Efficiency, Equity and Well-Being in Selected African Countries

This book addresses poverty and well-being, equity, and efficiency in selected African countries. The chapters focus on three main topics: studies in the measurement and analysis of well-being and vulnerability to poverty, women's empowerment, and the dynamics and determinants of income and efficiency among smallholders. The chapters in the first section examine poverty, well-being, and vulnerability to poverty, as well as social exclusion, with a focus on households in Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Tanzania. They highlight the need to consider multidimensional measures of well-being and vulnerability to poverty, the need to address the distribution of vulnerability across different segments of the population, as well as the importance of developing public policies aimed at poverty reduction and promoting the well-being of the poor. The next section deals with issues related to women's empowerment, including a multidimensional case study of women's empowerment in Ghana and women's access to microfinance services in Ethiopia. The final section focuses on dynamics and determinants of income and efficiency among farm households in Ethiopia and Uganda. Using a variety of methodologies, this volume provides a multifaceted approach to studying poverty and well-being in a diverse range of locations. As such, it of use to undergraduate and graduate students studying African economics or economics of poverty and well-being, and will be appealing to public policymakers and international aid agencies.

Pia Nilsson is an Assistant Professor in Economics at Jönköping University, affiliated to CEnSE (Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics). She has a Ph.D degree in economics from Jönköping University (2013). She has been editorial assistant for The Annals of Regional Science (2011- 2014), policy analyst at The Swedish Board of Agriculture (2012-2014) and visiting researcher at the Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg, School of Business, Economics and Law to pursue research in development economics, invited by Professor Måns Söderbom and mentored by Professor Arne Bigsten (2017). Her research interest is in the areas of urban, rural and regional economics and development economics.

Almas Heshmati is Professor of Economics at Jönköping University and Sogang University. He held similar positions at the Korea University, Seoul National University, University of Kurdistan Hawler, RATIO Institute (Sweden) and the MTT Agrifood Research Finland). He was Research Fellow at the World Institute for Development Economic Research (WIDER), The United Nations University during 2001-2004. From 1998 until 2001, he was an Associate Professor of Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics. He has a Ph.D. degree from the University of Gothenburg (1994), where he held a Senior Researcher position until 1998. His research interests include applied microeconomics, globalization, development strategy, efficiency, productivity and growth with application to manufacturing and services. In addition, to more than 150 scientific journal articles he has published books on EU Lisbon Process, Global Inequality, East Asian Manufacturing, Chinese Economy, technology Transfer, Information Technology, Water Resources, Landmines, Power Generation, Renewable Energy, Development Economics, World Values, Poverty and Economic Growth.