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The determinants of livelihood diversification have been studied by several researchers globally. However, these factors are not well understood in the ANDM and KCDM, because they are given little attention. The specific objective of the study was to examine the determinants of livelihood diversification in ANDM and KCDM. The cross-sectional dataset was collected from 268 and 264 participants who were randomly selected in ANDM and KCDM, respectively. A structured questionnaire was utilized to collect data on socio-economic and demographic factors among small-scale rural farmers in ANDM and KCDM. The data collection commenced in March to April 2022 in KCDM and started in August to September 2022 in ANDM. Stata version 14.0 was employed to estimate a Quantile regression. The results show that 66.04% of participants in ANDM were female-headed households, whereas 53.79% in KCDM were headed by males. The findings from a Quantile regression show that livelihood diversification was influenced by the household head’s gender, age, marital status, access to extension services, access to credit, employment status, food security, education, household size, farm size, poverty status, farm experience, and improved seeds. To promote livelihood diversification, policymakers should create policies that will target all factors that are significant in the study.

AbstractUrbanisation and water scarcity pose a challenge to urban vegetable production and livelihoods in major cities across the world. At the same time, increasing demand for fresh vegetables coupled with the high profitability of vegetable production enterprises has made it attractive and indispensable as it creates jobs along the entire crop value chain. This study analysed the efficiency performance of urban vegetable producers and their willingness to pay (WTP) for treated wastewater using data collected from 214 farmers. By applying the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and logistic regression models, the results show that the current production system is technically inefficient as 33% more output could have been produced using the existing resources. The mean amount that farmers are willing to pay for treated wastewater to be delivered to their farms is GH¢66.7 per month. Technical efficiency influences farmers’ WTP for treated waste water. Other drivers of WTP for treated wastewater include experience in vegetable production, type of irrigation practised, source of water used for irrigation, the volume of water applied per day, extension access, association membership, market demand for products, and access to market information. Strengthening public–private partnerships in the treatment and utilization of water resources and providing technical training to urban producers could enhance the efficient use of treated wastewater in agriculture.

This study interrogates asymmetric effect of public debt on economic growth among selected emerging and frontier SADC economies. The study estimates a smooth transition regression (STAR) to analyse asymmetric relationship between public debt and economic growth using time series data from 2000 to 2018, extracted from the World Development Indicators. The findings indicate a strong evidence of a significant asymmetric relationship between public debt and growth among emerging and frontier SADC members under consideration. The results revealed the inverted U-Shape effect of public debt on growth in South Africa. While the results for Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe indicate that there is a U-Shape relationship between public debt and economic growth. The study suggest that policymakers ought to consider curbing public debt level within a sustainable threshold target in order to reduce accompanying debt serving costs, and efficiently use public finances consistent with sustainable economic expansion.

This study estimates a Panel Vector Autoregressive (PVAR) approach to analyse the impact of fiscal policy and public debt on economic growth in Southern African Developing Communities (SADC). The study further estimated the fixed effects (FE) and random effects (RE) to verify the robustness of empirical findings. The results provide rigorous empirical evidence of a positive response of GDP growth due to shocks in government expenditure, employment, and public debt while gross capital formation exerts a negative effect on economic growth. The study proposes that fiscal authorities ought to focus on the adoption of prudent fiscal policies as a credible stabilization tool at the disposal of policymakers to safeguard stable and yet productive public finances consistent with sustainable economic prosperity. These may include addressing infrastructural development, soaring fiscal deficit, creation of jobs, and creating a conducive environment for both labour and capital-intensive projects to flourish in the SADC economies.

From 1990 to 2019, this study examines the nonlinear dynamic impact of financial development on income inequality in an unconventional policy regime in a panel of 21 African countries. More importantly, we use Panel Smooth Transition Regression to extend the existing debate on this subject, with roots back to the seminal work of G-J and many others, and add a twist by distinguishing between a conventional (1990–1999) and unconventional policy regime (2000–2019), as well as the threshold level at which financial development reduces inequality. Our baseline results will be supported by the Generalized Method of Moments. The PSTR model was chosen because it can account for features that dynamic panel techniques cannot, such as endogeneity, homogeneity, cross-country variability, and time instability within the model. We found evidence of a non-linear effect between the two variables, with the threshold found to be 21.90% of GDP, below which financial development reduces inequality in Africa, and this confirms the U-shape in unconventional policy regimes and the G-J in conventional policy regimes. Unconventional monetary policies were found to trigger the financial-inequality relationships. The focal policy recommendation is that the financial sector be given adequate consideration and recognition by, inter alia, implementing appropriate financial reforms, developing an adequate investment strategy, and maintaining spending on science and technology investment in African countries below the threshold. Again, when implementing unconventional monetary policies in African countries, extreme caution is required.

