Not only do Africa’s fragile states grow more slowly than non-fragile states, but they seem to be caught in a “fragility trap”. For instance, the probability that a fragile state in 2001 was still fragile in 2009 was 0.95. This paper presents an economic model where three features— political...

Cote d’Ivoire was considered an island of stability and economic prosperity in a region of stagnation, and political turmoil. The situation was reversed in the early 2000, when a decade of instability is associated with poor economic performance. On the path of post-conflict reconstruction, the...

This paper uses data from a firm-level survey carried out in Cameroon to investigate the types of public services for which small and medium-sized enterprises pay bribes, the characteristics of these transactions and to estimate the impact of bribe payments on the SMEs growth. The results show that...

Much of the debate on the policy responses undertaken with respect to the global financial crisis has largely focused on advanced economies, leaving out African economies’ perspective. This paper examines the Central Bank of Kenya’s policy responses in mitigating the economic effects of the global...

Rwanda’s economic growth over the last decade has been remarkable. With a government that is committed to achieving sustainable economic growth coupled with growth in employment opportunities for its people, Rwanda has made impressive progress in rehabilitating and stabilizing its economy to exceed...

Sustainable export expansion is a key priority for all African countries to achieve sustainable economic growth. In this paper, I examine effects of intra‐regional trade cooperation on sustainability of Africa’s exports (export survival) within Africa and to the rest of the world. I also use a...

Despite the explosive growth in the number of people receiving disability beneÖts in South Africa, very little is known about the labour supply e§ects of the beneÖts. This study aims at estimating the impact of the Disability Grant Programme (DGP) on labour force participation. Consideration is...

Intra-African trade, which has remained under 12 per cent in the last decade, is low compared to other major regions of the world. In January 2012, the African Union (AU) Summit of African Heads of State and Government endorsed the theme of ‗Boosting Intra-African trade‘ and called on Member States...

This paper analyses the relationship between income per capita and entrepreneurship, defined as the number of limited liability firms per 1000 active persons, registered in a country in one year. Using data on Africa and other regions, the paper finds that the relationship between entrepreneurship...