scholarly journals Overview

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
John Page ◽  
Finn Tarp

For a growing number of African economies the discovery of natural resources is a tremendous opportunity, but one accompanied by considerable risks. Many African countries dependent on oil, gas, and mining have weaker long-run growth, higher rates of poverty and greater income inequality than their less resource-dependent neighbours. One major risk comes from the structure of resource-rich economies themselves. Relative prices make it more difficult to diversify into internationally competitive activities outside the resource sector, thus narrowing the scope for structural change. This chapter focuses on how countries can use natural resources to diversify. Drawing on country-level evidence it explores three key themes: the institutions needed to manage a resource boom, the construction sector, and linking industry to the resource.

For a growing number of countries in Africa the discovery and exploitation of natural resources is a great opportunity, but one accompanied by considerable risks. In Africa, countries dependent on oil, gas, and mining have tended to have weaker long-run growth, higher rates of poverty, and greater income inequality than less resource-abundant economies. In resource-producing economies, relative prices make it more difficult to diversify into activities outside of the resource sector, limiting structural change. Economic structure matters for at least two reasons. First, countries whose exports are highly concentrated are vulnerable to declining prices and volatility. Second, economic diversification matters for long-term growth. This book presents research undertaken to understand how better management of the revenues and opportunities associated with natural resources can accelerate diversification and structural change in Africa. It begins with chapters on managing the boom, the construction sector, and linking industry to the resource—three major issues that frame the question of how to use natural resources for structural change. It then reports the main research results for five countries—Ghana, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia. Each country study covers the same three themes—managing the boom, the construction sector, and linking industry to the resource. One message that clearly emerges is that good policy can make a difference. A concluding chapter sets out some ideas for policy change in each of the areas that guided the research, and then goes on to propose some ideas for widening the options for structural change.


Author(s):  
Husam Rjoub ◽  
Chuka Uzoma Ifediora ◽  
Jamiu Adetola Odugbesan ◽  
Benneth Chiemelie Iloka ◽  
João Xavier Rita ◽  
...  

Sub-Saharan African countries are known to be bedeviled with some challenges hindering the economic development. Meanwhile, some of these issues have not been exhaustively investigated in the context of the region. Thus, this study aimed at investigating the implications of government effectiveness, availability of natural resources, and security threats on the regions’ economic development. Yearly data, spanning from 2007 to 2020, was converted from low frequency (yearly) to high frequency (quarterly) and utilized. Data analysis was conducted using Dynamic heterogeneous panel level estimators (PMG and CS-ARDL). Findings show that while PMG estimator confirms a long-run causal effect of governance, natural resources, and security threats on economic development, only natural resources show a short-run causal effect with economic development, while the CS-ARDL (model 2) confirms the significance of all the variables both in the long and short-run. Moreover, the ECT coefficients for both models were found to be statistically significant at less than 1% significance level, which indicates that the systems return back to equilibrium in case of a shock that causes disequilibrium, and in addition, reveals a stable long-run cointegration among the variables in the model. Finally, this study suggests that the policy makers in SSA countries should place more emphasis on improving governance, managing security challenges, and effectively utilizing rents from the natural resources, as all these have severe implications for the economic development of the region if not addressed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 226
Author(s):  
Ademola Obafemi Young

The debate on whether income inequality promotes, restricts, or is independent of economic growth has been widely studied and discussed in development economics discourse. However, a careful reading of this extensive extant and burgeoning literature suggests that, other than the ambivalent nature and the fact that the bulk of these studies relied heavily on cross-section/-country/panel econometric analysis, empirical studies examining the nexus in the context of less developed economies, particularly, African countries, has received less attention, as most of the extant studies predominantly focused on developed economies. This current study, thus, attempts to examine the impact of inequality on growth in Nigeria spanning between the period 1970 and 2018. It also examined the theoretical predictions of some of the distinct transmission channels through which inequality impacts growth. Time series econometrics were applied. The results obtained consistently revealed that inequality hurts long-run growth in Nigeria. Also, the results obtained revealed that inequality in income increases relative redistribution and fertility, but lessens investment, gross enrollment ratio, and property rights protection in Nigeria, which may in turn impede growth.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 273-284
Author(s):  
Jimoh S. Ogede

Abstract The study examines the impacts of entrepreneurship on income inequality in a panel of 29 Sub-Saharan African countries spanning from 2004 to 2020. The paper employs a dynamic heterogeneous panel approach to differentiate between long-run and short-run impacts of entrepreneurship on income inequality. The findings establish a robust and direct nexus between entrepreneurial activities and income disparity. The results of the two entrepreneurial indicators are stable. Besides, the coefficient of the human capital is positive in the regression and statistically significant at a 5 percent significance level. The proxies for macroeconomic factors exhibit diverse signs and impact, which suggest a policy stimulus aimed at refining macroeconomic situations and also ignite prospects for households to increase their incomes.


