Mitigating the Macroeconomic Impact of Severe Natural Disasters in Africa: Policy Synergies

Abstract

This study evaluates the economic impact of severe natural disasters in Africa using the generalized synthetic control method. In other words, it assesses how gross domestic product (GDP) would have been affected if severe natural disasters did not occur. Moreover, it explores the determinants of the destructiveness of the impact, focusing on the role played by capital. We find that severe natural disasters induce a significant and continuous reduction of GDP many years after the event. Indeed, economic losses caused by disasters depend on the level of capital (human capital, employment and capital stock) and aspects of governance quality (political stability and absence of violence). In other words, negative synergies are apparent because while capital stock, employment and human capital unconditionally reduce the macroeconomic impact of natural disasters, the corresponding conditional or interactive effects with political stability are also negative. Policy implications are discussed.

Fighting female unemployment: the role of female ownership of bank accounts in complementing female inclusive education

“…In order to assess the investigated/testable hypothesis and thus, the relevance of female ownership of bank accounts in moderating the incidence of female education on female unemployment, net effects are computed, in accordance with contemporary interactive regressions literature (Diop et al, 2021;Bandura, 2022). For instance in the second column of Table 1 pertaining to the OLS regressions, the net effect on female unemployment is À0.0018 5 ([À0.147 3 0.836] þ [0.121]).…”

“…In order to assess the investigated/testable hypothesis and thus, the relevance of female ownership of bank accounts in moderating the incidence of female education on female unemployment, net effects are computed, in accordance with contemporary interactive regressions literature (Diop et al. , 2021; Bandura, 2022).…”

Who supports the African Union? Understanding the determinants of citizens' opinion for African integration

“…It is on this theoretical premise that the plans for European integration were encouraged after the EU states witnessed the constructive leadership of the United States of America, especially the Marshall Plan it benefited from after the Second World War (Tripathi, 2015). The formation of the AU has also been motivated by the need for African countries to have more say in world economics and politics amid the EU and US hegemonic tendencies (Diop et al, 2024).…”