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Research Output: Professor Reuben Adeolu Alabi, Department of Agricultural Economics, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria and Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Institute for World Economics and International Management, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany has finalized a new  research report on “Incidence of Public Health Expenditures in Nigeria”. It is published as Number 121 of the IWIM Blue Series Discussion Papers, January 2011. The research report was written with support of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation under a returnee fellowship agreement with the theme “Public Health Spending, Income Distribution and Poverty in Nigeria”  (link to IWIM Blue Series Discussion Paper Number 121, January 2011). Professor Karl Wohlmuth was the research supervisor.

Professor Alabi has already finalized at IWIM in Bremen a major research programme on “Public Education Spending, Income Distribution and Poverty in Nigeria” that was also funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and supervised by Professor Karl Wohlmuth. Some of the research results were published in the IWIM Blue Series Discussion Papers with the numbers 109, 114, 119, and 120. He is also one of the editors of the African Development Perspectives Yearbook of the Research Group on African Development Perspectives Bremen. He recently started a new research programme on “Agro-industry Development in West Africa” in cooperation with Professor Hans Heinrich Bass, Bremen University of Applied Sciences.

Sudan Governance Project Bremen: New Publication on the Implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) for Sudan (see the link to the information from the publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd), and Information on a New Book about Sudan on Institutions and investment in Sudan: Socio-Economic and Institutional Foundations of Reconstruction and Development (see the Abstract/Publication Information and the link to IWIM Book Series).

Inequality, Poverty and the Health Sector in Nigeria: Professor Dr. Reuben Adeolu Alabi, Department of Agricultural Economics, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma Edo State, Nigeria, e-mail: bayobimb@yahoo.com, and Fellow of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany

is again visiting Bremen in December 2010 to submit a research paper on the “Redistributive Impacts of Public Expenditures for the Health System in Nigeria”. The study was supervised by Professor Karl Wohlmuth and is financed by a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The Study will be published in the  IWIM Blue Series Discussion Papers. Professor Alabi has as well studied the redistributive impacts of public expenditures for the education system in Nigeria (for other papers of the author see the list of IWIM Blue Series Discussion Papers).

Economic Policies in Sudan after the Referendum of 2011:  Two papers are now prepared in this new research project for the SERG Discussion Paper Series (see the list of SERG publications ). Mister Berhanu Denu G., Addis Ababa University, prepares a research report on “An Agenda for Reconstruction and Development in Sudan and South Sudan”. The paper will focus on institution-building based on his new institutional economics approach; he researches the role of institutions for development during war and peace times in Sudan and South Sudan. Proposals for the establishment of new institutions to allow for a better coordination of economic policies between the North and the South are also made.

Another paper will be provided for the SERG Series by Professor Karl Wohlmuth, Bremen University, on “Learning from Economic Policy Failures in Sudan. Lessons for the North and for the South”. The paper will reflect also on the insights of economic policy-related researches on Sudan by the SERG (Sudan Economy Research Group). Many findings of the SERG researches on industry and small enterprise development policies; agricultural and agro-industrial policies; macroeconomic, public financial management and exchange rate policies; regional and spatial development policy; poverty reduction and human development policies; and on foreign trade and investment policies are still relevant, as most of the policy proposals based on these and similar analyses never had been implemented in Sudan because of bad governance and war and conflict (see the list of these SERG publications in alphabetical order  and also by subject areas.)

Comparing Agro-industrial Development Strategies in Africa: This is a project of UNIDO to find out the most suitable policies to develop agro-industries and to promote agribusiness in Africa. The country characteristics, the natural endowments and the regional interactions impact on the selection of sustainable strategies and policies. It is part of a research and advisory programme on Value Addition to Africa’s Industry by new Agro-Industrial Development Strategies that was inaugurated by the Director-General of UNIDO in February 2008. The Abuja Declaration (link), adopted at the recent Meeting of the African Heads of State and Government in Abuja, Nigeria, March 2010, reflects these new policies envisaged for Africa. UNIDO and six other regional and international organisations cooperate on these important issues. Programme and project components aim to identify suitable policy interventions at local, national, regional and global levels to stimulate in Africa value addition in industry and in agriculture. Professor Karl Wohlmuth continues to work as an International Consultant for UNIDO in the project.

