Browsing by Author "Mduma, John K."
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Item The Demand for Cigarettes in Tanzania and Implications for Tobacco Taxation Policy(2015) Kidane, Asmerom W.; Mduma, John K.; Naho, Alexis; Tingum, Ernest N.; Hu, Teh W.The study attempts to estimate the demand for cigarettes in Tanzania and presents simulation results on the effect of the cigarette excise tax on smoking participation, government revenue, and related topics. After briefly summarizing the magnitude and spread of cigarette consumption in the country, the paper reviews some empirical estimates from African and other countries. The 2008 Tanzanian household budget survey was used to estimate the demand for cigarettes in Tanzania. The descriptive statistics suggest that the smoking prevalence for Tanzania is 15.35 percent with low variability across expenditure (income) groups. Smoking intensity and per capita consumption were estimated at 7.08 cigarettes and 1.33 cigarettes, respectively, a relatively low value. A two-part demand equation model was used to estimate various elasticities. For the overall equation, the price elasticities of smoking participation, smoking intensity, and total elasticity were estimated at -0.879, -0.853, and -1.732, respectively. Compared to similar results in other developing countries, the estimates appear quite high. When estimated by expenditure (income) groups, the magnitude of the elasticity appears higher among high expenditure groups than among low expenditure groups. Two simulation exercises were undertaken. First, the effect of different excise rates on smoking participation rate, cigarette consumption, tax revenue, and related responses was estimated and highlighted. Second, the same exercise was undertaken to determine the effect of a given increase in the cigarette excise tax on various expenditure groups. The overall results suggest that an increase in the excise tax on cigarettes in Tanzania would reduce cigarette consumption and increase government tax revenue.Item Determinants of Rural Labor Market Participation in Tanzania(2005) Mduma, John K.; Wobst, PeterParticipation in rural off-farm activities (outside a household's own farm) is one of the livelihood strategies among poor rural households in many developing countries. One component of off-farm activities accessible to the very poor is wage labor because it does not require any complementary physical capital. A household’s ability to participate in the rural labor market depends on the characteristics of the household itself and the local labor markets conditions. This study examines the factors that determine the number of households supplying labor to a particular rural local labor market in rural areas of Tanzania and the share of labor income in total cash income. The study finds that education level, availability of land, and access to economic centers and credit are the most important factors in determining the number of households that participate in a particular rural local labor market and the share of labor income in total cash income.Item Does Rural Labor Markets Affect Soil Conservation? Case Study of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania(2007) Mduma, John K.This study takes on the debate on whether or not increased off-farm employment compromises the adoption and the intensity of adopting some labor intensive soil conserving technologies. The research first presents a theoretical framework of household adoption of soil conserving technologies in the presence of imperfect labor markets. Theoretically, it is shown then the overall effect is indeterminate. The study goes a step further by taking a case study of Kilimanjaro region in Tanzania and finds evidence that household participation in off-farm employment compromised soil conservation. Households supplying labor off-farm are generally associated with reduced adoption of terraces, hedgerows and cut-offs. The negative impact of supplying labor off-farm can be moderately cushioned when households also hire labor to work on the construction or maintenance of soil conserving structures. However, it is shown that hired labor is not a perfect substitute for households` own labor and does not fully off-set the effect of a household`s off-farm labor supply.Item Gender Differences in Rural Off-farm Employment Participation in Tanzania: Is Spatial Mobility an Issue?(2014) Mduma, John K.This paper investigates gender differences in spatial mobility with respect to participation in off-farm employment in rural Tanzania. The mobility issue arises because the recent increase in women participation in off-farm employment is likely to saturate the local labor market/off-farm opportunities and dampen the rural wages/profit among women if it is not accompanied by increased geographical mobility. The results show that, despite the recent increase in their participation, women do not have significant geographical mobility, thus tends to operate more locally as compared to men. The results of decompositions of gender differences in participation in off-farm employment show that a substantial portion of the gender differences is not explained by individuals' endowments. However, policy interventions that could narrow the education gap between male and female are likely to narrow the existing gender gap. Likewise, policies that increases access to water (reduce time needed to collects water) have the potential of reducing the observed gender differences. Since geographical mobility among women is likely to be dictated by cultural factors that tend to have policy inertia, in the short run, there is need to create diversified off-farm opportunities for women within the rural areas in order to reduce unnecessary competition among them.Item How Can Tanzania Move from Poverty to Prosperity(Dar es Salaam University Press, 2015-08) Msambichaka, Lucian A.; Mduma, John K.; Mashindano, Osward J.Development is an on-going process, and the drive for better life is endless. Tanzania stands out as one of the very few African countries that have managed to sustain peace harmony and unity in more than half a century of independence. Despite this reckoned achievement, the country is faced by a myriad of socio-economic challenges. These range from income poverty to diseases,low education as well as poor advancement in science and technology ow productivity weak governance and equity; uncompetitive private sector, and multitude of other problems. This book is a collective effort of leading academics and professionals on Tanzania's development. It reviews earlier efforts of transforming Tanzania, and assesses why early industrial transformation failed, thus worsening economic growth and livelihoods. The book also reviews experiences of countries that managed to transform, and attempts to answer the question: how did other countries do it? How did they approach agricultural development, poverty reduction, industrial transformation, governance, science, technology and innovation, as well as formalization? Drawing on experiences and lessons from other countries and the history of industrialization, the book presents lessons in utilizing natural resources for socio-economic transformation. The book ends by presenting a synthesis of key messages and recommendations for Tanzanias path from Poverty to prosperity. The road from poverty to prosperity is complex and circuitous. But it is not insurmountable. With a leadership that has a clear vision and integrity, Tanzanians can move towards a robust, happy healthy and prosperous future.Tanzania has development goals and targets spelt out clearly in the National Development Vision 2025. With adequate ingredients of growth, particularly investment in human capital, science, technology, innovation, good governance, visionary and strong-minded leadership coupled with patriotic vision, priorities, focus, consistency and discipline of action, the country will be able to reach the envisaged destination while the clock is ticking.Item Impact of Credit on Attitude towards Risks among Micro-enterprise Operators: A case of Morogoro in Tanzania(2005) Selejio, Onesimo; Mduma, John K.Intervention with credit in micro-enterprises is crucial for the establishment and growth of micro-enterprises. Intervention of this sort, however, induces changes in the behavior and attitude towards risks depending on the repayment mechanisms in place. From the entrepreneurial spirit, after accessing the loan, the borrowing agents are likely to make decisions that are associated with higher risks than would have been otherwise. However, if the repayment mechanisms are so draconian, the opposite can occur; making micro-enterprise operators more risk averse, who like to maintain the status quo, and who only strive to be able to service the loan in terms of meeting the repayment requirements. Using a case study of Morogoro region in Tanzania, the study finds that the repayment motive outweigh the entrepreneurial acumen induced by credit, making operators who have borrowed more risk averse than the potential borrowers. We argue that this tendency hinder initiatives to go for large amount of credit in the subsequent rounds and retards the expansion and growth of microenterprises. This finding points to the needs for new repayment mechanisms that reduce the tradeoff between the maximization of the repayment rates and the further development of entrepreneurial spirit.Item Impact of Smoking on Nutrition and the Food Poverty Level in Tanzania(2015) Kidane, Asmerom W.; Mduma, John K.; Naho, Alexis; Hu, Teh W.This study considers the effect of household cigarette expenditure on food poverty indicators in Tanzania. We first compare expenditure patterns as well as the household size of non-smokers and smokers. We find that the majority of non-smokers and smokers have low incomes, and that the mean total per capita expenditure (proxy for income) of non-smokers is slightly higher than those of smokers. On the other hand, the mean household size of non-smokers was smaller compared to that of smokers suggesting that smokers should have spent more on food. Next, we estimate and compare daily calorie intake between both groups. Almost 19 percent of non-smokers were found to be below the poverty line. The corresponding value for smokers was almost 24 percent. Estimates from a multiple linear regression on the determinants of per capita daily calorie intake reveal that per capita cigarette consumption appears to negatively affect daily calorie intake significantly. Given that the majority of all respondents belong to a low income group, this suggests that expenditure on cigarettes may be at the expense of calorie intake.Item Point density estimation of Changes in Income Polarization in Tanzania, 1992-2001(2013) Mduma, John K.Data from two Household Budget Surveys in 1991-1992 and 2000-2001 in Tanzania indicate that there is no change in inequality between the two surveys. In spite of this finding, and impressive macroeconomic gains, there is growing discontent throughout the country because of the belief that the change from socialist to market policies has worsened income inequality. In this chapter, the authors argue that the Gini index fails to capture some inconspicuous trends in the income distribution, particularly the problem of polarization across space. Using polarization measures based on point density estimation of alienation and identification, they analyze changes in the distribution of household income in Tanzania in the 1990s. Unlike analyses that rely on the Gini index, the authors find that polarization increased significantly between 1992 and 2001. They also find evidence of increased spatial variability across regions and lack of spatial convergence of household incomes.Item Regional Health Sector Performances in Tanzania: A Comparison of Various Aggregating Schemes(2007) Mduma, John K.In Tanzania, the Ministry of Health publishes the Heath Statistics Abstract, which contains several indicators of health performance disaggregated on regional level. For policy intervention at the regional level, it is necessary to have an indicator which is able to consistently rank the performance of each region. Given that there are several indicators which show the performance of each region, such comparison is not straight forward. One option is to create an aggregated index/indicator from the given standard indicators. We develop such Unified Health Performance Index (UHPI) based in several performance indicators collected in the 1990s. In the construction of the UHPI, the weights of different standard health performance indicators are derived by applying the benefit-of-the-doubt weighting method, which gives regions some freedom to emphasize and prioritize some aspects of indicators, which they perform best over others. The results of our index are compared with those based on simple averages, simple rankings and their policy implications are discussed.Item Technical Efficiency of Smallholder Farmers in Malawi in the Post-Reform Era: Which Policies Matter Most?(2005) Tchale, Hardwick; Kumwenda, Ian; Wobst, Peter; Mduma, John K.The development of Malawian smallholder agriculture has since the 1980s gone through many challenges and there are fears that this may have been a precursor to unsustainable agricultural intensification and worsening poverty. In this paper, we conduct an empirical assessment of smallholder technical efficiency and its determinants using farm household and plot data. We use a non-parametric frontier analysis to analyze the technical efficiency of farmers in the maize-based mixed farming systems. In addition, we use a regression-based estimation to assess the socio-economic and policy related factors that may explain the estimated levels of technical efficiency. The results indicate low to medium levels of technical efficiency, depending on crop variety and soil fertility management option used. Higher levels of relative technical efficiency are obtained when farmers use integrated soil fertility options compared to the use of inorganic fertilizer only. Of the policy variables included in the analysis, agricultural input and output market, credit and extension access strongly influence smallholder technical efficiency. Government needs to resuscitate these public policy issues in order to effectively address sustainability of Malawian agriculture and its impact on poverty.Item Village Level Labor Market Development in Tanzania : Evidence from Spatial Econometrics(2005) Mduma, John K.; Wobst, PeterWhile many empirical studies show that participation in rural labor markets is an important household livelihood strategy, data on Tanzania show that the participation in the rural labor markets is still relatively low. This study examines the factors behind the development of village labor markets in Tanzania. Using spatial econometric techniques, the study shows that, despite their incipient development, rural labor markets in Tanzania are significantly interlinked across space. Furthermore, underlying factors for development of rural labor markets, such as access to roads and availability of credit, have varying impact across space. This implies that policy interventions would also have varying effects over space. The study shows that most of the policy interventions for promoting rural labor markets are likely to have greater impact in the northern (eastern) parts of the country than in the southern (western) part of the Tanzania.