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Purpose: The African region has experienced relatively lower economic growth and higher outflow of migration over the years. The purpose of this research paper, therefore, is to focus on the African region to investigate whether or not there is any link between the poor economic growth and rising outflow of migration. Design/methodology/approach: Empirical data spanning from 1990 to 2015 are collected from reliable sources for 41 countries belonging to the African region. Appropriate estimating methodology that controls for unobserved heterogeneity both across time and across countries, and endogeneity is employed. Findings: The results revealed that the migration has adversely influenced the economic growth of the African region as a whole. The splitting of sample into male and female migration also reflected the fact that the unsatisfied economic growth of the African region could be explained by the ever rising migration level. Other determinants such as employment and growth of physical capital have helped the region in the growth journey. Human capital has not played a vital role in economic growth as it is adversely affected by migration. Further, the study found support for the positive impact of moderate inflation on economic growth. The obtained results are robust to alternative methodologies and hence would be beneficial for policymakers. Originality/value: The present study provides for the first time comprehensive empirical evidence on the relationship between migration and economic growth by focusing on Africa. Therefore, this study would be of prime importance for policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From innovations in mobile money to bookkeeping devices, the burgeoning of financial-technologies (fintech) in the Global South has been critiqued by scholars concerned with financialization, datafication, and recently, neo-coloniality. While sympathetic to these concerns, this paper argues for a more descriptive, ambivalent, and urban reading of the implications and stakes of this fintech boom. Using Cape Town as a case study, we explore how the city has become and positioned itself as a/the capital of fintech innovation in Africa. With two detailed vignettes that look respectively at the recent histories of business process offshoring in the city and at the cycles of experimentation that via Cape Town bring fintech to the rest of the continent, we make three arguments. First, that the urban state has been instrumental in shaping how fintech lands in cities and how the infrastructures which support it develop. Second, that diverse cultural economies of experimentation engender the worlding practices through which local fintech ecosystems operate. Overall, we suggest that paying attention to these different ways in which fintech is enabled and mobilized by the urban state opens a necessary research agenda into the ambivalence of financial innovation in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argues that geographic studies, especially local patterns of production and land use, must appear in a larger perspective. States that the problem is how to link local geographies with a complex, internationalized, global, political economy. Examines the problem in discussions of food and famine, ecological degradation, and population growth in parts of Africa and South Asia. (GEA)

This paper presents a gender analysis of the World Bank's recent Policy Research Report. It assesses the implications for women, and more widely for gender relations, of the World Bank's approach to land relations. The analysis focuses on two issues: the Report's promotion of formal rural credit and its assumption of the availability of women's agricultural labour. This paper challenges the notion of 'non-contractible labour', as well as the Report's use of the household as a unit of analysis and its underlying assumption of motivated family labour. It discusses the consequences for households of defaulting on rural loans and challenges the Report's attempts to link the promotion of credit markets and reliance on women's unpaid labour to poverty reduction. In light of this discussion, the paper argues that it continues to be important for advocates of women's rights in Africa to be attentive to land issues and in particular to respond to the World Bank's land agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the implementation of the Basel I Capital Accord in Africa and evaluates the efficacy and feasibility of adopting the Basel II Accord. It also analyses the relevance of the new Basel III Capital Accord for Africa. Most African countries have implemented Basel I, which has become a valuable component of the prudential regulatory framework. Adopting pillar 1 of Basel II will prove much more challenging because of its complexity and this may not be feasible for most African countries. Basel III raises minimum capital ratios. Although most banks in Africa already hold more capital than the minimum required under Basel III, raising the minimum capital adequacy requirements might still benefit African countries over the long term if it helps to ensure that their banking systems continue to hold high levels of capital to safeguard against the risks they face, which are generally larger than the risks faced by banks in advanced economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African countries need to engage their diasporas in industrialized countries to provide much needed human, social, and financial capital to help with their economic development. For Africa’s economies to successfully transition from their current state of commodity-dominated production to high value-added production, governments in the continent must design and implement strategies to harness their grossly underutilized diaspora in developed countries. For the most part, the diaspora’s contribution to development has been viewed only in terms of remittances that go primarily to support families. In this paper, we provide a broad overview of some of the diaspora friendly policies that can help engage the African diaspora in the economic development of their respective countries of origin (COOs). Governments in the COOs need to move beyond seeing the diaspora as simply a source for remittances, and engage them in a meaningful way to provide them with a sustainable competitive advantage in the global battle for talent. There needs to be a move beyond simple calls to patriotism, and into engagement that leads to a mutually beneficial relationship between the diaspora and its COO. We conclude by pointing out some of the steps that can be taken in this regard to engage with the diaspora in a mutually beneficial relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many African states have recently, hurriedly put together a number of measures aimed at cushioning the effects of the global food crisis. Most of these programs have been implemented in different forms since the era of independence and have had no significant impact on food and agricultural development. In