Abstract: This study examined the influence of government budget deficit on economic performance in Nigeria. The study captures government budget deficit with budget deficit ratio (Bdr) and economic performance with real domestic product (RGDP). Budget deficit ratio measures the ratio of Nigeria’s national debt to its gross domestic product while real GDP measures the value of economic output adjusted for price changes. To estimates the influence of government budget deficit on economic pe...
World initiatives in education such as Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have seen many governments make access to education central to their national development strategies mainly by reducing education costs. This has seen many governments invest heavily in education with Kenya allocating a third of her annual budget to education. However, despite this kind of investment, there is little empirical evidence to show that learners are benefitting commensur...
Performance contracting is a freely negotiated agreement between a government, acting as the owner of a public agency, and the management of the agency and it is used in the Kenyan public institutions to enhance efficiency. Technical Training Institutes face pressure to improve efficiency in management practices. Before the study was conducted it was unclear whether the introduction of performance contracting had enhanced efficiency in management practices in Technical Training Institute...
ABSTRACT The developing world is changing from one of rural villages to that of urban dwellings. The population of Lagos, which stood at 270,000 in 1952/53, rose to 5.69 million in 1991 and was estimated to be 18 million in 2010. This has created excessive demand for housing. Available statistics on housing production showed that between 1974 and 1989, 11422 units of houses were produced. This number fell precipitously to 8162 units between 1994 and 2004. The estimated housing deficit for La...
ABSTRACT Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) is a major source of liquidity to domestic firms. However, foreign exchange-risk makes returns to foreign investors uncertain thereby discouraging FPI. This uncertainty is more pronounced in developing economies where exchange rates play key roles and markets for hedging are underdeveloped. While studies from different economies have shown that firms hedge foreign exchange-risk or pay a premium to investors who bear it, previous studies on Nigeria ...
ABSTRACT The most distinguishing feature between developed and developing countries is the relative poverty rates. Poverty scourge undermines lives of many in developing countries including Swaziland (63%). The general belief is that irrigated agriculture limits crops failure, external shocks hence Swaziland has seen development of new and rehabilitation of existing Smallholder irrigation schemes (SHIS). The Poverty Reduction Strategic and Action Programme (PRSAP) advocates for the developmen...
ABSTRACT The East African Community has recorded rising and persistent current account balance in the last ten years. The countries namely, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda have maintained current account deficits which were above five percent of their Gross Domestic Product. This trend has raised the concerns among economists and trade experts regarding the sustainability of the imbalances and the measures of alleviating them. If not addressed, the deficits may erode the bloc’...
ABSTRACT Remittance flows in Sub-Saharan Africa have increased for the past two decades. However; empirical literature fails to reach a consensus on the impact of remittances on economic growth, with many studies using aggregate data that suffers from aggregation bias. Given that there are different categories of remittances resulting from varying patterns of remitting, there was a need to specifically the effect of each component of remittances on economic growth. This will help in optimal ...
ABSTRACT The modern devolution development across the globe has been in part driven by assertions of a supposed ‘economic dividend’ linked with the devolved expenditure. There is however, little empirical evidence to validate these assertions in Kenya. Most empirical studies across different countries have used different methods of analysis, different time periods and diverse techniques of measuring variable which have generated mixed conclusions and others are inconclusive. More so, in ...
ABSTRACT The goal of this research was to investigate empirically how government expenditure contributes to economic growth in East Africa. Most existing studies on the association between government expenditure and economic growth show conflicting results and mainly focus on developed economies. Hence this study focused on both the functional and composition of public spending of the East African countries over the period from 1980 to 2010, with a particular focus on sectoral expenditures: ...
ABSTRACT The dairy sub-sector in Kenya is of particular importance as it provides vital employment, income and nutrition, in an environment where job opportunities are scarce. The subsector markets about 55 percent of the total milk produced but the informal sector accounting for more than 75 percent of all the marketed milk. Large milk quantities are marketed through the informal sector raising questions over the safety and quality of milk products. In spite of the growth of value added milk...
Abstract This thesis consists of three papers on child labour and schooling in Ghana. The first paper examines the correlates of child labour and schooling, as well as the trade-off between work and schooling of children aged 5-17 years with the 2013 Ghana Living Standard Survey data. A bivariate probit model is used since the decisions to participate in schooling and in the labour market are interdependent. The results show that there is a gender gap both in child work and schooling. In par...
ABSTRACT This study empirically examined the effect of research and development on agricultural sector growth in East African Community from the year 2000-2014. According to the endogenous growth theory, research and development leads to increase in the stock of knowledge which in turn has got spill over effects hence leads to economic growth. However, information on the effect of R&D on the agricultural sector in the EAC was lacking hence the study sought to bridge this knowledge gap. The ob...
ABSTRACT How effectively governments can use tobacco tax as a public health and a revenue-generating measure depends on how able smokers are to circumvent the tax by switching to other tobacco products. Recently, tobacco product switching has become more common, especially with many new tobacco product types appearing on the market. The research on these switching behaviors is scarce. This thesis provides analysis in three aspects tobacco product switching: (1) price-driven between-product s...
Abstract While countries around the world have experienced unprecedented shifts in their population age structures over the last 70 years, it has only really been over the last 20 years that research into the impact of the structure of the population on the economy has gained momentum. Analytically, it is the recognition that engagement in the economy and the resulting economic ows between individuals vary with age that underpins this impact: children consume more than they produce; prime wor...