Building Knowledge-Based Economies in Africa: A Systematic Review of Policies and Strategies

Compared to other regions of the world, Africa is lagging in its drive toward knowledge-based economies. This study systematically reviews the literature in order to highlight the policies and strategies with which African countries can accelerate their current drive towards building knowledge-based economies. These are discussed in terms of three pillars of the World Bank’s knowledge economy framework. They are the indices for: (i) education and skilled population, (ii) information and communication technology and (iii) economic incentives and institutional regime

Optimal environmental policy differentials under emissions constraints

Is there a case to be made for preferential treatment of the exposed sector in an economy when compliance to an aggregate emissions constraint induced by an international environmental agreement is mandatory? This question is being debated in many countries, including The Netherlands, in the context of the implementation of the kyoto protocol. We address this issue in a general equilibrium framework in this paper, and theoretically cover several market structures, including perfect competition, oligopoly and large country case. Our main finding is that in many circumstances preferential treatment is not warranted from the point of view of maximizing social welfare

Environmental regulation and international trade

We empirically investigate the responsiveness of international trade to the stringency of environmental regulation. Stringent environmental regulation may impair the export competitiveness of ´dirty´ domestic industries, and as a result, ´pollution havens´ emerge in countries where environmental regulation is ´over-lax´. We examine the impact of polluction avatement and control costs on net exports in order to grasp this phenomenon. Theoretically, our analysis is related to a general equilibrium model of trade and pollution nesting the pollution have motive for trade with the factor endowment motive. We analyze data on two-digit ISIC manufacturing industries during the period 1977-1992 in Germany, the Netherlands and the US, and show that trade patterns in 'dirty' commodities are jointly determined by relative factor endowments and environmental stringency differentials