bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Determinants of Unemployment in Ghana
Authors: Baah‐Boateng William 
Published: January 2014

AbstractUnemployment is often cited as a measure of the low employment content of Ghana's strong growth performance over the past three decades. The paper presents evidence to suggest that employment growth in Ghana continues to trail economic growth due to high growth of low employment generating sectors against sluggish growth of high labour absorption sectors. A cross‐sectional estimation of a probit regression model also indicates a strong effect of demand factors on unemployment, indicating a weak employment generating impact of economic growth. Empirical analysis also confirms higher vulnerability of youth and urban dwellers to unemployment with education and gender explaining unemployment in some instances. Reservation wage is also observed to have an increasing effect of unemployment. The paper recommends policies that promote investment in agriculture and manufacturing which is associated with higher employment elasticity of output. High incidence of unemployment among the youth and secondary school leavers in the most recent period requires targeted intervention including support for entrepreneurial training and start‐up capital to attract young school leavers to become ‘creators’ rather than ‘seekers’ of jobs. A downward review of expectations on the part of jobseekers in terms of their reservation wage could help reduce unemployment in Ghana.
Gender Equality in Employment in Africa: Empirical Analysis and Policy Implications
Authors: Anyanwu John C. , Augustine Darline 
Published: January 2014

AbstractGender equality in employment is currently one of the greatest development challenges facing countries globally, including those in Africa. In 2011, the male employment‐to‐population ratio, globally, was estimated at about 72.7 per cent compared to the female employment‐to‐population ratio of only 47.9 per cent. For Africa as a whole, the male employment‐to‐population ratio was estimated at about 69.2 per cent compared to the female employment‐to‐population ratio of only 39.2 per cent. In addition to analysing the characteristics of gender equality in employment in Africa, this paper empirically studies the key drivers of gender equality in employment (proxied by the ratio of female employment rate to male employment rate for the age group 15–64 over the period, 1991 and 2009), using cross‐sectional data. Our results suggest that for the all‐Africa and sub‐Saharan African samples, increased democracy (and its quadratic form), higher gross domestic investment, more primary education, and higher urban share of the population increase gender equality in employment while higher level of real GDP per capita, higher foreign direct investment, sex population ratio, and being a net oil‐exporting country tend to lower it. However, North Africa is different. Apart from a negative and highly significant North African dummy in the overall results, the North African specific sample result indicates that while the quadratic element of real GDP per capita, higher gross domestic investment, higher urban share of the population, more secondary education, and being an oil‐exporting country increase gender equality in employment, higher levels of real GDP per capita, more primary education, and sex population ratio tend to lower gender equality in employment in the sub‐region. The policy implications and lessons of these results are discussed. These policies are directed at making the African labor market more inclusive and hence enhancing women's employment for the purpose of greater economic empowerment, household welfare and poverty reduction, in particular.
FDI, Employment and Economic Growth in Nigeria
Authors: Inekwe John Nkwoma 
Published: January 2014

AbstractThe study examines the links between Nigerian economic growth, employment and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the manufacturing and servicing sectors between 1990 and 2009. The significant results of the Johansen cointegration technique and the vector error correction model reveal that FDI in the servicing sector has a positive relationship with economic growth while FDI in the manufacturing sector has a negative relationship. FDI in the manufacturing sector has a positive relationship with employment rate while FDI in the servicing sector has a negative relationship with employment rate. Granger causal relationships among these variables exist. In the growth equation, causality runs from growth to FDI in the service sector while growth and FDI in the manufacturing sector have bidirectional causal effect. For the employment equation, unidirectional causality runs from FDI in the service and manufacturing sectors to employment rate.
Household Economic Well‐being: Response to Micro‐Credit Access in Cameroon
Authors: Baye Francis Menjo 
Published: January 2014

AbstractThis paper evaluates the determinants of borrowing, effects of borrowing on economic well‐being, and potential disparity in responses by sources of well‐being, location and gender, while controlling for other correlates. The 2001 Cameroon household consumption survey and a range of survey‐based econometric methods that purge parameter estimates of potential intra‐cluster correlation, endogeneity and sample selection biases were used. Access to credit/borrowing is strongly associated with household economic well‐being irrespective of source of well‐being. Rural well‐being is significally more contingent on credit access than urban well‐being. Male‐headed households rely more significantly on credit access to enhance well‐being than their female counterparts. Higher levels of education associate more significantly with well‐being enhancement than lower levels, more so for female‐headed households than their male counterparts. To sustain the impact of credit on well‐being, accompanying measures — availability of sufficient funds, quality services by lenders, physical infrastructures, healthcare and training — are required. These findings are useful in the context of economic recovery and poverty reduction under the current situation in Cameroon, where financial intermediation is limited and penetration is shallow. To better serve the needs of the economically active poor, a microfinance delivery model is proposed.
Budget Deficits, Money Growth and Price Level in Nigeria
Authors: Chukwu Jude Okechukwu 
Published: January 2014

