Policy Briefs

This paper assesses institutional aspects of private shareholding in the central banks of South Africa and Turkey. It is shown that only a small number of central banks other than the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) in South Africa and Türkiye Cumhuriyet Merkez Bankasi (TCMB) in Turkey have any form of private shareholding, although South Africa and Turkey and the only two emerging-market countries with central banks with private shareholding.

Evidence gathered over the past 40 years demonstrates that education is important, both at the micro and macro level. Education has been associated with increase in workers’ productivity, higher economic growth, improved health status and reduced crime among other non-monetary outcomes.

Populism in politics is not a new phenomenon. It has been present for as long as democracy has been in existence. As far back as the time of ancient Greece, Plato remarked on the dangers of populism in democracies. Paraphrasing Plato, “The demagogue gains power by democratic means, claiming to be a champion of ‘the people’ and making wild promises; in particular he offers intoxicating quantities of the neat spirit of independence”. It is clear that populism in democracies has been a recurring feature.

Child malnutrition is an important indicator of poor child health status and is strongly associated with high mortality risk. Childhood malnutrition is also associated with poor health outcomes, educational performance and labour market outcome in later life. Therefore, poor health at childhood is one of the mechanisms for explaining inter-generational transmission of education, economic status and overall human capital formation and underscore why child health condition can be regarded as an important factor for future production and hence economic growth and development. Investment in child health is likely to pay o_ both to the individual in the form of higher future earnings, to the household in the form of overall household income and well-being and to the entire economy by reducing poverty inequality and strengthening economic growth. This explains why child health outcome in developing countries has been one of the concerns of most development agencies in the past decades.

Promotion of exports remain a core objective of trade policy in many countries. Information on how long or how short the duration of a trade relationship is for an average exporter may be important from a policy point of view. Policy makers from almost all countries aim to encourage exports and entry of new exporters, because exports are a major driver of economic growth and jobs. This is usually accompanied by fiscal incentives geared toward promotion of exports and raising the number of new exporters as a performance metric. However, knowledge on how many of these new exporters will be able to survive in international markets remains extremely scarce for countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa, and certainly for Kenya. This is surprising given that the length of survival can be considered one of the most comprehensive measures of exporter performance. This paper seeks to add to a growing literature examining this issue for SSA countries.

Following the worldwide movement calling for responsible global corporate citizenry, there has been a shift in thinking about the role and involvement of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in areas of limited statehood. There is a growing expectation of transparency in MNE dealings with such governments and more active corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, focused on capacity building and development. However, because the state is often unwilling or unable to provide basic services, facilities and infrastructure, local populations have come to expect these tasks to be carried out by MNEs operating in their area that often reluctantly comply. This has blurred the distinction between where the responsibilities of the MNE starts and ends, and has led to the creation of hybrid organizations, and innovative partnerships which seeks to engage with stakeholders and contribute towards broader development goals. Our focus is at a more aggregate level about when, how and why a MNE may opt for a more engaged approach as opposed to a more transactional one in a post-conflict setting.

In a number of sub-Saharan African countries, evidence shows that the elimination of user fees in public primary schools was followed by dramatic increases in private schools. The rise in private schools has been associated with high demand for school places in the face of limited supply of quality schools from the government. Majority of these schools have been born out of community or private initiatives to establish schools mainly within the urban informal settlements, schools that levy low fees, referred to in the literature as low-cost private schools.

Developing countries particularly those within the Sub-Saharan African region like Kenya account for almost half of the 1.2 Billion people in the world without access to electricity. These countries have a greater challenge of dealing with outcomes related to the lack of modern energy by rural households, who comprise a bigger proportion of their population. Part of the explanation is the energy policy preoccupation with centralized grid electrification whose economics does not favour scattered and low income households in the vast rural areas. Subsequently, even with heavy rural electrification campaigns, new patters of large section of the population that does not take up connection and limitation of electricity to very basic uses by household’s calls for alternative considerations in energy policy.

The phenomenon of bank regulation procyclicality requires very careful examination for both regulatory bodies and supervisory authorities given the salient role of the financial sector as an engine of growth to the real sector. Consequently, policies and regulations should be formulated in a way that will not hinder the financial deepening of the markets. Regulatory measures that promote excessive risk-taking during a crisis could have severe implications for the procyclical behavior by most banks. We suggest that the South African economy needs forward-looking policies that will mitigate the flow of credit to the real sector and at the same time ensure financial stability.

Many schooling decisions take place within the family. For instance, when faced with resource constraints, as it is the case in many developing countries, parents can send some of their children to work and let others concentrate on studying at school. Similarly, if resources become scarce, parents can send some of their children to fee paying private schools and let others attend public schools (which are generally free of charge in most developing countries following the free primary education policies). However, research on specific family characteristics that influence such children schooling decisions is still inconclusive and has not been fully exploited.