Credit access and women entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe’s informal sector

Despite government’s huge investments in the informal sector activities, women are constrained in the credit market mainly due to culture; norms and lack of collateral securities as majority of women do not have control over productive capital. As a way of improving access to credit by women, the Government recently launched a number of women empowerment policies among them is the improved access to credit from financial institutions. Using individual firm level data and a methodological approach consisting of endogenous switching regression approach, this study intends to empirically investigate whether the improved credit access by women is justified in Zimbabwe. An endogenous switching regression is appropriate to deal with individual heterogeneity and examine whether access to credit is gender-based. The results showed that there is no discrimination in the credit market as there is no significant difference in access to credit between male and female entrepreneurs. However, there is a slight significant improvement in firm performance due to access to credit. The study recommends that Microcredit be made more flexible and to incorporate special relief non-financial intermediations to meet so as cater for the gender needs of household and community.https://www.abacademies.org/journals/academy-of-entrepreneurship-journal-home.htmlpm2021Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS

Land redistribution and the South African economy

Land redistributive policies can be viewed as effective tools for reducing rural poverty mainly because agriculture continues to be a major source of rural livelihood and a contributor to rural economic growth. For the structural changes and economy-wide impacts, including behavioural changes of rural land distribution, to be assessed and captured through time, a South African Social Accounting Matrix can be used as a database to construct a dynamic computable general equilibrium simulation model to simulate the potential impact on household welfare in South Africa. This study seeks to assess how government redistributive policies may affect household welfare in short- and long-run, focusing on poverty and income distribution in South Africa by applying a dynamic computable general equilibrium microsimulation model. The results showed that rural land distribution increases poor household income through an increase in factor by an average of 0.828. However, for most macroeconomic variables, the impact is negative in the short-run with a gradual increase in the long-run. The results support the claim that rural land distribution coupled with agriculture investment and government support can be effective in improving household welfare.https://www.agriculturejournals.cz/web/agriceconam2020Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS

Land redistribution and the South African economy

Land redistributive policies can be viewed as effective tools for reducing rural poverty mainly because agriculture continues to be a major source of rural livelihood and a contributor to rural economic growth. For the structural changes and economy-wide impacts, including behavioural changes of rural land distribution, to be assessed and captured through time, a South African Social Accounting Matrix can be used as a database to construct a dynamic computable general equilibrium simulation model to simulate the potential impact on household welfare in South Africa. This study seeks to assess how government redistributive policies may affect household welfare in short- and long-run, focusing on poverty and income distribution in South Africa by applying a dynamic computable general equilibrium microsimulation model. The results showed that rural land distribution increases poor household income through an increase in factor by an average of 0.828. However, for most macroeconomic variables, the impact is negative in the short-run with a gradual increase in the long-run. The results support the claim that rural land distribution coupled with agriculture investment and government support can be effective in improving household welfare.https://www.agriculturejournals.cz/web/agriceconam2020Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS

Government Debt Reduction in the USA and Greece: A Comparative VECM Analysis

The purpose of this paper is to estimate comparative debt reduction models for the USA and Greece using Vector Error Correction Model analysis and Granger causality test. The study provides an empirical framework that could assist in policy formulation for countries with high debt rates as well as those experiencing debt crises. The US model revealed a negative and significant relationship between general government debt and inflation as well as negative significance with primary balance. In Greece, the relationship between general government debts with primary balance is found to be positive and significant while negative and significant with net transfer from abroad. Granger causality is from general government debts to inflation in the USA and from primary balance to general government debts in Greece