AbstractThe study investigates the long‐run causal relationship amongst budget deficits, money growth and price level for Nigeria between 1971 and 2008 inclusive. The empirical findings predict a long‐term cointegrating relationship with unidirectional causality running from budget deficit to money supply growth and then from money supply growth to price level in the Toda and Yamamoto () sense. Thus, the Sargent and Wallace () ‘Unpleasant Monetarist Arithmetic’ hypothesis holds for Nigeria.
African Emerging Equity Markets Re‐examined: Testing the Weak Form Efficiency Theory
Authors: Nwosu Emmanuel O. , Orji Anthony , Anagwu Ogomegbunam 
Published: January 2014

AbstractThis paper examines the weak form of market efficiency of five major stock markets; four African equity markets and one developed market. The weekly market index returns of the EGX 30, NSE 20, NSE All Share Index, FTSE‐JSE All Share Index and the S&P 500 Index were analysed for the period 1998–2008. To determine if the stylized fact of stock returns in African markets violate the random walk hypothesis, numerous econometric and statistical techniques are employed. These methods include the autocorrelation test, the unit test, linear and non‐linear models. The results indicate that the African markets do not behave in a manner consistent with the weak form of market efficiency. These results provide a contrast between the emerging African markets and the developed markets. It suggests that African emerging markets have higher average returns and volatility than developed markets. We argue that if the market could be made less volatile, it has the potential to attract more investment because of its attractive returns.
Relative Profitability of Cassava‐based Mixed Cropping Systems among Various Production Scale Operators in Ogun and Oyo States Southwest Nigeria
Authors: Obayelu A. E. , Afolami C. A. , Agbonlahor M. U. 
Published: January 2014

AbstractCassava is a very important crop in Nigeria by reason of its comparative production advantage over other staples. This study estimated the relative profitability of cassava producers and determined the effects of farm inputs on the level of profit of various scales of cassava producers in Ogun and Oyo States, Nigeria. Cross‐sectional data were collected from 265 cassava‐based farmers using a multistage sampling technique and were analysed using normalized profit function and budgetary analysis. Results showed that cassava/cowpea enterprise had the highest net margins of 127,249.63/ha and 122,325.73/ha in Ogun and Oyo States respectively. While the use of herbicides had a positive and significant effect on the profitability of small‐scale cassava farmers in both states, cassava‐cuttings had a positive and significant effect on medium‐scale cassava farming in both states. Similarly, labour and farm size had a positive and significant effect on large‐scale cassava farming in both states. The study recommends that small and medium‐scale farmers should increase the application of herbicide, large‐scale cassava operators in Oyo State should increase the use of labour, while those in Ogun State should also increase the cultivated acreage of land.
Competitive Conditions of the Tunisian Banking Industry: An Application of the Panzar–Rosse Model
Authors: Abdelkader Ines Ben , Mansouri Faysal 
Published: January 2014

AbstractThis study employs the Panzar–Rosse H‐statistic to assess the competitive conditions of the Tunisian banking industry over the period 1999 to 2003. The results show that the banking market is in long‐run equilibrium and the Panzar–Rosse H‐statistic indicates that the Tunisian banking market is operating under conditions of monopoly. It seems therefore that the liberalization process and the reforms implemented since 1987 to the banking sector could not compensate, for the period under study, the existence of market power in this sector.
Financial Development and Economic Growth in the North African Region
Authors: Kouki Imen , Harrathi Nizar 
Published: January 2014

AbstractThis paper empirically investigates the relationship between financial development and economic growth in the North Africa region, using a panel regression and different indicators of financial development. We find that the relation depends on the type of the indicator of financial development. In fact, while both financial institutions and markets in Morocco and Tunisia have a positive effect on the economic growth, only the financial markets in Egypt will improve economic growth by increasing the supply of financial services. For Algeria, the banking system has a positive effect on economic growth.
Water Habits and Hygiene Education to Prevent Diarrhoeal Diseases: The Zambezi River Basin in Mozambique
Authors: González‐Gómez Francisco , Lluch‐Frechina Enrique , Guardiola Jorge 
Published: January 2014

