Abstract not available

The Aids pandemic and structural adjustment policies (SAP) have had effects on lower income households in Zimbabwe which have been devastating and people have been required to adapt their livelihood strategies. Small towns meanwhile are growing rapidly in Zimbabwe and mobility towards these towns may be connected with the changes being forged by SAP on the economic landscape. This study seeks to establish how the individual migrant uses mobility to negotiate this landscape. This involves mobility directed towards small towns to access advantageous provisioning possibilities, and also the engagement in a multitude of family linkages from the small town to other places within the settlement system. Substantiated through a case study of Rusape, this study suggests that lower living costs, higher food security and a more accessible labour market may be attracting migrants from higher level urban centres. The role of the network of kin relations in mobility is important and migrants’ networks over space cover both rural homes and urban areas. The access to networks, however, is being stratified under SAP and the ability to maintain linkages with relatives is declining, suggesting a rising vulnerability connected with the inability of leaving places and entering others.

This dissertation consists of three essays (and a short introductory chapter). Essay 1: Growth and Government - Is there a Difference between Developed and Developing Countries? In this essay we examine the role of government for growth in 64 industrialized and developing countries, considering both expenditure and financing aspects of government. Recognizing that there are differences between the two country groups leading to severe heteroskedasticity, we use weighted least squared estimations. The general conclusion is that the means of financing matters more for growth than do government spending. We find that seigniorage and budget surplus are important for growth in LDCs but not in industrialized countries, while capital revenue matters only in the latter group. Moreover, the level of indebtedness is a negative determinant of growth in LDCs. Essay 2: Economic Reforms and the Poor. This essay analyzes the effects of economic reform for different income groups. Our interest is spurred by the international debate on the social consequences of reforms and the potential adverse effects on poverty in particular. We find that the poor are in general positively affected by inflationary control, structural reforms and trade reforms, while reducing government consumption affect the poorest income quintile negatively. In contries having undertaken World Bank financed reforms actual income of the poor was higher than predicted. Moreover, as the impact of reforms was strongest on the poor, World Bank support appears to reduce income inequality. Essay 3: Structural Reforms, Uncertainty and Private Investment. Since almost two decades back a large number of LDCs have embarked on World Bank supported structural adjustment programs with the objective to promote economic growth and private investment. We consider how the design of reform programs can increase reform credibility and thus reduce uncertainty in the economy. Using a unique database on adjustment lending, we test the effects of reform on private investment behavior. We find that while political factors seem to have no effect on private investment response in reforming countries, magnitudes as well as scope of reform are important positive explanatory variables. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 1999</p>

Since gaining independence, sub-Saharan Africa has experienced periods of internal conflict at higher rates than other regions. The region has also experienced protracted economic problems. Many African countries have implemented International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs designed to improve a state’s long-term economic viability. IMF conditionality, however, has led to a host of problems in sub-Saharan Africa that potentially increase the risk of experiencing internal conflict. The results of this research demonstrate that the implementation of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility significantly increases a country’s risk of experiencing armed civil conflict. Neither the Structural Adjustment Facility nor the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility have the same affect, though prior conflict, higher GDPs, negative GDP growth, moderate levels of social fractionalization, transitional regimes and the presence of enclave economies do increase conflict risk.

Originally presented as the author's dissertation-- Universität Regensburg, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. KTH : Univ., 2008.

The motive behind this dissertation involved the scholastic empirical testing of the impacts of development policy, pursued at macro-economic level in housing and construction industry in Zimbabwe during Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) between 1990-1995. It further explores the understanding of the variety of interconnections between macro-economic in light of structural adjustment and Shelter development Strategy. The introductory focuses on conceptualisation of the dissertation in relation to contemporary policy and academic debates. A historical review of both macroeconomic and shelter industry management policies experienced in Zimbabwe prior to ESAP are examined. Architecture structure of the adjustment programe specifically in the in creating an enabling environment in respect to the overall macro-economic reforms in relation to the shelter industry is sketched. Party Two deals with housing and Zimbabwean construction finance both prior and after ESAP, comparison with other African countries is reviewed-positive impacts of liberalizing a sophisticated financial sector, limited impact in attracting foreign investment and negative impact of reduced government investment on the housing construction industry. The final section deals with the impact of adjustment and shelter strategy on job creation and income levels. Also focuses on the responsiveness of the construction supply to adjustment and enablement policies. The development of ideas surrounding this research and methodology of fieldwork are also discussed. Conclusion and recommendations are drawn to fulfill the dissertation-Scholarly. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, 2001.

The dissertation research answers the question of what explains the variation across countries where the IMF SAP implementation is associated with the onset of armed civil conflict in some countries but not in others. Do SAPs increase the likelihood of the outbreak of armed civil conflict in recipient countries? By what causal mechanism could SAPs increase the probability of the onset of armed civil conflict? This study contributes to extant literature by taking actors’ preferences and ethnicity in recipient countries into account. I argue that the effect of SAP implementation on armed civil conflict is conditional on the ethnic characteristics of recipient countries. From a two-level game perspective, highly ethnic-fractionalized countries have a strong bargaining position vis-à-vis the IMF at the international level due to their domestic weakness. Hence such governments will receive relatively moderate conditionality from the IMF because the Fund will adopt its second-order preference of containing the contagious effect of debt crisis and ensure the loan repayment. The ethnically fractionalized countries will also implement the austerity measures across different ethnic communities. The result is reducing probability of the onset of armed civil conflict when ethnic fractionalization increases. But in ethnically-dominant countries, the governments’ bargaining position at the international level is relatively weak due to their domestic strength. Therefore the governments are more likely to get stringent conditionality from the IMF because the Fund will adopt its first-order preference of satisfying its constituents by imposing stringent conditionality. The result is to increase the likelihood of the onset of armed civil conflict when ethnic dominance increases. By analyzing cross-national data for 162 countries from 1992 to 2009 based on improved measurement of IMF conditionality, the empirical results confirm the theoretical hypotheses. The statistical results also reveal that SAP impact on the outbreak of armed civil conflict varies with conditionality. Historical analyses of Ghana and Rwanda provide further understanding of the theoretical mechanisms.

This thesis explores the role of early development policies on the management of horizontal inequalities in Ghana and La Cote d'Ivoire. Using the wager between the first presidents of the two countries, this study charts the manner in which Horizontal Inequalities have been managed during three time periods: Independence, Structural Adjustment and Democratization.

The prevalent approaches in terms of the restructuring of the state in Turkey during the 1980s grasp the relations between state and society as relations of exteriority. Statist-institutionalist or technicist approaches detach the formation of economic policies from social struggles whereas the critical analyses interpret the implementation of structural adjustment policies as a functional response to the crisis of capital. Instead of these explanations, it seems there is a need for taking into consideration the relations between state and society as internal relations and grasping the restructuring of the state as a form assumed by social struggles and understanding the intervention of the state into the economy as a moment within the process of reproduction of the contradictions. Such a theoretical position has the power of explaining the changing forms of state intervention on the basis of the class character of the capitalist state and in a relational way.