Welcome to ERSA

Research Briefs

Teacher Human Capital, Teacher Effort and Student Achievements in Kenya by Fredrick Wamalwa and Justine Burns
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.
Unfulfilled expectations and the emergence of the EFF by Nonso Obikili
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.
Parental Bargaining and Rural-Urban Child Health Differential in Tanzania by Alfred Mukong and Justine Burns
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.

Latest Publications

Can creditor bail-in trigger contagion? The experience of an emerging market by Roy Havemann
The successful bail-in of creditors in African Bank, a small South African monoline lender, provides an opportunity to evaluate the intended and unintended consequences of new resolution tools.
Effect of Financial Development on Economic Growth in sub–Saharan Africa: Does Sectoral Growth Matter? by Muazu Ibrahim and Paul Alagidede

This paper examines the overall economic growth effect when the growth in finance and real sector is disproportionate relying on panel data for 29 sub–Saharan African countries over the period 1980–2014.

The Comfort of the Future: The Role of Social Norms in Constructing the Ideal towards Sustainability – A Randomised Field Experiment by Idahosa, Love O, Marwa, Nyankomo and Akotey, Joseph O

In light of the high energy consumption associated with Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) in tourism accommodation establishments, as well as the concern for guests’ satisfaction which limits the environmental actions of these establishments, this study tests the hypothesis that the

Policy regime changes and central bank prefernces by Samuel Addo
This paper establishes whether central bank preferences are related to governors' preferences when there is a change in policy regime. We use a time-varying parameter approach that allows the policy preferences to vary over the sample period.
Shaking Out or Shaking In: The Impact of Zimbabwe's Economic Crisis on the COuntry's Manufacturing Sector Allocative Efficiency by Nicholas Masiyandima & Lawrence Edwards
Zimbabwe had one of the world's worst economic crises from the late 1990s to 2009. The crisis encompassed a nancial sector crisis, severe adverse investment and demand shocks and idiosyncratic rm and industry interventions by government.

Latest Journal Publications

Pricing electricty blackout among South African households by Nomsa Phindile Nkosi and Johane Dikgang
Journal of Commodity Markets (https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomm.2018.03.001)

South African households, like households in many other developing countries, are faced with regular power outages. This is a big problem, since the outages that the households experience are both frequent and long in duration.

Price-setting Behavior and Competition in Developing Countries: An Analysis of Retail Outlets in Lesotho by Mamello Nchake, Lawrence Edwards and Asha Sundaram
Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10842-018-0275-6)

We study the relationship between price-setting behavior and the degree of competition in a setting where markets and information flows are relatively imperfect.

Using a Natural Experiment to Examine Tobacco Tax Regressivity by Adel Bosch and Steven F. Koch
Social Science & Medicine (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.11.004)

We take advantage of a tobacco tax hike that occurred during the collection of the South African Income and Expenditure Survey to examine the regressivity of tobacco taxes. We are also able to examine the relative change in regressivity following the tax increase.

The Interdependence between the Saving Rate and Technology across Regimes: Evidence from South Africa by Kevin S. Nell and Maria M. De Mello
Empirical Economics Journal (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00181-017-1354-y)

This paper hypothesises that the saving rate and technological progress are interdependently determined by a common exogenous source, so that an exogenous shock to the saving rate determines long-run growth transitions.

Exploring Unbalanced Growth in South Africa: Understanding the Sectoral Structure of the South African Economy by Johannes W. Fedderke
Economic Modelling, (2018) 1 – 13 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999317309811)

This paper explores the reasons for the unbalanced growth structure of South Africa.