Nancy Nafula

Bio: Nancy Nafula is an academic researcher from Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis. The author has contributed to research in topics: Poverty & Primary education. The author has an hindex of 12, co-authored 14 publications receiving 444 citations.

Achieving Universal Primary Education: Can Kenya Afford it?

Abstract: Kenya has experienced a rapid expansion of the education system partly due to high government expenditure on education. Despite the high level of expenditure on education, primary school enrolment has been declining since early 1990s and until 2003 when gross primary school enrolment increased to 104 percent after the introduction of free primary education. However, with an estimated net primary school enrolment rate of 77 percent, the country is far from achieving universal primary education. The worrying scenario is that the allocations of resources within the education sector seems to be ineffective as the increasing expenditure on education goes to recurrent expenditure (to pay teachers salaries). Kenya's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the Economic Recovery Strategy for wealth and Employment Creation (ERS) outlines education targets of reaching universal primary education by 2015. The Government is faced with budget constrains and therefore the available resources need to be allocated efficiently in order to realize the education targets. The paper uses Budget Negotiation Framework (BNF) to analyze the cost effective ways of resource allocation in the primary education sector to achieve universal primary education and other education targets. Budget Negotiation Framework is a tool that aims at achieving equity and efficiency in resource allocation. Results from the analysis shows that universal primary education by the year 2015 is a feasible target for Kenya. The results also show that with a more cost- effective spending of education resources - increased trained teachers, enhanced textbook supplies and subsidies targeting the poor - the country could realize higher enrolment rates than what has been achieved with free primary education.

Achieving sustainable universal primary education through debt relief : the case of Kenya

Abstract: This study critically reviews the education sector in Kenya and the challenges facing the sector in achieving universal primary schooling. The study argues that the introduction of cost-sharing system in Kenya has resulted in high dropout and repetition r

The decline in primary school enrolment in Kenya

Abstract: Since independence in 1963, Kenya has invested substantial resources in the education sector. For almost twenty-five years, these investments and other government policies led to impressive gains in educational access at all levels. However, since the mid- to late 1980s there appears to have been an erosion in educational participation and a reversal of the gains achieved in previous decades. Motivated by this trend, this paper uses temporal, cross-section and pseudo-panel data to assess the plausibility of various factors that may be responsible for the decline in primary school educational enrolment. In particular, we consider the role of school fees, school inputs and curriculum, school availability, the expected benefits of education and the spread of HIVsAIDS. We also try to identify the most effective policy interventions that may be used to prevent further declines in primary school enrolment rates. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Costs And Benefits Of Eliminating Child Labour In Kenya

Abstract: Estimates the number of child workers by age, gender and type of labour, and the economic value of their work. Computes economic and health benefits of expanded education to students' future households and the country's economy.

An Assessment of the Impact of HIV/AIDS on Economic Growth: The Case of Kenya

Abstract: HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa has been closely associated with adverse economic effects, and could thwart the success of poverty reduction initiatives. HIV/AIDS is fast eroding the health benefits, which Kenya gained in the first two decades of independence. The paper explores the different channels through which HIV/AIDS affects economic growth in a low-income country like Kenya. Within this framework, the paper attempts to analyse the impact of HIV/AIDS on Kenya’s economic growth by way of simulations using a macroeconomic model for the Kenyan economy. Some of the key channels explored are the impact of HIV/AIDS on productivity and labour force supply; asset accumulation of human, physical and social capital; and the gender channel.

Signaling and Screening of Workers' Motivation

Abstract: This paper develops a model in which workers to a certain extent enjoy working. We examine the implications of workers' intrinsic motivation for optimal monetary incentive schemes. We show that motivated workers work harder and, for a given level of effort, are willing to work for a lower wage. When people differ in their motivation to work at a particular firm, the profits of the firm depend on its capability to attract and select highly motivated workers. We show that when the firm has all the bargaining power and workers face application cost, the firm needs to commit to a minimum wage offer in order to attract workers. A higher minimum wage increases the probability to fill the vacancy, but decreases the expected average quality of job applicants, as it induces lower motivated workers to apply. The optimal level of the minimum wage depends on whether or not the firm can observe the motivation of the applicants. If applicants can credibly signal their motivation, a minimum wage not only helps to attract workers, but also to select the best-motivated worker among the job applicants.

Decentralized Taxation and the Size of Government: Evidence from Swiss State and Local Governments

Abstract: According to the Leviathan-Model, fiscal federalism is seen as a binding constraint on a revenue-maximizing government. The competitive pressure of fiscal federalism is supposed to reduce public sector size as compared to unitary states. However, empirical results concerning the Leviathan hypothesis are mixed. This study uses a state and local-level panel data set of Swiss cantons from 1980 to 1998 to empirically analyze the effect of different federalist institutions on the size and structure of government revenue. Because of the considerable tax autonomy of sub-national Swiss governments, it is possible to investigate different mechanisms by which fiscal federalism may influence government size. The results indicate that tax exporting has a revenue expanding effect whereas tax competition favors a smaller size of government. Fragmentation has essentially no effect on the size of government revenue for Swiss cantons. The overall effect of revenue decentralization leads to lower tax revenue but higher user charges. Thus, revenue decentralization favors a smaller size of government revenue and shifts government revenue from taxes to user charges.

Patent Pools and Cross-Licensing in the Shadow of Patent Litigation*

Abstract: This paper develops a framework to analyze the incentives to form a patent pool or engage in cross-licensing arrangements in the presence of uncertainty about the validity and coverage of patents that makes disputes inevitable. It analyzes the private incentives to litigate and compares them with the social incentives. It shows that pooling arrangements can have the effect of sheltering invalid patents from challenges. This result has an antitrust implication that patent pools should not be permitted until after patentees have challenged the validity of each other’s patents if litigation costs are not too large.