Department of Economics

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Start date: 2020End date: 2024

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    A Comparative Analysis of Gender-Based Labour Force Participation and Employment Disparities in Southern Africa
    (Great Zimbabwe University, 2024) Chivasa Shynet
    This study investigated gender labour market disparities with respect to labour force participation and the gender employment gap in the Southern Africa region. The research is predicated 2on South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Malawi. Despite various interventions to reduce these disparities, women continue to occupy a suboptimal position in the economic arena, often facing discrimination in the formal labour market. This is a major concern, as these disparities are not sometimes linked to differences in labour productivity, training, skills or education levels between men and women. Adopting probit functions and the Maximum Likelihood Estimation technique, the study estimated gender labour force participation and employment disparities. Data was obtained from national labour force surveys conducted in 2019 for South Africa, 2018 for Namibia, 2019 for Botswana, and 2013 for Malawi. The results revealed that women were less likely to participate in the formal labour market than men. Being female reduced the possibility of labour force participation by 1.14%, 1.13%, 1.125%, and 1.62% in South Africa, Malawi, Namibia, and Botswana, respectively. The major drivers of the participation gap were marriage, the presence of children and elderly men, education and the place of residence. Hence, marriage and the presence of dependence presented a labour force participation penalty for women. Gender employment disparities followed a similar trend, except for Botswana. Being female diminished the likelihood of employment for females from South Africa, Namibia, and Malawi by 0.08, 0.14, and 0.034, respectively. In contrast, being female increased the likelihood of employment in Botswana by 0.012, presumably due to increased access to education by women, especially at the tertiary level. Using Yun's (2005) decomposition and Bootstrapping techniques, the study finds a raw gender employment gap of 0.079 for South Africa, 0.129 for Namibia, 0.0118 for Malawi, and 0.125 for Botswana. Gender employment discrimination is detected, with South Africa having the highest level at 7.23% and Botswana the lowest at 1.69%. Namibia and Malawi have discrimination levels of 3.39% and 2.25%, respectively. The findings suggested that the situation needs to be ameliorated to achieve gender parity in the formal labour market in the Southern African region. Recommendations included providing affordable childcare facilities, promoting female education, ensuring generous maternity care, industrialising rural areas and educating males on the need to take up family responsibilities. Addressing these issues is crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals related to poverty reduction (SDG 1), gender equality (SDG 5), and reduced inequalities (SDG 10) in the region and promoting inclusive economic growth.
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    Growth Effects of Foreign Direct Investments in Zimbabwe: Do Sources Matter?
    (Great Zimbabwe University, 2021) Chinyanganya Kudakwashe. L; Sunge Regret
    The study investigated foreign direct investment (FDI) growth effects in Zimbabwe using data spanning 1990-2019. FDI-led growth theories often view FDI as an enabler of economic growth. However, the extent may depend upon the source of FDI. Nonetheless, existing studies on Zimbabwe base their conclusions on aggregate FDI. Accordingly, we provide fresh evidence by disaggregating FDI inflows by sources. This is logical given the reality that FDI from different sources is heterogeneous. We used the Autoregressive-Distributed-Lag (ARDL) technique to estimate a time series model derived from neoclassical and endogenous growth models. Results indicated that FDI has a significantly positive growth effect. More importantly, we document that FDI sources do matter greatly. Specifically, FDI flows from Africa and Asia were found to have positive and significant growth effects. However, FDI from Europe and the United States has negative and insignificant impacts. We proffer two recommendations. Zimbabwe should attract more FDI from economies/regions in the vicinity of its level of development. Accordingly, Zimbabwe should rationally embrace the recently launched AfCFTA. It is vital to strike a balance between market deepening and promoting domestic production. Also, while most FDI from Asia is from is China, we urge Zimbabwe to provide a conducive environment to investors from the rest of Asia. This can be achieved through signing bilateral FDI agreements with Asian countries.
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    CO2 emissions and economic growth: Assessing the heterogeneous effects across climate regimes in Africa
    (Elsevier, 2022) Espoir Delphin Kamanda; Mudiangombe Benjamin Mudiangombe; Bannor Frank; Sunge Regret; Tshitaka Jean-Luc Mubenga
    Climate change has occasioned several Earth long-term events, including extreme temperatures. In recent years, Africa was reported as part of the world's regions that experienced extreme temperatures above pre-industrial levels. Despite lower contribution to Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and global warming, Africa remains among the world regions that suffer the most from climate change. However, the impact of climatic factors of temperature and emissions on economic production in Africa has not been broadly investigated, specifically among climate regimes. In this study, we attempt for the first time to understand the heterogeneous impacts of emissions and temperature on income in Africa using panel and time-series techniques on datasets spanning the years 1995-2016. At the global level in Africa, our empirical results reveal that a 1% increase in average temperature reduces income by 1.08%, whereas a 1% rise in CO2 emissions spurs income by 0.23%. The emissions effect result implies that environmental policies specifically designed to reduce CO2 emissions in Africa as a whole may significantly impact production in the long run. Also, the result suggests that a shift from optimal temperature levels to extreme patterns deter economic growth. Despite these revelations, our extended analysis based on climate regimes indicates heterogeneous effects across countries. Considering the Paris agreement on climate, this study suggests that policymakers should emphasize country-specific policies than global climatic policies for sustained CO2 emissions reduction in Africa.
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    Agricultural trade liberalization, regional trade agreements and agricultural technical efficiency in Africa
    (Sage, 2020) Sunge Regret; Ngepah Nicholas
    Despite increased agricultural trade liberalization, high productive inefficiency in agriculture has kept Africa as a net importer of agriculture products. Empirical studies have focused on the trade liberalization–productivity growth nexus and overlooked the efficiency linkage. Also the role of regional trade agreements (RTAs) and institutions in reducing inefficiency in agriculture have been sidelined. We use a stochastic frontier approach and single-stage maximum likelihood estimation of a true fixed-effects panel data model for our analysis. Using maize and rice data, we provide evidence that through technology transfer, agricultural trade statistically improves technical efficiency. Moreover, results suggest that RTAs provide favorable technical efficiency effects, which varies across products and membership. Furthermore, we document that while regulatory quality reduces technical inefficiency, control of corruption increases it. Our findings call for increased role of RTAs in promoting agricultural trade liberalization. This should be complemented by further strengthening of institutions involved in the agriculture value chain.