IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ris/jecdev/0062.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Structural Changes and Employment Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Does Demographic Structure Matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Adegboye , Abidemi C.

    (University of Lagos, Nigeria)

  • Arodoye , Nosakhare L.

    (University of Lagos, Nigeria)

Abstract

This study examines the effects of structural changes on employment growth in the sub-Saharan African (SSA) region using demographic structure as an intermediary factor. Data used covers 37 SSA countries for the period 2000 to 2018 and the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) and decomposition techniques are employed to show the indirect and direct relationships respectively. Economic structure in the region is found to mainly promote total employment with services sector having a larger capacity for absorbing labour, especially in low-productivity activities. There is also evidence that demographic changes in SSA region, while acting as a strong base for drawing employment, has led to significant losses in productive employment yields. Countries with large labour force tend to produce highly vulnerable and less productive employment, especially for the youths. Demographic changes, rather than economic structure, have more long run implications for employment in the SSA region.

Suggested Citation

  • Adegboye , Abidemi C. & Arodoye , Nosakhare L., 2023. "Structural Changes and Employment Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Does Demographic Structure Matter?," Journal of Economic Development, The Economic Research Institute, Chung-Ang University, vol. 48(2), pages 143-166, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:jecdev:0062
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://jed.cau.ac.kr/archives/48-2/48-2-7.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blanchard, Olivier & Wolfers, Justin, 2000. "The Role of Shocks and Institutions in the Rise of European Unemployment: The Aggregate Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(462), pages 1-33, March.
    2. Louise Fox & Lemma W. Senbet & Witness Simbanegavi, 2016. "Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges, Constraints and Opportunities," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 25(suppl_1), pages 3-15.
    3. Acemoglu, Daron & Johnson, Simon & Robinson, James A., 2005. "Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 6, pages 385-472, Elsevier.
    4. Gaaitzen de Vries & Marcel Timmer & Klaas de Vries, 2015. "Structural Transformation in Africa: Static Gains, Dynamic Losses," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(6), pages 674-688, June.
    5. Margaret S. McMillan & Dani Rodrik, 2011. "Globalization, Structural Change and Productivity Growth," NBER Working Papers 17143, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Hervé Boulhol, 2009. "The Effects of Population Structure on Employment and Productivity," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 684, OECD Publishing.
    7. Michaela Fuchs & Antje Weyh, 2014. "Demographic change and unemployment in East Germany: how close are the ties?," ERSA conference papers ersa14p220, European Regional Science Association.
    8. Davide Furceri & Ernesto Crivelli & Mr. Joël Toujas-Bernate, 2012. "Can Policies Affect Employment Intensity of Growth? A Cross-Country Analysis," IMF Working Papers 2012/218, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Newhouse, David & Wolff, Claudia, 2014. "Cohort Size and Youth Employment Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 8197, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    11. Herrendorf, Berthold & Rogerson, Richard & Valentinyi, Ákos, 2014. "Growth and Structural Transformation," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 6, pages 855-941, Elsevier.
    12. Fuchs, Michaela & Weyh, Antje, 2014. "Demography and unemployment in East Germany : how close are the ties?," IAB-Discussion Paper 201426, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    13. Harris, John R & Todaro, Michael P, 1970. "Migration, Unemployment & Development: A Two-Sector Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 126-142, March.
    14. repec:dgr:rugggd:gd-136 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Fields, Gary S., 2012. "Working Hard, Working Poor: A Global Journey," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199794645.
    16. Fields, Gary S., 2005. "A welfare economic analysis of labor market policies in the Harris-Todaro model," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 127-146, February.
    17. Golub, Stephen & Hayat, Faraz, 2014. "Employment, unemployment, and underemployment in Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 014, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    19. Catherine Saget, 2000. "Can the Level of Employment be Explained by GDP Growth in Transition Countries? (Theory versus the Quality of Data)," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 14(4), pages 623-643, December.
    20. Stephen Golub & Faraz Hayat, 2014. "Employment, Unemployment, and Underemployment in Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-014, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    21. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas Gries & Rainer Grundmann, 2020. "Modern sector development: The role of exports and institutions in developing countries," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 644-667, May.
    2. Samba Mbaye, 2012. "Real Exchange Rate Undervaluation and Growth: Is there a Total Factor Productivity Growth Channel?," CERDI Working papers halshs-00687948, HAL.
    3. Lange, Simon & Klasen, Stephan, 2017. "How the New International Goal for Child Mortality is Unfair to Sub-Saharan Africa (Again)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 128-146.
    4. Claire Giordano, 2023. "Revisiting the real exchange rate misalignment‐economic growth nexus via the across‐sector misallocation channel," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1329-1384, September.
    5. Mbaye, Samba, 2012. "Currency Undervaluation and Growth: Is there a Productivity Channel?," MPRA Paper 44261, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Vu, K.M., 2017. "Structural change and economic growth: Empirical evidence and policy insights from Asian economies," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 64-77.
    7. Isis Gaddis & Stephan Klasen, 2014. "Economic development, structural change, and women’s labor force participation:," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(3), pages 639-681, July.
    8. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Tobias D. Ketterer, 2012. "Do Local Amenities Affect The Appeal Of Regions In Europe For Migrants?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 535-561, October.
    9. Jean-Pierre Allegret & Sana Azzabi, 2014. "Intégration financière internationale et croissance économique dans les pays émergents et en développement : le canal du développement financier," Revue d’économie du développement, De Boeck Université, vol. 22(3), pages 27-68.
    10. Rafiou Raphaël Bétila, 2021. "The impact of Ease of Doing Business on economic growth: a dynamic panel analysis for African countries," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(10), pages 1-34, October.
    11. Christoph Morosoli & Peter Draper & Andreas Freytag & Sebastian Schuhmann, 2024. "Drivers of Inclusive Development: An Empirical Investigation," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 36(4), pages 987-1015, August.
    12. Presbitero, Andrea F., 2008. "The Debt-Growth Nexus in Poor Countries: A Reassessment," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 2, pages 1-28.
    13. Musayev, Vusal, 2014. "Commodity Price Shocks, Conflict and Growth: The Role of Institutional Quality and Political Violence," MPRA Paper 59786, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Lectard, Pauline & Rougier, Eric, 2018. "Can Developing Countries Gain from Defying Comparative Advantage? Distance to Comparative Advantage, Export Diversification and Sophistication, and the Dynamics of Specialization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 90-110.
    15. Dalibor Eterovic & Nicolás Eterovic, 2012. "Political competition versus electoral participation: effects on government’s size," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 333-363, December.
    16. Ederer, Stefan & Reschenhofer, Peter, 2018. "Macroeconomic imbalances and structural change in the EMU," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 59-69.
    17. Olga Bohachova & Bernhard Boockmann & Claudia M. Buch, 2011. "Labor Demand During the Crisis: What Happened in Germany?," CESifo Working Paper Series 3625, CESifo.
    18. Daniel Oto Peralías & Daniel Oto-Peralías & Diego Romero-Ávila, 2012. "Tracing the Link between Government Size and Growth: The Role of Public Sector Quality," EcoMod2012 4015, EcoMod.
    19. Borsato, Andrea & Lorentz, André, 2023. "The Kaldor–Verdoorn law at the age of robots and AI," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(10).
    20. Castro, Vítor & Martins, Rodrigo, 2021. "Government ideology and economic freedom," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 73-91.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Decomposition Analysis; Employment Rate; Employment Vulnerability; Labour Force Growth; Productivity Growth; Sectoral Shares;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:jecdev:0062. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tram Nguyen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eccaukr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.