Abstract. This paper investigates the effect of oil rents on agriculture value added in oil producing Middle East and North African (MENA) countries. Annual data from 1970 to 2011, panel cointegration tests by Pedroni (1999), long ran panel causality tests by Canning and Pedroni (2008), and two-step System GMM by Blundell and Bond (1998) are used in this study. We find a negative relationship between oil rents and agriculture value added in the long run, with a rather slow rate of short run adjustment of agriculture value added back to equilibrium after a boom in oil rents. These results indicate that an oil sector boom is associated with a contraction in the agriculture sectors of the countries in the panel in the long run. This is probably attributable to a resource movement effect from other economic sectors to the booming oil sector in these countries. This serves as evidence of a Dutch disease effect of an oil sector boom on agriculture in the MENA countries in this study.
While empowerment of the youth in Ghana could enable them to make a more meaningful contribution to the economy, a myriad of challenges faces the youth during their transition from school into the employment sector and limits the realisation of their full potential. As a result, the recent and significant increase in the size of the youth population in Ghana cannot justifiably be romanticised as an obvious stepping stone towards the realisation of a demographic dividend. In this study, qualitative and quantitative research methods were deployed to carry out a cross-sectional survey that enabled a detailed exploration of the main challenges and opportunities facing the youth in Ghana. Some of the options for enabling greater youth empowerment in the country were also identified. The study established that unemployment, skills limitations, lack of access to finance, and poorly coordinated institutional structures for implementing youth empowerment policies and programmes are major barriers to youth empowerment in Ghana. We conclude that there is a need for more targeted interventions that address these challenges and leverage any evident opportunities available for increased youth empowerment before Ghana can confidently expect to reap a demographic dividend.
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