AbstractThis research analyses the relationship between certain water‐related habits and infrastructure likely to influence the frequency of diarrhoea in children that are five years old or younger. The study is implemented using an ordered logit model with information from 334 households from the Zambezi river in Mozambique, with children who were aged up to five years. The main objective of this paper is to emphasize the importance of hygiene education in the prevention of gastrointestinal diseases in children, that are affected by poor access to water systems and sanitation. Maintaining hygiene is especially important in households with young children, who are more vulnerable to gastrointestinal diseases. The results of the research reveal that in households that do not know that water transmits illnesses and where they do not wash their hands before preparing a child's meal, the children suffer diarrhoea more frequently. The main recommendation is to invest in hygiene education programmes to reduce the risk of illnesses such as diarrhoea. Improvements in access to water and sanitation may not be sufficient in order to improve life conditions if there is no hygiene education.
On the Determinants of Investment in Sub‐Saharan African Manufacturing Firms
Authors: Foster‐McGregor Neil 
Published: January 2014

AbstractInvestment is a crucial factor determining economic performance at the firm as well as the country level. In this paper I identify the determinants of the decision to invest in new plant and equipment as well as the determinants of the level of such investment for a sample of firms in 19 sub‐Saharan African countries. In particular, I concentrate on the role of property rights, external finance, trade status and firm ownership on investment. Results indicate that internationally trading firms, foreign owned firms and firms with better access to sources of external finance tend to be more likely to invest and to invest more, with little role for indicators of property rights in influencing investment decisions found.
Assessing the Short‐ and Long‐run Real Effects of Public External Debt: The Case of Tunisia
Authors: Mohamed Ben Mimoun 
Published: January 2014

AbstractThis study examines the effects of external debt on the economic growth of Tunisia both in the short run and the long run. We specify a growth equation based on the standard neoclassical growth model that we extend by adding public external debt indicators and some control variables. Annual time series data was gathered from 1970 to 2010. The Engel and Granger (1987) econometric techniques are employed in the empirical analysis in order to regress an error correction model (ECM) which allows estimating the short‐ and long‐run consequences of debt on the Tunisian economic growth. The main results of this analysis can be summarized as follows: (1) Although the ratio of public external debt to GDP is relatively low in this country, the levels of external debt achieved are growth‐damaging. We estimate that, on average, a 1 percentage point increase in the ratio of public external debt reduced annual growth rate by 0.15–0.17 percentage points. The impact is much higher in the long run in the sense that the long‐run level of GDP per capita decreases by 0.27 per cent as this ratio increases by 1 per cent. (2) Our results also identified the existence, for Tunisia, of a threshold for the impact of external debt, which is evidence in agreement with the ‘debt overhang’ phenomenon. This threshold is estimated to around 30 per cent of GDP. (3) The traditional ‘crowding‐out effect’ associated with service and interest payments of debt as well as the ‘resources‐diversion effect’ associated with the extent of corruption in this country have been put forward in this analysis as two possible transmission channels of the detrimental consequences of external debt. (4) Finally, Tunisia will need to implement drastic policy changes that reduce fiscal deficit in order to prevent further deterioration.
Trade Policy Inconsistency and Maize Price Volatility: An ARCH Approach in Kenya
Authors: d'Hôtel Elodie Maître , Le Cotty Tristan , Jayne Thom 
Published: January 2014

AbstractThe 2007–2008 food crisis and current food price swings led economists to re‐evaluate the potential for policy instruments to manage food price volatility, including tariff policy. The use of tariffs in importing countries to stabilize price is theoretically not recommended because of its domestic and international costs but in practice many countries use import tariffs with the intention to stabilize their domestic prices. Among them, some achieve price stabilization, some do not. We address the reason why it sometimes works, sometimes not. In the context of Kenya, we show that while domestic price levels are mainly explained by seasonal cycles, and international prices, domestic price volatility is mainly explained by inconsistent moves of trade policy. Thus, the ability of a policy regime to lower food price volatility does not depend on the nature of the policy instrument only, but also on the government ability to implement it. We define a consistent policy adjustment as a tariff decrease when world price increases and a tariff increase when world price is decreasing. We use an autoregressive conditionally heteroscedastic model of price determination in which prices and prices volatility are jointly estimated, using monthly data over the 1994–2009 period in Kenya.
An Overview of the Repo Rate in an Inflation Targeting Economy
Authors: Fadiran Gideon O. , Edun Adebisi 
Published: January 2014

AbstractThis paper compares the use of repo rate in South Africa during the pre‐repo and repo system by trending and comparing the interest rate fluctuations between two selected periods of 1990–1998 and 1998–2010. Using a structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) econometric method to determine the relationship between the repo rate and other selected key macroeconomic variables in South Africa, an improved monetary efficiency was found during the repo period, which can be attributed to the use of an inflation‐targeting framework. This is important as it provides a guide to policymakers on how effective the current monetary tool is, and how efficient the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is in influencing the interbank rate, retail rates and inflation during selective periods.
Assessing child welfare under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008: a case study in medicalisation?
Authors: Lee Ellie , Macvarish Jan , Sheldon Sally 
Published: January 2014

