There is a growing literature trying to explain differences in African citizens’ preferences towards democratic and non-democratic political institutions. Diamond et al. (1999), Evans and Whitefield (1995), and Kitschelt (1992) argue that satisfaction with government’s effectiveness and economic performance (Individual and national economic situations) are the main determinants of the observed differences. Krieckhaus et al. (2014) propose that the current understanding of support for democratic institutions would benefit from incorporating national economic inequality as a key driver since it can generate disillusion with electoral politics leading to less trust in democratic institutions (Karl, 2000; and McClintock, 1999). Moreover, wealthier citizens often support democratic institutions because they possess the economic and cognitive resources to pursue the “luxury goods” of democratic governance and can benefit
from State capture more than the poor (Bratton, Mattes, and Gyimah-Boadi, 2005; and Welzel and Inglehart, 2008).

A strand of theoretical literature suggests that in a country with high ethnic inequality, the population of the lower income quintile will support democracy as a mechanism for redistribution1. However, the existing literature does not empirically analyze how ethnic inequalities influence support and consolidation of democratic institutions. This paper improves on existing literature in two ways. First, we empirically show that individuals support for democracy is affected by levels of ethnic inequality. Second, by considering both Between ethnic group inequality (BGI) and Within ethnic group inequality (WGI), we explore how their interaction affects individual preferences for democratic institutions. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides a literature review on ethnic inequalities in political science. Section 3 provides data description and the empirical framework. Section 4 focuses on the results,
while section 5 provides the conclusions drawn from the study.

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International trade and urbanization are increasing at an unprecedented rate in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The region has also witnessed a fair share of economic growth, with minimal investment and consumption of renewables. Therefore, this study investigates the influence of economic growth, international trade, and urbanization on CO₂ emissions in SSA. The current study enriches the existing literature by employing the panel quantile regression analysis to account for existing levels of CO₂ emissions in the region. Empirical findings reveal that GDP increases CO₂ emissions across quantiles, especially in countries where the existing level of CO₂ emissions is low. International trade improves environmental sustainability in countries where the existing levels of CO₂ emissions are at their lowest and highest levels but exacts a reversed impact on CO₂ emissions at the median. Further findings suggest that urbanization increases CO₂ emissions across the observed quantiles with a more pronounced effect in countries where the existing levels of CO₂ emissions are at its lowest level. The study also reveals a bi-directional causality between economic growth, international trade, urbanization, and the emissions of CO₂. The limitations of the study and possible direction for future research have been highlighted. Policy directions are discussed.

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This study examined the impact of income inequality on female labour force participation in West Africa for the period 2004 to 2016. The study employed the Gini coefficient, the Atkinson index and the Palma ratio as measures of income inequality. For robustness, the study also utilises female employment and female unemployment as measures of female labour force participation. The study employed the instrumental variable fixed effects model with Driscoll and Kraay standard errors to account for simultaneity/reverse causality, serial correlation, groupwise heteroskedasticity and cross-sectional dependence. The empirical results reveal that the three measures of income inequality significantly reduce the participation of women in the labour force in West Africa.

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This paper examines whether the adoption of the ASI thresher technology by rice farmers in the Senegal River Valley increases their access to credit and their creditworthiness through various pathways. Mainly, this study seeks to verify the argument that the adoption of technologies that increase factor productivity and production capacity eventually leads to the ability (and desire) of adopters to borrow more due to enhanced operations and confidence in their ability to repay loans. This paper uses primary data collected from 194 adopters and nonadopters of the ASI thresher in the Senegal River Valley. Four propensity score matching techniques (nearest neighbour, calliper, stratification and kernel) were used to analyze the data and to remove the selection bias due to observable characteristics. The results from the four techniques consistently show that ASI rice thresher adopters borrowed more money (between 194,000 and 432,000 CFA) in comparison to their neighbours who had not adopted the ASI thresher. This study recommends that, in order to move rice system development closer to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, policymakers and other stakeholders should increase their proactive efforts to promote ASI adoption in Senegal and other rice-producing regions in Africa. The originality of this paper and its contribution to the literature mainly lie in the quantification of the credit farmers gained and the increase in their creditworthiness due to the adoption of a technology.

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Study investigated the effect of farmer perceptions of climate change stressors on stressmigration using primary data collected by means of multi-stage sampling technique in 2012 on 120 irrigated upland rice-farming households. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Heckman Two-Steps probit models. Results showed that drought and flood principally reduced rice yield, led to high crop loss, increased food insecurity and indebtedness and induced farmer stress-migration. Twenty-two percent of the farmers adapted to stress-migration between the years 2007 to 2011.

This article was first published here: International Journal of Agriculture, Environment and Bioresearch