Fostering Labour Productivity Growth for Productive and Decent Job Creation in Sub-Saharan African Countries: the Role of Institutional Quality

Koffi Kpognon, Henri Atangana Ondoa (), Mamadou Bah () and Peter Asare-Nuamah ()
Additional contact information
Henri Atangana Ondoa: The University of Yaoundé II
Mamadou Bah: African Development Bank
Peter Asare-Nuamah: University of Environment and Sustainable Development

Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 2022, vol. 13, issue 3, No 11, 1962-1992

Abstract: Abstract The majority of jobs created in Africa are informal, low-paying jobs that do not allow employees to live decently. An improvement in labour productivity will contribute to the creation of productive and decent jobs. The objective of this work is to study the effect of institutional quality on labour productivity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). To do this, we consider a panel of 31 countries over the period from 1996 to 2016. Thus, we construct an empirical model based on the stochastic frontier production function developed by Battese and Coelli (1995), to which we apply panel estimation techniques (static and dynamic), particularly with system generalized method of moments (System-GMM) and within estimators. Our results show that institutional quality indicators have a positive and significant influence on labour productivity. Political stability, government effectiveness and the rule of law are the indicators that contribute most to increasing labour productivity in sub-Saharan Africa. A series of robustness tests are performed to confirm our results. Specific indicators that contribute to labour productivity growth in sub-Saharan Africa are identified for the different sectors of the economy (agriculture, industry, services). These results enable us to identify several policy implications relevant to African decision-makers in order to create productive and decent jobs, especially for young people.

Keywords: Institutional Quality; Labour productivity; System-GMM; Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 O10 O43 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13132-021-00794-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jknowl:v:13:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s13132-021-00794-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13132

DOI: 10.1007/s13132-021-00794-x

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Knowledge Economy is currently edited by Elias G. Carayannis

More articles in Journal of the Knowledge Economy from Springer, Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().