Applied New Institutional Economics: Mister Berhanu Denu from Addis Ababa University has finished his book manuscript on “Institutions and Investment in Sudan/South Sudan”. He applies new institutional economics to explain the weaknesses of economic policy in Sudan since independence and the difficulties of institutional rehabilitation in South Sudan after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005. He uses a cross-section analysis to find out the role of institutional variables for investment. Institutional variables like an index of the quality of the legal system and the protection of property rights and an index of constraints on the executive power of the government matter in this context. He also analyses the transaction costs of doing now business in autonomous South Sudan. The main impediments for investments of entrepreneurs in South Sudan are outlined. The study will be of importance for further economic policy reforms in Sudan and south Sudan. The book will appear in the IWIM Book Series as the number 18 (link).

The study was funded by the Africa Research Programme of the Volkswagen Foundation in the frame of the Sudan Governance Project that was headed at the University of Bremen by Professor Karl Wohlmuth and Dr. Elke Grawert (see more about the Sudan Governance Project - Link). The project is finally closed by the end of the year. Dr. Elke Grawert, a former IWIM staff, is now working as Senior Researcher at the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC). A new project on Economic Policy in Sudan after the Referendum in 2011 will be started soon in Bremen. Major policy studies of the SERG (Sudan Economy Research Group) in Bremen are still relevant for the new era of economic reforms in Sudan after the Referendum of 2011 (see the SERG Publications List – Link).

Sudan Governance Project: New Publication " After the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan" (see details/link).

Economic Policy Responses to the Global Financial Crisis in Japan and Germany: The report of a conference held by the Bremen University of Applied Sciences in the House of Science Bremen, initiated by Professor Hans H. Bass, Bremen University of Applied Sciences, was recently published with support by the Deutsche Bundesbank. Professor Karl Wohlmuth has contributed with an essay on  Challenges for the Reform of  Labour and Employment Policies in Japan and in Germany to this edition (see for bibliographical details the List of Recent Publications at: http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/publikationen/pub-wohlmuth.htm ). Emphasis is in the essay on a comparison and an evaluation of government strategies to respond to the global financial crisis (see also the long version of the paper in IWIM Blue Series Discussion Papers Number 115 at: http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/files/dateien/1463_wohlmuth_japan_germany_layout_115_6_2009.pdf ).

There is long tradition of universities in Bremen to cooperate with the Aichi University in Toyohashi Japan. Professor Toshihiko Hozumi from the Faculty of Economics, Aichi University, Toyohashi and Professor Karl Wohlmuth from IWIM, University of Bremen have supported for many years a cooperation with exchanges of professors and students and with researches in a working group on “Schumpeter and Asian Dynamics” (see the Research Programme on “Technology and Global Economic Developments” at: http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/techonologie.htm , and see details about the IWIM Book Series volumes 7 and 9 with conference reports of the German-Japanese Working Group “Schumpeter and Asian Dynamics” at: http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/publikationen/pub-jwt.htm ).

The Sudan Economy Research Group (SERG) and the Governance Sudan Project (GSP) at the University of Bremen have produced a number of relevant studies that can be the base for discussions and analyses on the design of new economic strategies after the Referendum ( see Sudan Economy Research Group and Governance Sudan Project). Lists of selected SERG studies of relevance for the new project on Economic Policies in Sudan after the Referendum of 2011 are available in alphabetical order and by subjects (see the list of SERG Studies in alphabetical order  and also by subject areas)

Katharina Jantzen, a former IWIM staff, has successfully defended her dissertation in July 2010. She had studied in the GLOMAR PhD programme. GLOMAR is an institution of the University of Bremen financed by the Excellence Initiative of the Federal Republic of Germany. The dissertation will be published in the series German Maritime Studies. Professor Karl Wohlmuth was a member of the international Advisory Committee to guide her PhD programme on “Globalization and Regulation of Fisheries in the North Atlantic” (see the photo from the ceremony with Katharina Jantzen and members of the Examination Committee).