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Under the MDGs, poverty has been reduced but not eradicated. The post-2015 development plan is firming towards poverty eradication not merely to reduce it. One of the most widely held beliefs in development economics is that rapid and sustained economic growth is necessary for lifting living standards which in turn is necessary if poverty is to be eradicated. Debates on poverty alleviation and eradication have tended to focus on the best means of achieving or accelerating growth rates. This approach is reflective of the 'trickle down' theory which dominated development thinking in the 1950s and 1960s. More recently, the development community has shifted its focus from fostering any economic growth per se to achieving 'shared growth' – growth with a maximum pay-off in terms of poverty reduction. The increasing focus on the relevance of inclusive growth highlights the need to understand sectoral contribution to growth to provide insight into the formulation of sustainable national and global growth policies. We examine the relationship between the sectoral composition of economic growth and poverty reduction for the period 1987 to 2006 at a regional level for a cross section of developing countries. We used pooled cross section data with observation over time because of data limitations. Panel data estimation was employed because the characteristics of the data constitute that of panel data. It is necessary to highlight that the panel data set is unbalanced and unevenly spaced, with missing values arising in different years for different countries. While unbalanced panel estimations are able to be carried out with the econometric software at hand, many limitations arise, particularly concerning diagnostic testing. We provide a comparison of the estimated sectoral GDP elasticities of poverty and present evidence that growth in services is twice as effective as growth in both agriculture and industry in reducing absolute poverty. However, these results vary substantially across different income levels and across geographic regions. We maintain that while non-agricultural growth may induce substantial poverty declines by transitioning those marginally below the poverty line, it may fail to target those living in extreme or chronic poverty. Thus, if meaningful poverty reduction is to take place and become self-sustaining, broad-based growth in agriculture and rural economy still appears to be essential to poverty reduction policies. We argue that such a result warrants the attention of post-2015 development agencies and policy makers given the interrelationship between drivers of economic growth, job creation and poverty reduction.

International audience ; Diese Studie untersucht die Auswirkungen von Wechselkursfehlern auf die Kapitalflucht in Botswana im Zeitraum 1980-2015. Die Studie verwendet den autoregressiven Distributed Lag (ARDL) -Ansatz zur Kointegration und den Toda- und Yamamoto (1995) -Ansatz zur Granger-Kausalität. Die Währungsfehlausrichtung in Botswana wurde durch Leistungsbilanzungleichgewichte verursacht. Die wichtigste Determinante der Kapitalflucht aus Botswana ist die Offenheit des Handels, was darauf hinweist, dass exportierbare Waren falsch abgerechnet werden, was zu Nettokapitalabflüssen führt. Unsere wichtigsten Ergebnisse zeigen, dass bei einer Überbewertung der Währung das Volumen der Kapitalflucht durch falsche Handelsabrechnung und die Erhöhung der Währungsreserven auf lange Sicht die Kapitalflucht nach außen nicht verringert. Wenn die Währung jedoch unterbewertet ist, steigt das Volumen der Kapitalflucht durch falsche Handelsabrechnung und die Währungsreserven verringern die Kapitalflucht nach außen. Anleger reagieren eher auf Abwertungsaussichten als auf Inflation. Botswana sollte eine Überbewertung der Pula von nur bis zu 5% tolerieren. Wenn der Pula über 5% überbewertet ist, steigt die Kapitalflucht erheblich. Die Regierung muss Handelsregulierungen formulieren und importierte und exportierte Waren überwachen. Botswana sollte auch Kapitalkontrollen durchführen, um den Kapitalschmuggel zu begrenzen und die Währungsautonomie aufrechtzuerhalten. ; This study investigates the impact of exchange rate misalignment on outward capital flight in Botswana over the period 1980-2015. The study uses the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration and the Toda and Yamamoto (1995) approach to Granger causality. Botswana's currency misalignment was caused by current account imbalances. The most important determinant of capital flight from Botswana is trade openness, which indicates that exportable commodities are misinvoiced leading to net capital outflows. Our main findings show that in the long-run, ...

This study investigates the impact of exchange rate misalignment on outward capital flight in Botswana over the period 1980-2015. The study uses the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration and the Toda and Yamamoto (1995) approach to Granger causality. Botswana's currency misalignment was caused by current account imbalances. The most important determinant of capital flight from Botswana is trade openness, which indicates that exportable commodities are misinvoiced leading to net capital outflows. Our main findings show that in the long-run, when the currency is overvalued, the volume of capital flight through trade misinvoicing declines and increasing foreign reserves does not reduce outward capital flight. However, when the currency is undervalued, the volume of capital flight through trade misinvoicing increases and foreign reserves reduce outward capital flight. Investors respond more to prospects of devaluation than to inflation. Botswana should tolerate overvaluation of the pula of only up to 5%. When the pula is overvalued beyond 5%, capital flight increases substantially. The government has to formulate trade regulations and monitor imported and exported commodities. Botswana should also implement capital controls to limit capital smuggling and maintain monetary autonomy.