this paper we used the historical materialism approach to critically evaluate Africa's food crisis genesis. Our thesis, using the Nigerian, experiences is that Africa's contact with metropolitan capital set the continent on the path to dependent economic and political development. The state structures in Africa emphasize economic programs which respond to Europe's economic needs to the detriment of internal agricultural capacity building. To redress the situation, we have recommended an end to imperialism and capacity building among African peasants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the conceptual framework of social reproduction as a way of reassessing the AIDS crisis in Africa, this paper finds contradictory tendencies: a devastating impact on agricultural modes of livelihood which sustain the majority and which enable workers to present themselves as cheap labour, but also a crisis for the reproduction of capital as its supply of such labour is depleted. The impact on and response to the epidemic by the state is explored as well as its reflection of marked gender and class inequalities. Conversely the impetus to certain fractions of capital which benefit from AIDS and the confrontation of the state and pharmaceutical companies by an emergent populist movement demanding the right to treatment, exposes the extent to which transformation rather than simple reproduction is in evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study argues that one of the fundamental causes of Africa's structural problem was precisely lack of diversification and excessive dependence on a narrow base of a few commodity production and exports. The study indicates that the effect of natural resource endowment on diversification depends on the type of resources, and if properly managed it is a blessing and can be used as a source of capital formation and growth. Other important determinants for a country to diversify its economy and eventually attaining structural change include investment in human capital and physical infrastructure through foreign investment as well as domestic capital formation, a fair and an open trading framework, efficient institutions, and stable macroeconomic and political environment. The role of the government, in this context, should be broad based in pursuing sound macroeconomic policies, providing the basic social, legal, political and economic infrastructure and institutions, creating a strong human and physical capital. The findings have wide implications especially for African countries for which export diversification is a necessity, not an option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The difficulty of valuation of livestock outputs has strong political and economic implications for farmers because policies require metrics. Based on a case study in Mali, this paper gives different estimations of the contribution of livestock to reducing poverty using different methods, from the most common measure-based approaches, that is, a financial approach, to an asset-based approach. The results show that the asset-based approach reflects the roles of livestock in terms of security (money cash) and vulnerability. But only a dynamic approach to indicators can account for the complex role of livestock in reducing poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary discussions of “resource nationalism,” sovereignty is often imagined as the exclusive control of national states over internal resources in opposition to external foreign capital. In this paper, we seek to draw attention to the specifically national territorial forms of sovereignty that – rather than hindering the flow of capital – become constitutive to the accumulation of resource wealth by states and capital alike. Drawing from political geographical theorizations of sovereignty, we argue that resource sovereignty cannot be territorially circumscribed within national space and institutionally circumscribed within the state apparatus. Rather, sovereignty must be understood in relational terms to take into account the global geography of non-state actors that shape access to and control over natural resources. Specifically, we engage national-scale state sovereignty over subterranean mineral resources in the form of legal property regimes and examine the mutually constitutive set of interdependencies between mining capital and landlord states in the accumulation of resource wealth. Using Tanzania as a case study, we argue that national-scale ownership of subterranean mineral resources has been critical to attracting global flows of mining capital from colonial to contemporary times. We first examine the history of the colonial state in Tanganyika to illustrate how land and mineral rights were adjudicated through the power of the colonial state with the hopes of attracting foreign capital investment in the mining sector. We then examine contemporary efforts on the part of the independent United Republic of Tanzania to again enact legislation meant to attract foreign mining companies – and the consequences for local populations living near sites of extraction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

With a substantial increase in aid funds, it is realistic to expect to achieve several key Millennium Development Goals. There is thus a strong case for such an increase. Arguments that a surge in aid will yield diminishing or even negative returns are unconvincing and exaggerated. If donors become less intrusive and harmonise their efforts, the quality of aid can be enhanced. And concerns about the absorptive capacity of recipient governments are overstated. Capable specialists in fields like education and health are present in strength at intermediate levels across Africa, their skills untapped owing to inadequate funds. There is abundant evidence that appropriately structured aid initiatives make significant impacts. Arguments that aid discourages policy change are unconvincing -- witness the extensive policy reforms of recent years. With less emphasis on technical assistance, and more on programmes to provide goods and services to the poor and on government-led initiatives, increased aid can produce substantial gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Review of African Political Economy is the property of Review of Political Economy (ROAPE) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

