Explaining post-1964 earnings gains by black women: Race or sex?

This article examines the earnings position of black females relative to white males for the post-1964 period. It finds that over 70 percent of the 1965–78 growth in black female relative median earnings remains after controlling for previous trends, education, and cyclical and labor supply changes. For full-time, year-round workers, the post-1964 trend independently implies a growth rate about 50 percent higher than that actually observed. Approximately one-half of the gains are attributable to race and the rest to the interaction of race and sex. The study finds no support for the censoring hypothesis that allocates a substantial portion of the growth to labor supply decreases. While it suggests occupational mobility to be nonextraneous in the earnings equation, the author argues that the black female now faces a mobility constraint more formidable than previously.     

The External Debt‐Servicing Constraint and Public‐Expenditure Composition in Sub‐Saharan Africa

Abstract: In the light of the current global financial and economic crises, how would governments in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) allocate their budgets across sectors in response to a binding debt‐servicing constraint? Within a framework of public‐expenditure choice, the present paper estimates constraint‐consistent debt‐service ratios and employs them in a Seemingly Unrelated Regression involving a five‐year panel for up to 35 African countries over 1975–94, a period preceding the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiatives. While observed debt service is found to be a poor predictor of expenditure allocation, constraining debt servicing shifts spending away from the social sector, with similar impacts on education and health. The implied partial elasticity of the sector's expenditure share with respect to debt is estimated at 1.5, the highest responsiveness by far among all the explanatory variables considered, including external aid. Thus, if the social sector is to be protected, sufficient debt relief for SSA countries should be pursued.     

Labor force participation of black and white married women: Evidence from urban labor markets

The study theoretically argues that differential economic conditions constitute an important rationale for structural differences in labor force participation (LFP) between black and white married women. Empirical evidence based on 1980 census data for metropolitan statistical areas provides support for the concomitant hypotheses. Not only is the LFP propensity for black wives larger, but also it is relatively insensitive to the arguments of the LFP function. Thus policies designed to influence the LFP of these two racial groups must internalize the differential economic conditions between them.     

The Effect of Income Distribution on the Ability of Growth to Reduce Poverty: Evidence from Rural and Urban African Economies

The present study examines the extent to which income distribution affects the ability of economic growth to reduce poverty, based on 1990s data for a sample of rural and urban sectors of African economies. Using the basic‐needs approach, an analysis‐of‐covariance model is derived and estimated, with the headcount, gap, and squared gap poverty ratios serving as the respective dependent variables, and the Gini coefficient and PPP‐adjusted incomes as explanatory variables. The study finds that the responsiveness of poverty to income growth is a decreasing function of inequality, albeit at varying rates for the three poverty measures: lowest for the headcount, followed by the gap and fastest for the squared gap. The ranges for the income elasticity in the sample are estimated at: 0.02–0.68, 0.11–1.05, and 0.10–1.35, respectively, for these poverty measures. Furthermore while, on average, the responsiveness of poverty to income growth appears to be the same between the rural and urban sectors, there are substantial sectoral differences across countries. The results suggest the need for country‐specific emphases on growth relative to inequality.     

Implications of the External Debt-servicing Constraint for Public Health Expenditure in Sub-Saharan Africa

The paper explores the implications of the external debt-servicing constraint for public health spending in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where the health challenges have been great and debt servicing particularly burdensome. Using 1975–94 5-year panel data for 35 African countries, the study finds that although actual debt servicing has little impact, a binding debt-servicing constraint that reflects the debt burden would shift expenditure away from health. Although increases in external aid and constraints on the government executive tend to divert spending in favour of health, the debt-burden effect is dominant. The paper also uncovers an upward trend in public health spending, a result that appears to contradict the popular belief that the structural adjustment programmes undertaken in many SSA countries as of the 1980s may have reduced government expenditure on health.     

Transforming Economic Growth to Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Elite Political Instability

In the light of the increasing attention on human development (HD) as well as the importance of political instability (PI) in economic performance, this paper examines the role of PI in the transformation of economic growth to HD. It finds that élite PI—the frequency of coups d'état in sub-Saharan Africa—adversely affected the transformation of economic growth to HD, measured as the change in an index of life expectancy and literacy, between 1970 and 1985. Coupled with an additional indirect negative effect on GDP growth, élite PI is found to have engendered a significant adverse impact on HD.     

Gains from Trade: Implications for Labour Market Adjustment and Poverty Reduction in Africa

Abstract: This paper reassesses the gains from trade for sub‐Saharan Africa, and draws their implications for labour market adjustment and poverty reduction. It reviews previous studies on multilateral liberalization, focusing on the findings from Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models with relevance to African economies. The implications of these findings for poverty reduction are discussed. Our own CGE exercise supports the hypothesis that African countries cannot expect substantial gains from further multilateral liberalization. Moreover, given the sharp contraction of import‐competing sectors in response to trade liberalization in many African economies, coupled with insufficient compensation through labour market adjustments in other sectors, this study suggests that the ultimate impact on poverty reduction is likely to be small or even negative.     

Mapping Growth into Economic Development

A bstract .   The study finds that elite political instability (PI)—the incidence of coups d'etat—has negatively influenced the mapping of GDP growth into economic development, measured as the algebraic difference in the United Nations Human Development Index, in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) between 1970 and 1985. Taking into account the additional adverse impact of PI on economic development through its deleterious influence on economic growth, the study estimates that PI has exacted a substantial toll in SSA's economic development.     

Do black and white women hold different jobs in the same occupation? A critical analysis of the clerical and service sectors

Employing 1960 and 1981 census data at the three-digit level, the study finds that black and white women were employed at different jobs in the predominantly female clerical and service occupations in both 1960 and 1981. However, there appears to be a slight reduction in black female job dissimilarity with white females between 1960 and 1981 in both occupations. Moreover, while employment of black women, relative to white women, in 1960 was observed to be generally skewed toward the low-paying, low-status jobs in clerical and service occupations, there was little evidence of this trend by 1981. The present results, then, complement previous findings at the more aggregative two-digit level of black female occupational advancement since the mid-1960s.