AbstractThis article reports on a study with staff working in assisted conception clinics in the UK about making welfare of the child (WOC) assessments pre‐conception. This aspect of infertility treatment is obligatory under section 13(5) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, which was amended in 2008. The aim of the study was to find out how this change to the law had impacted on practice. In describing what we found, we also make a contribution to scholarship about the medicalisation of reproduction. S13(5) has often been discussed as a prime example of medicalisation, giving clinics power to grant or deny access to treatment on child welfare grounds, encompassing far more than purely clinical considerations. Yet, while such medicalisation may be entrenched in the law, our findings suggest this power is used with a very light touch. Further, while our interviewees offered near‐universal support for the need to consider child welfare, this is now justified by concerns that address not only family form (e.g. the need for a father figure) but also the quality of interactions between parents and children. In this light we suggest that the concept of medicalisation may offer a rather blunt tool for understanding a far more complex reality.
Architectural, functional and molecular responses to concentric and eccentric loading in human skeletal muscle
Authors: Franchi M. V. , Atherton P. J. , Reeves N. D. , Flück M. , Williams J. , Mitchell W. K. , Selby A. , Beltran Valls R. M. , Narici M. V. 
Published: January 2014

AbstractAimWe investigated architectural, functional and molecular responses of human skeletal muscle to concentric (CON) or eccentric (ECC) resistance training (RT).MethodsTwelve young males performed 10 weeks of concentric (CON) or eccentric (ECC) resistance training (RT) (n = 6 CON, 6 ECC). An additional 14 males were recruited to evaluate acute muscle fascicle behaviour and molecular signalling in biopsies collected from vastus lateralis (VL) after 30 min of single bouts of CON or ECC exercise. VL volume was measured by magnetic resonance imaging. Muscle architecture (fascicle length, Lf; pennation angle, PA) was evaluated by ultrasonography. Muscle remodelling signals to CON or ECC loading [MAPK/AKT‐mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signalling] and inflammatory pathway (TNFαMurf‐1‐MAFbx) were evaluated by immunoblotting.ResultsDespite the ~1.2‐fold greater load of the ECC group, similar increases in muscle volume (+8% CON and +6% ECC) and in maximal voluntary isometric contraction (+9% CON and +11% ECC) were found after RT. However, increases in Lf were greater after ECC than CON (+12 vs. +5%) while increases in PA were greater in CON than ECC (+30 vs. +5%). Distinct architectural adaptations were associated with preferential growth in the distal regions of VL for ECC (+ECC +8% vs. +CON +2) and mid belly for CON (ECC +7 vs. CON +11%). While MAPK activation (p38MAPK, ERK1/2, p90RSK) was specific to ECC, neither mode affected AKT‐mTOR or inflammatory signalling 30 min after exercise.ConclusionMuscle growth with CON and ECC RT occurs with different morphological adaptations reflecting distinct fibre fascicle behaviour and molecular responses.
Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Racism? Risks and Benefits to Teaching Children About Intergroup Biases
Authors: Bigler Rebecca S. , Wright Yamanda F. 
Published: January 2014

AbstractBy the time children start formal schooling, they endorse stereotypes and exhibit prejudice on the basis of many traits, including age, attractiveness, disability status, gender, and race. Despite the relevance of these phenomena to children's lives, as well as to understanding historical and contemporary human relations, little consensus exists about whether, when, or how to teach children about intergroup biases (i.e., stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination). In this article, we review the risks and benefits of learning about intergroup biases among elementary school children. We conclude that lessons about intergroup biases are valuable and call for additional research on how best to maximize their effectiveness for improving intergroup relations while minimizing associated risks.
Clarifying the Contours of Emotion Regulation: Insights From Parent–Child Stress Research
Authors: Laurent Heidemarie K. 
Published: January 2014

AbstractThe way people respond to and recover from stress is a core aspect of emotion regulation, making it important to understand when and how stress response systems become dysregulated. In this article, I discuss a program of research designed to clarify the origins of stress regulation or dysregulation within families. My study highlights how parents with mood dysregulation shape their children's developing stress sensitivity via both inherited and social‐environmental paths, and how such sensitivity aids or impairs regulation depending on the environmental context. The work also points to ways in which the family environment continues to modulate stress sensitivity over time, framing regulation as a dynamic interplay among early and later parental influences, and current conditions, rather than a static outcome. I also discuss implications for conceptualizing stress regulation and points of intervention.