This study investigates the impact of exchange rate misalignment on outward capital flight in Botswana over the period 1980–2015. The study uses the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration and the Toda and Yamamoto (1995) approach to Granger causality. Botswana's currency misalignment was caused by current account imbalances. The most important determinant of capital flight from Botswana is trade openness, which indicates that exportable commodities are misinvoiced leading to net capital outflows. Our main findings show that in the long-run, when the currency is overvalued, the volume of capital flight through trade misinvoicing declines and increasing foreign reserves does not reduce outward capital flight. However, when the currency is undervalued, the volume of capital flight through trade misinvoicing increases and foreign reserves reduce outward capital flight. Investors respond more to prospects of devaluation than to inflation. Botswana should tolerate overvaluation of the pula of only up to 5%. When the pula is overvalued beyond 5%, capital flight increases substantially. The government has to formulate trade regulations and monitor imported and exported commodities. Botswana should also implement capital controls to limit capital smuggling and maintain monetary autonomy.

The share of agriculture in the gross domestic product of (GDP) in many countries has been declining. Yet agriculture still plays an important role in many developing country economies as the sector is a source of employment for an estimated 60 to 70 percent of the population in most developing countries. Most agricultural production in developing countries is associated with low productivity and poor income due to high dependence on subsistence farming with minimal technology as well as poor access to markets. Contract farming is believed to improve productivity and income because it facilitates coordination between farmers and other actors in terms of production, processing and marketing of agricultural products. The effect of contract farming on income and productivity has been a subject of increasing research but most of the available information is aggregated and there is lack of detail analysis on the mechanisms of the effects. We conducted a systematic literature review of contract farming studies using keyword search strategy Econlit, Scopus and Science Direct search engines. The keywords "contract", "farming", "contract farming" were used in combination with the words "income", "productivity", "quantitative", "qualitative", "agriculture", "aquaculture", "developing", "developed" and "country". Initially a selection criteria for the potential studies were defined and used by the authors separately to select and rank 20 studies by importance. In the second round, the authors were provided with their own rankings as well as with the results of the first round for others. A revision of ranking was requested. Based on this approach a shortlist of 23 studies emerged; 11 on the impact of contract farming on productivity and 12 were on the effects of contract farming on income of producers. We conduct an in depth analyses of the selected studies and present evidence on the effect of contract farming on farmer productivity and income. Almost all the selected studies analyzing the impact of contract farming on income argue that farmers' on contract farming schemes experienced some increase in their income.

Poverty reduction remains a big challenge in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region, and economic growth is seen as a key ingredient to reduce poverty rates. Therefore, the region has been making significant commitments to embrace a more inclusive growth approach through the creation of the SADC Gender Unit as well as the regional Protocol on Gender. The aim of these interventions is to promote sustainable economic growth and reduce poverty rates. However, the attempts at testing for a positive and significant contribution of gender equality in education on economic growth have generated mixed results. Furthermore, as the empirical evidence comes from various parts of the world, only very little attention has been devoted to the SADC region. This research aims to fill this gap in literature. Hence this study examines the impact of gender equality in education on economic growth on a panel data of five Southern African countries between 1970 and 2010. The number of panels was restricted by data availability and a set of regression equation have been carried out for the sample, using Stata software Version 12. In this analysis, gender equality in education is measured by the ratio of girls to boys in primary enrolment, and economic growth is measured by real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita at 2005 constant prices. To account for the possible endogeneity of the gender equality variable, the instrumental variable (IV) techniques are used. Gender equality in education is instrumented by religion as it tested to be a powerful instrument. The evidence presented in this analysis suggests that there is a positive and significant effect of gender equality in education on economic growth in the region at 1% and 10% significance levels. We have also tested the sensitivity of our results to changes in the model specification. The dependent variable was re-specified to per capita GDP at purchasing power parity as opposed to real GDP per capita. In addition a time-trend variable was added to the existing explanatory variable. Gender equality in education remains positive and significant at the 1% significance level. These results indicate that the effects of gender equality in education to be positive significant and robust to changes in specification. This result advocates some policy adjustment in education planning within the region to ensure the retention of girl students, as well as raising education quality, to stimulate economic growth. Reducing gender inequality in education will not only promote growth but also help to d advance other valuable development goals.