau)