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211. Factors Underlying Communal Beef Cattle Marketing Decisions in Botswana: The Role of Public and Private Transfers

Author:
Tebogo Seleka and David Mmopelwa
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis
Abstract:
This article examines factors underlying communal beef cattle marketing at a household level in Botswana, with emphasis placed on the role of public and private transfers. Results show that public and private transfers (pensions, remittances, government food rations, and food supplies from friends and relatives) discourage cattle marketing. Thus, while they are important sources of household food security, cash and food transfers may adversely impact on beef export performance in Botswana. It is therefore fundamental that public transfer programmes are well targeted to needy and poor households, in order to minimize their adverse effects on the cattle industry. On the positive side, the paper argues that public transfer programmes may assist poor farmers rebuild their cattle and other livestock inventory, contributing to transition out of inter-generational poverty.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Public Policy, Economic Development, Private Sector, and Cattle
Political Geography:
Africa and Botswana

212. Competition and Trade Policy: The Case of the Botswana Poultry Industry

Author:
Masedi Motswapong and Roman Grynberg
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis
Abstract:
The poultry sector is the most successful example of import substitution in Botswana with the country having achieved national self sufficiency. The paper describes the value chain in the industry and shows how, given the small size of the market, a high degree of market concentration exists. There is an estimate of the loss of consumer surplus from the current trade regime. The paper raises issues regarding the fundamental tension between competition and industrial policy in a small developing country. As the larger firms in the poultry industry move towards export readiness after 32 years of protection, the question of a new trade and industry regime is considered.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Economic Development, Trade Policy, Strategic Competition, and Industry
Political Geography:
Africa and Botswana

213. "Dreams Don't Come True in Eritrea": Anomie and Family Disintegration due to the Structural Militarization of Society

Author:
Nicole Hirt
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This article analyzes contemporary Eritrea's acute crisis within the framework of the theory of anomie. It is based on the hypothesis that militarization, forced labor, mass exodus, and family disintegration can be interpreted as the consequences of two incompatible norm and value systems: the collectivist, nationalistic, and militaristic worldview of the former liberation front and ruling party People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), and the traditional cultural system of Eritrea's society. In 2002 the regime introduced an unlimited "development campaign," thereby forcing large parts of the society to live as conscripts and perform unpaid labor. This has caused a mass exodus of young people and a rapid process of family disintegration. The article is based on empirical fieldwork and evaluates the ongoing developments, which have led to rapid economic decline and the destabilization of the entire fabric of society.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Migration, Fragile/Failed State, and Governance
Political Geography:
Africa and Eritrea

214. Nigeria: A Prime Example of the Resource Curse? Revisiting the Oil-Violence Link in the Niger Delta

Author:
Annegret Mähler
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This paper studies the oil-violence link in the Niger Delta, systematically taking into consideration domestic and international contextual factors. The case study, which focuses on explaining the increase in violence since the second half of the 1990s, confirms the differentiated interplay of resource-specific and non-resource-specific causal factors. With regard to the key contextual conditions responsible for violence, the results underline the basic relevance of cultural cleavages and political-institutional and socioeconomic weakness that existed even before the beginning of the “oil era.” Oil has indirectly boosted the risk of violent conflicts through a further distortion of the national economy. Moreover, the transition to democratic rule in 1999 decisively increased the opportunities for violent struggle, in a twofold manner: firstly, through the easing of political repression and, secondly, through the spread of armed youth groups, which have been fostered by corrupt politicians. These incidents imply that violence in the Niger Delta is increasingly driven by the autonomous dynamics of an economy of violence: the involvement of security forces, politicians and (international) businessmen in illegal oil theft helps to explain the perpetuation of the violent conflicts at a low level of intensity.
Topic:
Political Violence, Crime, Economics, and Oil
Political Geography:
Africa

215. On the Economics of Regional Powers: Comparing China, India, Brazil, and South Africa

Author:
Robert Kappel
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
As the conception of and debates on regional powers have been led by political science, this paper aims to contribute to the discussion from an economics perspective. Based on the discussion of different concepts of economic power—such as those of Schumpeter, Perroux, Predöhl, or Kindleberger—concepts of technological leadership, and the global value chain approaches, the paper develops a research framework for the economics of regional powers. This framework is then tested using descriptive statistics as well as regressions analysis, with a focus on the four regional powers Brazil, China, India, and South Africa. As economic power is relational, the relationship of regional powers to other nations in the region is analyzed.
Topic:
Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Africa, China, India, South Africa, Brazil, and Latin America

216. Will China relocate its labor-intensive factories to Africa, flying-geese style?

Author:
Terutomo Ozawa and Christian Bellak
Publication Date:
08-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
China has developed increasingly close economic relations with Africa in its quest for oil and minerals through investment and aid. The World Ban k recently called upon China to transplant labor-intensive factories onto the continent. A question arises as to whether such an industrial relocation will be done in such a fashion to jump-start local economic development—as previously seen across East Asia and as described in the flying-geese (FG) paradigm of FD.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
Africa and China

217. The Environment and Corporate Governance in Zimbabwe

Author:
Hany Besada and arolina Werner
Publication Date:
07-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Formerly one of Africa's most promising economies, Zimbabwe has begun a process of economic reconstruction after decades of political turmoil and economic mismanagement. The advent of a national unity government in February 2009 launched a new but still tentative era of political stability. The government has a daunting political and economic agenda. Top priorities include restoring the rule of law, demonstrating fiscal responsibility, and putting in place macroeconomic and structural reforms to win the confidence of domestic and international investors.
Topic:
Economics and Monetary Policy
Political Geography:
Africa and Zimbabwe

218. Challenges of the Drylands

Author:
Jeffrey D. Sachs, Belay Begashaw, and Upmanu Lall
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Columbia University World Leaders Forum
Abstract:
A panel discussion moderated by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs with East African Leaders, and Dr. Belay Begashaw from the Earth Institute's MDG Centre and Upmanu Lall, director of the Columbia Water Center, followed by a question and answer session with the audience.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Economics, and Health
Political Geography:
Africa

219. When Does Rigorous Impact Evaluation Make a Difference? The Case of the Millennium Villages

Author:
Michael Clemens and Gabriel Demombynes
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
When is the rigorous impact evaluation of development projects a luxury, and when a necessity? We study one high-profile case: the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), an experimental and intensive package intervention to spark sustained local economic development in rural Africa. We illustrate the benefits of rigorous impact evaluation in this setting by showing that estimates of the project's effects depend heavily on the evaluation method. Comparing trends at the MVP intervention sites in Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria to trends in the surrounding areas yields much more modest estimates of the project's effects than the before-versus-after comparisons published thus far by the MVP. Neither approach constitutes a rigorous impact evaluation of the MVP, which is impossible to perform due to weaknesses in the evaluation design of the project's initial phase. These weaknesses include the subjective choice of intervention sites, the subjective choice of comparison sites, the lack of baseline data on comparison sites, the small sample size, and the short time horizon. We describe how the next wave of the intervention could be designed to allow proper evaluation of the MVP's impact at little additional cost.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Africa and Nigeria

220. Assets, Shocks, and Poverty Traps in Rural Mozambique

Author:
Lena Giesbert and Kati Schindler
Publication Date:
11-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
Using a micro-level approach to poverty traps, this paper explores welfare dynamics among households in post-war rural Mozambique. Conceptually, the paper builds on an asset-based approach to poverty and tests empirically, with household panel data, for the existence of a poverty trap. Findings indicate that there is little differentiation in productive asset endowments over time and that rural households gravitate towards a single equilibrium, which is at a surprisingly low level. The analysis shows that shocks and household coping behavior help to explain the observed poverty dynamics. The single low-level equilibrium points to an overall development trap in the rural farm-based economy. This is attributed to the long-term impact of the civil war, which has consolidated unfavorable economic conditions in rural areas and limited new economic opportunities outside of the agricultural sector.
Topic:
Economics, Markets, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Africa