How do physical capital accumulation and total factor productivity (TFP) individually add to economic growth? We approach this question from the perspective of the quality of physical capital and labor, namely the age of physical capital and human capital. We build a unique dataset by explicitly calculating the age of physical capital for each country and each year of our time frame and estimate a stochastic frontier production function incorporating input quality in five regions of countries (Africa, East Asia, Latin America, South Asia and West). Physical capital accumulation generally proves much more important than either the improved quality of factors or TFP growth in explaining output growth. The age of capital decreases growth in all regions except in Africa, while human capital increases growth in all regions except in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and population growth have prompted calls for African countries to embrace a ‘new Green Revolution’ in order to promote food security. What is ‘new’ about this new Green Revolution? What configurations of capital, the state, agribusiness, and the law define this period of agricultural transition? In this new Green Revolution, I argue, there is a proliferation of new forms of capital – biocapital and philanthrocapital – that integrate biotechnology with philanthropy to create market value. These shifts are engendered by philanthropic giving, in the form of donated genetic material for the development of ‘pro-poor’ biotechnology which normalises seed as commodity, and legislative reform that renders seed patentable material. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article draws on the theory and recent research on ‘ecological disorganization’- defined as ‘the ways in which human preferences for organizing economic production consistent with the objectives of capitalism are an inherent contradiction with the health of the ecological system’- to explore the ‘corporate violence’ apropos of Chinese investment in Africa. In line with other ecological disorganization theorists, we show how the deployment of Chinese capital in Africa structures and reproduces subjectivation, but also how, ultimately, this subjectivation is implicated in Africa’s ecological disorganization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research summary : Using a unique database that measures firm-level bribery in Africa and Latin America, we corroborate extant results in the literature that paying bribes deters firm investments in fixed assets. Our contribution is to explore four mechanisms. By adopting a reverse causality approach ( Gelman and Imbens, 2013), we find evidence consistent with one of them: short-term oriented firms prefer to bribe rather than invest in fixed assets, while the opposite is true for firms with a long-term orientation. We rule out that bribe payments drain financial resources for investment, that firms that invest do not bribe because fixed assets make them less flexible and more vulnerable to future bribes, and that less efficient firms bribe rather than invest. Managerial summary : We ask whether, along with ethical issues, bribing affects the behavior and performance of firms in Africa and Latin America. Our statistical analysis shows that bribe payments do not reduce the short-term performance of firms, but frustrate investments in fixed assets, which is the foundation of firms' long-term growth. It is like seeking a job via nepotism or education. Nepotism makes it likely to find a job in the short term. However, the solid skills generated by education raise the odds of finding better jobs in the future. We rule out some common explanations for the trade-off between bribing and investment (e.g., bribes drain resources to invest or that less efficient firms bribe and do not invest). Our analysis suggests that firms with short-term orientations are more likely to bribe and firms with long-term orientation are more likely to invest. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the contemporary phenomenon of ‘land grabbing’ in relation to the history of plantation and large-andsmall-scale farming (pf, lsf and ssf) in sub-Saharan Africa. It looks at the extent of pf and lsf over the 20th century, as well as the policy narratives that have justified, supported or circumscribed their development. Many characteristics of the current land rush and its interpretation reveal elements of continuity with some of the general trends marking the history of pf and lsf up to recent years. In particular, the heterogeneity of pf and lsf, subsuming quite different relations to ssf, and the pivotal role played by the combination of private capital (whether foreign, domestic or combined) with the state represent organisational continuities. Meanwhile continuities in supporting narratives centre on the prevalence of generic prescriptions for either lsf/pf or ssf. Refuting these generic prescriptions is a precondition for more nuanced analysis and policy proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article investigates whether large inflows of foreign aid and remittances have had a damaging impact on the Ethiopian Real Exchange Rate (RER). We improve the current empirical literature by: (i) compiling a unique quarterly dataset to provide a larger sample size and enable the modelling of important intra-year dynamics – which should lead to better model specifications; (ii) providing a new empirical approach (Unobserved Components (UC)) to test the ‘Dutch disease’ hypothesis; and (iii) using several cointegration approaches to further test the robustness of our conclusions. Our results suggest that there are two main long-run determinants of the RER in Ethiopia: trade openness is found to be correlated with RER depreciations, while a positive shock to the terms of trade tends to appreciate the RER. Foreign aid is not found to have a statistically significant impact, while there is only weak evidence that remittances are associated with RER appreciations. The lack of empirical support for the ‘Dutch disease’ hypothesis suggests that Ethiopia has been able to effectively manage large capital inflows, thus avoiding major episodes of macroeconomic instability. We believe that most African countries will therefore be able to absorb large inflows of foreign capital without damaging their external competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We investigate the empirical determinants of China's outward direct investment (ODI). It is found that China's investments in developed and developing countries are driven by different sets of factors. Subject to the differences between developed and developing countries, there is evidence that: (i) both market-seeking and resource-seeking motives drive China's ODI; (ii) Chinese exports to developing countries induce China's ODI; (iii) China's international reserves promote its ODI; and (iv) Chinese capital tends to agglomerate among developed economies but diversify among developing economies. Similar results are obtained using alternative ODI data. We do not find substantial evidence that China invests in African and oil-producing countries mainly for their natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the role of the unequal distribution of global goods, capital and employment in the establishment of analogous developments of different leisure-, threshold- and poverty cultures in least less developed countries. An overview of the impact of trans-national migration on contact and conflict between cultures is provided. Information is presented on the cultural consequences of demographic trends. It explores the effects of the dominance of Euro-American publishers, press agencies, radio, TV stations and movies on culture in Sub-Saharan Africa.