UDSM Online Journal Testing

Determinants of Undernutrition in Under-five Children: Evidence from the 2015 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey

Eltone Mabodo — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Health is essential to a successful and productive life at all stages. Early good child
health is also believed to shape the future productivity levels of every individual. Using
height-for-age z scores, this study used an ordered logistic regression model to estimate
the determinants of undernutrition in children under the age of five in Zimbabwe. Data
from the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health survey of 2015 was used. The study finds
that factors such as safe drinking water, improved toilet facility, tertiary-level maternal
education, longer birth interval, and clean cooking power: all contributing to a child
having good nutrition stock. More so, the study finds factors such as being a male child
and urban residence contributing to poor nutrition of children under the age of five.
Hence, the study advocates that improving water and toilet facilities, improving
maternal education, using birth control measures and using clean energy will go a long
way in improving the nutrition of children under the age five in Zimbabwe.

Determinants of Livelihood Diversification Amongst Rural Households in Tanzania

Rugazia Nyombi, Dr. Martin. J. Chegere — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The rural economic setup in developing countries is customarily dominated by primary
production activities, mostly in the agriculture sector. While rural areas have been
shown to experience high poverty rates, livelihood diversification is recommended as a
measure to help reduce poverty. This is can be done by bolstering household income
portfolio through supplementing nonfarm income, than solely depending income from
agriculture activities. This paper observes determinants of rural livelihood
diversification using the extended panel data of the Tanzania National Panel Survey.
Two measures represent livelihood diversity in the study: number of livelihood activities
household engage in, and household share income spread. The Panel Poisson and Tobit
models are used to estimate the determinants of livelihood diversity. General factors
influencing diversity include household wealth, experiences to shock (drought/floods,
fall in prices of crops), and household demographic characters (number of working age
individuals and age of household head). An analysis of the determinants by wealth
status indicates less wealthy and wealthy households diversify the most with respect to
assets they possess, while access to finances gives contrasting results depending on
sources of finance. Policy implication relate to promoting policies that support sustained
asset accumulation, increasing access to rural financing, and establishing safety net
programs that minimize risks associated with shocks.

Impacts of Export Bans and Seasonality on Maize Price Transmission Between Selected Deficit and Surplus Markets in Tanzania: Evidence from Sumbawanga Market

Florence Sitima, John K. Mduma — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Using maize prices data from Tanzania’s National Bureau of Statistics from 2002
through 2017, this paper analyses the impacts of export bans and seasonality on
spatial domestic price transmission between deficit markets and the surplus
Sumbawanga market; using a vector error correction (VEC) model with export ban
and seasonality dummy variables. Results show that 45% of deficit markets converged
in the long-run with the Sumbawanga market, with a significant negative sign at 10%
level. Moreover, 64% of market pairs negatively impacted spatial domestic price
transmission, while seasonality had significant impacts on the same between market
pairs. A Granger causality suggests that 63%, 27%, and 10% of market pairs were bidirectional, unidirectional and no causality, respectively. Thus, government policies
should incline towards increaseing maize production rather than imposing ad-hoc
export bans, improving storage facilities, and mitigating climate changes to insulate
seasonality: all of which will—through market mechanism—moderate consumer
prices and ensure profitability among maize sellers.
JEL Classification: Q17, M38

The Role of Remittances, Financial Inclusion and Governance on Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The goal of this study is to analyse the role of financial inclusion, governance, and
remittances on growth in Sub-Saharan African countries (SSA), as well as the
moderating influence of the role of financial inclusion on the remittances-growth nexus,
using panel data spanning 1996–2020. Data were collected through secondary sources,
including World Bank and IMF reports for the period 1996–2020. By using a principal
component analysis method, we constructed composite FI indexes to measure the degree
of FI. Cross-sectional dependence, slope homogeneity, and pooled mean grouping (PMG)
are employed to evaluate the stated objectives. The study findings showed that
remittances have a significant positive relationship with economic growth, and that
positive financial inclusion moderates the remittance-growth nexus in SSA countries.
Given the findings that the level of governance has an adverse influence on growth, hence
stakeholders should improve financial infrastructure, which provides the underlying
instrument for financial inclusion, and protect customers by instituting controls and
procedures for reporting, fairness, and resorting to SSA countries. Governments should
also promote the larger global remittances agenda, which includes leveraging
remittances for better consumer and business financing, and exposure to global financial
markets through refinancing and the issue of diaspora bonds.
JEL Classifications: C1; F6; G2; O4

An Empirical Investigation of the Effect of Manager’s Level of Education on Labour Productivity In the Manufacturing Sector in Uganda: 2006–2013

Iremaut Osikei, Michael O. Ndanshau, Stephen L. Kirama — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This paper investigates the effect of education of firm managers on labour productivity
in Uganda’s manufacturing sector using enterprise survey data. Like in many SubSaharan economies, Uganda is grappling with labour productivity associated with
deficiencies and mismatch in skills, which limit the adaptation of new production
technologies. The human capital theory (HCT) and the endogenous growth theory
(EGT) underpinned this investigation. On the basis of a Cobb-Douglas function we
estimated a labour productivity equation. The paper found that attainment of higher
levels of education by firm managers improved labour productivity, and mean
productivity of individual workers at firm level. The strong linkage between managers’
education and labour productivity implies that the government should focus on
policies that improve higher education.
JEL Classification: J24

Adoption of Improved Cassava Varieties in Uganda: What Does Agricultural Extension Do?