2020 ◽  
pp. 74-94
Author(s):  
John Page

It is likely that Africa holds almost a third of the world’s reserves of minerals, oil, and gas. The exploitation of natural resources is a huge opportunity, but it also carries considerable risks. The exploitation of natural resources is a huge opportunity, but one that carries considerable risks. Relative prices in resource-exporting economies tend to push them towards economic structures dominated by the resource sector. This chapter explores ways to achieve diversification in a resource-rich economy. It describes the relative price changes that accompany a resource boom and suggests policies and public investments to mitigate their impact. It explores some of the issues that influence the participation of local firms in the resource value chain and argues for broadening the options for diversification, through the development of ‘industries without smokestacks’ and investments in knowledge.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Maha Elhini ◽  
Rasha Hammam

This paper employs structural growth perspective to the analysis of income inequality in 43 countries over the period 2003-2017.The study utilizes two different panel estimation techniques. First, the panel least squares regression examines the relevance of Kuznets effect of the different economic sectors; agriculture, manufacturing and services on income inequality. Second, the pooled mean group (PMG) estimation of dynamic heterogeneous panels gauges the long run impact of the change in sectoral value added as a proxy for structural change on inequality. PMG presents short run adjustments to be country-specific due to the widely different impacts of macroeconomic conditions and vulnerability of each country to income inequality. Empirical findings show that across all countries, sector growth had no to negligible impact on inequality indicating that no signs are evident of Kuznets effect. However, both inflation and unemployment have mixed impacts on inequality in Lower and Middle-Income countries. Results further reveal that unemployment has a relatively stronger influence on inequality than inflation for Upper-middle income countries, unlike in Lower-middle income countries, where unemployment shows a weaker correlation with inequality than inflation. Results for High-income countries show that the influence between inflation and unemployment are not as big as in Upper middle-income countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8364
Author(s):  
Yongming Wang ◽  
Irfan Uddin ◽  
Yingmei Gong

Globally, as the environment deteriorates, use of renewable energy is increasing. The discrepancy between inequalities, sustainable sources, and natural resources, on the other hand, is enormous. As a consequence, the current research simulated the link between income inequality, renewable energy, and carbon emissions from 1990 to 2018. The long run and short run interaction were estimated using an autoregressive distribution lag (ARDL) model. According to the study’s findings, improvements in sustainable power, as well as income inequality, are producing a rise in environmental quality. Natural resources seem to have a significantly positive influence on the environment’s quality. Furthermore, the study found that financial development and environmental quality have a bidirectional causal link. According to the conclusions of this study, government authorities should support the use of renewable energy, i.e., sources to optimize carbon release.


Polar Record ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 512-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Page Wilson

ABSTRACTOver the last decade claims that an Arctic ‘cold rush’ is taking place have intensified. Proponents of the argument contend that the unprecedented effects of climate change plus strong global demand for the region's natural resources are creating the conditions for a future economic boom. In both of these respects, Greenland merits particular attention. Some recent predictions suggest great riches accruing to Greenland, on account of its abundance of oil, gas and mineral deposits; as a consequence, some further argue, Greenlandic independence from Denmark is assured. In response, this article contests these arguments. For now, the natural and mineral resource sector in Greenland is tiny, and thus it is still much too soon to know whether it will even deliver the dazzling economic outcome forecast – let alone whether or not this outcome will benefit Greenland. In addition, the question of Greenlandic independence does not simply boil down to economics, but also raises various social, political, legal and strategic issues which are not easily resolvable. Consequently, Greenland's independence from Denmark is not simply a matter of time, but remains very much an open question.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swapnanil Sengupta

Abstract This paper evaluates the impacts of income inequality on life expectancy in the African countries. The empirical analysis has been performed on a panel dataset of 52 African nations covering the period of 1995-2018. For estimating the relationship, I have employed Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) technique and a Panel Error Correction Model (PECM). The long-run cointegrating relationship was estimated using a Panel Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (PDOLS) estimator. The outputs of both static and dynamic estimation models suggest that income inequality has negatively affected life expectancy at birth in the African continent overall. Though a positive short-run causal relationship was established, in the long-run, income inequality had deleterious effects. A series of steps had been followed to check the soundness of the result of the main empirical examination and it was confirmed that the results are robust.


OASIS ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin P. Andersson ◽  
Andrés F. Palacio Chaverra

Structural change consists of the long-term changes in the sectoral composition of output and employment. We introduce a structural change perspective to the study of income inequality in 27 countries of the developing world for the period 1960-2010. The service sector has become the main employer, but the agricultural sector is central to the income distribution because poverty is mostly rural, and the labor surplus is high. We decompose the sectoral composition of aggregate labor productivity at the country level, divide the countries into agrarian, dual (beginner, intermediate and advanced), and mature economies and use the inter-sectoral productivity gap to test the effect of structural change on income inequality. We confirm increases in agricultural productivity everywhere and find that the inter-sectoral gap is positively associated with income inequality. The effect is negligible in agrarian and advanced economies but powerful in dual beginner economies: an increase of 1% in the inter-sectoral gap increases income inequality by 0.5%. The effect peters out in dual intermediate economies and disappears completely in dual advanced economies. Finally, redistribution has been the key to compensating the losers in the income changes, particularly for those entering the non-agricultural economy.


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