Rising world prices for fuel and food represent a negative terms-of-trade shock for Mozambique. The impacts of these price rises are analyzed using various approaches. Detailed price data show that ...the world price increases are being transmitted to domestic prices. Short-run net benefit ratio analysis indicates that urban households and households in the southern region are more vulnerable to food price increases. Rural households, particularly in the North and Center, often benefit from being in a net seller position. Longer-term analysis using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of Mozambique indicates that the fuel price shock dominates rising food prices from both macroeconomic and poverty perspectives. Again, negative impacts are larger in urban areas. The importance of agricultural production response in general and export response in particular is highlighted. Policy analysis reveals difficult trade-offs between short-run mitigation and long-run growth. Improved agricultural productivity has powerful positive impacts, but remains difficult to achieve and may not address the immediate impacts of higher prices.
Tunisians are striving for the opportunity to realize their potential and aspirations in a country that is rich in both human and physical capital, but whose recent economic growth has failed to ...create enough opportunities in the form of good and productive jobs. This report highlights the main barriers that hinder the Tunisian labor market from providing income, protection, and prosperity to its citizens and proposes a set of labor policies that could facilitate the creation of better, more inclusive, and more productive jobs. The weak economic performance and insufficient and low-quality job creation in Tunisia is primarily the result of an economic environment permeated by distortions, barriers to competition, and excessive red tape, including in the labor market. This has resulted in the creation of a insufficient number of jobs, especially in the formal sector. To change this situation, policy makers need to address five strategic directives that can promote long-term inclusive growth and formality: foster competition; realign incentives, pay, and benefit packages in the public sector; move toward labor regulations that promote labor mobility and provide support to workers in periods of transition; enhance the productivity of informal workers through training and skills building; and reform existing social insurance systems and introduce new instruments to attain broader coverage.
All in the family: State capture in Tunisia Rijkers, Bob; Freund, Caroline; Nucifora, Antonio
Journal of development economics,
January 2017, 2017-01-00, Letnik:
124
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We examine the relationship between entry regulation and the business interests of former President Ben Ali's family using firm-level data from Tunisia. Connected firms account for a disproportionate ...share of aggregate employment, output and profits, especially in sectors subject to authorization and restrictions on FDI. Quantile regressions show that profit and market share premia from being connected increase along the firm-size distribution, especially in highly regulated sectors. These patterns are partly explained by Ben Ali's relatives sorting into the most profitable sectors. The market shares of connected firms are positively correlated with exit and concentration rates in highly regulated sectors. Although causality is difficult to establish, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that the Ben Ali clan abused entry regulation for private gain at the expense of reduced competition.
This paper examines private sector job creation in Tunisia over the period 1996–2010 using a unique database containing information on all registered private enterprises, including self-employment. ...In spite of stable GDP growth, overall net job creation was disappointing and firm dynamics were sluggish. The firm size distribution has remained skewed towards small firms, because of stagnation of incumbents and entrants starting small, typically as one-person firms (i.e. self-employment). Churning is limited, especially amongst large firms, and very few firms manage to grow. Post-entry, small firms are the worst performers in terms of job creation, even if they survive. Moreover, the association between productivity, profitability and job creation is feeble, pointing towards weaknesses in the re-allocative process. Weak net job creation thus appears to be due to insufficient firm dynamism rather than excessive job destruction.
•Weak net job creation is due to insufficient firm dynamism rather than excessive job destruction•The bulk of net job creation in Tunisia is driven by jump-start self employment•Post-entry small firms stagnate•Small firms are more likely to die and less likely to grow conditional on survival than larger firms•The correlation between productivity, profitability and job creation is weak
Malawi has experienced several catastrophic droughts over the past few decades. The impact of these shocks has been far reaching, and the resulting macroeconomic instability has been a major ...constraint to growth and poverty reduction in Malawi. This paper describes a weather risk management tool that has been developed to help the government manage the financial impact of drought-related national maize production shortfalls. The instrument is an index-based weather derivative contract designed to transfer the financial risk of severe and catastrophic national drought that adversely impacts the government's budget to the international risk markets. Because rainfall and maize yields are highly correlated, changes in rainfall -- its timing, cumulative amount, and distribution -- can act as an accurate proxy for maize losses. An index has been constructed using rainfall data from 23 weather stations throughout Malawi and uses daily rainfall as an input to predict maize yields and therefore production throughout the country. The index picks up the well documented historical drought events in 2005, 1995, 1994, and 1992 and a weather derivative contract based on such an index would have triggered timely cash payouts to the government in those years. This innovative risk management instrument was pioneered in 2008/2009 by the Government of Malawi, with the assistance of the World Bank, and was a first for a sovereign entity in Africa. Several piloting seasons will be necessary to understand the scope and limitations of such contracts, and their role in the government's strategy, contingency planning, and operational drought response framework.
A team of economists surveys Slovakia's agriculture, which continues to exhibit mediocre performance on the eve of that country's accession to the European Union. The paper, utilizing national ...statistics as well as financial data collected from 1,200 corporate and 850 individual farms, evaluates the country's current agricultural policies, which emphasize self-sufficiency and state intervention, reflecting a weak political commitment to marketbased agriculture. Also discussed is the limited progress in land privatization and farm restructuring, the preservation of inefficient and unprofitable large farms, as well as related rural impediments such as inadequate transport infrastructure and a shortage of skilled labor. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: Q15, Q18, Q24. 6 figures, 2 tables, 17 references.
This paper investigates the marketing and pricing policies for traditional and organic fruit and vegetable products of large food retailers in four European countries by means of a survey of 47 ...stores, including all major food retail chains. Data have been analysed to investigate what determines the presence of organic products, the extent to which the price mark-up between traditional and organic products depends on the inherent quality of organic products rather than on the amount of extra service and information often associated with these products, and the importance of country location within the single European market in determining the characteristics of the retail outlets. The results of the econometric analysis indicate that the size, location and overall quality of the outlet, and the degree of product information and customer service are the variables which best predict the choice to sell organic products. Also, the results indicate that almost half of the price mark-up between traditional and organic products is explained by store characteristics and the amount of extra service and information provided with these products.
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