This study employs the panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model to examine the spillover effect of US unconventional monetary policy on inflation and non-inflation targeting emerging markets post credit crunch and during COVID-19 from 2000Q1 to 2020Q4. Unlike other analyses, this paper adds to the existing body of knowledge by employing a dummy variable to represent the United States’ quantitative easing. Other included control variables are equity prices, the federal reserve rate, the exchange rate, central bank assets and the short-term interest rate. This paper estimated two-panel VARs, Model one and Model two, for inflation and non-inflation targeting emerging markets, respectively. Model one consists of eight inflation-targeting markets, and Model two consists of four non-inflation-targeting countries. Other included control variables are equity prices, the federal reserve rate, the nominal effective exchange rate, and the central bank policy rate. According to the empirical results, the US unconventional monetary policy induces a surge in the exchange rate and a decrease in the central bank policy rate for both inflation and non-inflation targeting emerging markets. However, there was no significant impact on the equity prices. The empirical results are statistically significant, robust, and consistent with previous studies except for the response of equity prices. Unconventional monetary policy is effective in steering macroeconomic variables in developed economies. The monetary policymakers in emerging markets must also use the currency reserve to stabilise the macroeconomic variables in response to US unconventional monetary policy shocks.

Orientation: The study seeks to provide an in-depth understanding of the determinants of self-employment within the context of black entrepreneurs. Research purpose: Given the unprecedented increase in self-employment, because of reduction in formal job opportunities in South Africa, the primary objective of this study was to probe the determinants of self-employment relative to being a wage earner among black people in Ladysmith. Motivation for the study: The study investigated the determinants of self-employment through the use of the logistic modelling technique as its primary focus. Research design, approach and method: The study employed both probability and non-probability sampling techniques. The convenience and snowball sampling methods were used to locate all targeted entrepreneurs while the systematic random sampling method was used to locate the wage earners. A total of 450 respondents were interviewed through face-to-face administered questionnaires. The data collected was statistically analysed, using SPSS to acquire the descriptive statistics and EViews software to obtain logistic regression results and the related diagnostic tests (Hosmer–Lemeshow test and Wald statistics). Main findings: All the variables, except for household income per capita, were statistically significant, indicating that they were plausible predictors of self-employment. Practical/managerial implications: Financial life skills and entrepreneurship training ought to be embedded in all learning programmes at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. In particular, all young persons through whatever skills development programme – including those offered at in-service and/or work-related training – they are given access to, must be taught to develop an entrepreneurial mind-set. Contribution/value-add: A combination of skills development and guidance-based access to finance to targeted groups involving women, the young adults at schools and tertiary institutions and entrepreneurial adults are likely to reap significant outcomes.

Background: South Africa has made significant progress since the dawn of democracy in 1994. It registered positive economic growth rates and its real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita increased from R42 849 in 1994 to over R56 000 in 2015. However, employment growth lagged behind GDP growth, resulting in rising unemployment. Aim and setting: Entrepreneurship brings together labour and capital in generating income, output and employment. According to South Africa’s National Development Plan, employment growth would come mainly from small-firm entrepreneurship and economic growth. Accordingly, this article investigates the impact unemployment and per capita income have on early stage total entrepreneurship activity (TEA) in South Africa, using data covering the 1994–2015 period. Methods: The methodology used is the dynamic least squares regression. The article tests the assertion that economic growth, proxied by real per capita GDP income, promotes entrepreneurship and that high unemployment forces necessity entrepreneurship. Results: The regression results indicate that per capita real GDP, which increases with economic growth, has a highly significant, positive impact on entrepreneurial activity, while unemployment has a weaker effect. A 1% rise in real per capita GDP results in a 0.16% rise in TEA entrepreneurship, and a 1% rise in unemployment is associated with a 0.25% rise in TEA. Conclusion: There seems to be a strong pull factor, from income growth to entrepreneurship and a reasonable push from unemployment to entrepreneurship, as individuals without employment are forced to self-employment as a necessity, survival mechanism. Overall, a long-run co-integrating relationship seems plausible between unemployment, income and entrepreneurship in South Africa.

Recent research has shown that in both developed and emerging market economies, the labour share of national income has exhibited a declining trend since the 1980s. Research investigating the problem of high unemployment in the South African economy has inferred that this problem arises partly because of past and current socio-political conditions, low rates of economic growth, labour market rigidities, globalisation and institutional arrangements. As the labour absorption capacity is rather low, many people are unable to earn an income from an engagement in the formal labour market. This is likely to have implications for the relative distribution share of labour and capital in the country’s national income. However, no recent published research has investigated this phenomenon in the South African context. Thus, this paper attempts to shed some light on the problem. Using yearly data from 1946 to 2013, the study employs the Kalman filter methodology within the standard Cobb-Douglas production function framework to investigate how labour and capital shares as well as total factor productivity have been behaving in this period. The results indicate that the share of total income going to labour has decreased over the long run, while that of capital has increased. Specifically, the share of capital increased from 3.1% in 1980 to 12% in 2013, while that of labour decreased from 91% to 83%. This reflects a rising income inequality and concentration of wealth, with output and income generation shifting to technological- or capital -intensive production requiring more skilled labour, a trend also observed in certain other countries.