Interview with Minister of Education David Coltart on the Zimbabwe Election

After presiding over economic decline marked by hyperinflation which brought Zimbabwe to its knees, president Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party have emerged as victors in the recent harmonized elections in Zimbabwe. Mugabe got 61% of the vote and his ZANU-PF party won 158 of the 210 parliament seats, giving it a two-thirds majority in the legislature. In order to understand what this means for Zimbabwe’s future, the Harvard Africa Policy Journal has obtained an exclusive telephone interview with the outgoing member of parliament of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) from Bulawayo, Mr. David Coltart.

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Malaysia at a Cross Roads: Diagnosing the Constraints to High Income Status

Malaysia at a Crossroads: Diagnosing Constraints to High-Income Status In 2008, Malaysia was recognized by the Growth Commission – a distinguished panel comprising 2 Nobel Prize Winning Economists and other leading development practitioners – as one of thirteen countries that sustained high growth in the post-war period. The 30-year stretch that caught the attention of the Growth Commission was between 1967 and 1997 when Malaysia grew at an average of 7.3% per year. This long stretch of growth was interrupted by periods of external shocks including the Volcker shock of 1986, the Asian Financial crisis in 1997/8, later the so-called Dot Com Bubble of 2001, and more recently the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. Despite these shocks, Malaysia remained resilient - formally earning the title "Upper Middle Income Country" in 1992. (See summary figure that breaks down the country's per capita growth story). As...

Corporate Network Analysis

The complex interconnections that define modern society are most readily visible from our Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin networks. What is perhaps less talked about is the extent to which corporations are linked. I just started building a network of cross shareholding among Malaysia's corporations using listed company data. The map below is a preliminary visualization of the country's corporate network as of 2015. I use social network analysis (SNA) tools to partition or color the network into key connected components or communities therein. I have deliberately excluded company names but I will tell you that the biggest nodes represent the most connected shareholders including governments, fund managers, and international asset managers. Malaysia's Corporate Network in 2015 Created Using Gephi 0.9.1 As the Malaysia economy has grown so has the complexity of the corporate network from few shareholders to many interlinked players. Below is a visualization using sha...

Assessing labor market transitions in Ghana using panel data

Understanding labor market transitions is important for policymakers and researchers in developing countries. Changes in economic activity status (employed, unemployed, out of labor force) vary significantly from one country to another and also within countries from one socio-economic group to another. Below I summarize analysis from the latest Ghana Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey ( AHIES ) published by the Ghana Statistical Service. The AHIES is a panel survey that has followed over 10,000 individuals since 2022Q1 to assess changes in their livelihoods. I am currently analyzing trends and show here what has happened to economic activity between Q2 and Q3. Transitions in Ghana labor force status, 2022Q2 - 2022Q3 Source : Own analysis using AHIES from Ghana Statistical Service. Note : Left hand side is 2022Q2 and right side is 2022Q3 81 percent of working age individuals (15-64-years) who were employed in 2022Q2 were still employed in 2022Q3; 7 perc...