Vincent Ssajjabbi, John Sseruyange, John Ddumba Ssentamu — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Agricultural production, especially by smallholder farmers, is often hampered by
insufficient knowledge about better farm inputs or farming practices, low adoption to
improved agricultural technologies, or low diffusion of agricultural innovations by the
inventing institutions. This paper examines the role of agricultural extension to the
adoption of improved cassava varieties in Uganda. We indicate for agricultural extension
using the farmers’ reported accessibility to agricultural extension from extension workers
about such improved varieties. We use probit with selection equation on data collected
from eight (8) districts in Northern Uganda. Our main results indicate a higher
probability of adopting improved cassava varieties when farmers access agricultural
extension services; and also document farmers’ distrust to improved cassava varieties as
a crop enterprise that can guarantee their households with food security. From a policy
perspective, our results suggest that the design and content of agricultural extension
services are important to leverage the extent of the adoption of modern agricultural
technologies. Specifically, improving the performance of the cassava crop enterprise
requires enhanced investment in diffusing innovations in the enterprise.
JEL Classification: O12, O13, O33, Q16

The Impact of Board Characteristics on the Financial Performance of Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies in Arusha and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Lilian S. Mlay, Sylvia S. Temu, Lucas D. Mataba — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines the impact of board characteristics—such as size, gender diversity, skills, and meeting frequency—on the financial performance of SACCOSs in Tanzania. The study focused on three financial performance indicators: net loan income, operating efficiency ratio, and deposit-to-asset ratio. Descriptive statistics and linear regression models were used to analyse panel data collected from financial reports of 198 SACCOSs for five years (2014–2018). The results show a positive and significant relationship between financially-skilled board member(s) and the depositto-asset ratio; conversely, they were negatively associated with the operating efficiency ratio. The results further show that board meetings are positively and significantly related to net loan income, whereas board size is positively associated with the operating efficiency ratio. Moreover, the paper found no evidence of a relationship between women’s board members and financial performance. Impliedly, having financially-skilled directors on a board and regular board meetings facilitated financial performance in a SACCOS. Thus, the paper calls for board members to have financial skills, and boards to conduct regular meetings for constructive advice and effective monitoring to boost financial performance.

JEL Classification: G2, G20, G3, G30, G39, M49

Agriculture-led Industrialization for Inclusive Growth in Tanzania

John Mtui — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This study analyses the interdependence between industry and agriculture sectors for
socio-economic development and poverty reduction in Tanzania during the 1970–2018
period. The study used the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound test
approach and Granger causality test to uncover the relationship. The study found a
stable short-run and long-run relationships between agriculture and industrial
sectors. Gross fixed capital formation and trade openness have significant short-run
and long-run relationship with the growth of the industrial sector. While inflation
affect positively industrial growth in the short-run, its impact in the long-run is
negative. Moreover, there is a bi-directional causality between agriculture and
industrial sectors. Given the importance of agriculture to industrialisation and
inclusive growth, the study recommends policies, strategies and further efforts to
increase agriculture productivity, output and income. The industrialization policy, as
broad as it may be, must build the nexus between the agriculture, manufacturing and
other non-farm rural sectors. Equally important is the need to put in place a conducive
environment for promoting investment in both industry and agriculture sectors.
JEL Classification: Q18; L16; I31.

Determinants of Household Education Expenditure in Uganda: Do the Poor Spend More on Education than the Rich?

Winnie Nabiddo, Bruno L. Yawe, Francis Wasswa — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This study estimates the Tobit and IV Tobit models using data from the Uganda
National Household Survey (UNHS) 2019/20 to analyse factors that influence
household education spending, and examine the impact of different income groups on
education spending in Uganda. The findings show a positive relationship between
household income on the one hand; and the level of education of the head of household,
household size, urban residence, female-headed household and education spending on
the other. Furthermore, higher-income households are found to have a high-income
elasticity of demand than low-income households. An increase in total household income
for high-income quintile households is found to increase educational expenditures by a
percentage point than for low-income quintile households. Due to this disparity, the
government is advised to revise its cost-sharing approach to public education spending,
which needs to be supplemented by household education spending.
JEL Classification: D1, I21, I22, I24, C24, R20

Economic Analysis of the Production of Root-vegetables by Small-Scale Farmers in Mbulu District

Barikiel I. Panga, Siamarie Lyaro — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The production of vegetables supports farmer’s food security and income generation. This
paper seeks to analyse the production of root-vegetables by small-scale farmers in Mbulu
District, Tanzania. The paper applied a cross-section design and a two-stage sampling to
obtain 120 farmers producing either carrots or Irish potatoes. Results from the CobbDouglas production function showed that farm area and inputs cost were significant
factors that influenced production of carrots; while farm area, labour, inputs cost, and
equipment cost were significant factors that influenced the production of potatoes.
Furthermore, results from multiple regression showed that income of root-vegetables
growers decreased significantly with the production of potatoes compared to carrots; but
increased significantly with farm area. The findings highlight the need for the Ministry
responsible for Agriculture to offer agricultural extension services regarding optimal
production of root-vegetables for sustainable increased returns to scale in the long-run.
JEL Classification: D24, C30