June 2014
Determinants of Commercial Banks’ Interest Rate Spread in Namibia: An Econometric Exploration
This paper investigates the determinants of commercial banks interest rate spread in Namibia, using a panel data analysis of bank level dada. It applied the OLS technique to identify the bank-specific variables that have been influencing interest rate spread in Namibiaover the period 2004 – 2011. The results of the study indicate that deposit market share, liquidity levelsand operating costs are the main...
June 2014
The Textile and Clothing Sector in Botswana: Challenges and Opportunities
This paper considers the performance of the Textile and Clothing (TC) sector in Botswana and reviews various national and international incentive schemes aimed at developing TC exports. The analysis shows that domestic policies and preferential trade regimes helped establish the sector and still play a central role in its continued operation. However, the sector has failed to take advantage of existing trade preferences...
June 2014
Does Efficiency Wage Hypothesis Hold in Tanzanian Labour Market?
The primary objective of this paper is to test the hypothesis of efficiency wage in the context of Tanzania labour market. The test is facilitated via estimating the correlation between firm level productivity and firm level weighted average wage in Tanzania manufacturing enterprises. The study uses panel dimension of the data to estimate Cobb Douglas’ production function that controls for time invariant...
June 2014
The Impact of Microfinance on Household Welfare in Botswana
The study investigated the impact of microfinance on household welfare in Botswana using a nationally representative sample of 503 households and an econometric model adapted from Coleman (1999). The results suggested that microfinance had no significant effect on household welfare, which is consistent with Okurut and Bategeka (2006); Banerjee et al (2013); Coleman (1999). Household welfare is positively and...
June 2014
Tanzania’s Revealed Comparative Advantage and Structural Transformation
This study examines Tanzania’s structural transformation by using the revealed comparative approach using export data for 2001, 2002 and 2011, at the second level of the Harmonised System (HS). Using global data, the study finds that for 2002 and 2011, agricultural products, fish and minerals have comparative advantage over other product groups. For the periods 2001 and 2011 for which Tanzanian data is used, these...
