Browsing by Author "Mekonnen, Alemu (PhD)"
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Item Households’ Willingness to Pay for Environmental Practices: An Implication of Eco-Labeling for Leather Products in Ethiopia(Addis Ababa University, 2007-01) Gebreselassie, Solomon; Mekonnen, Alemu (PhD)Eco-labels are becoming important market based instruments to influence the behavior of consumers and industry in favor of environmentally-friendly products. This study examined households’ willingness to pay (WTP) a premium for environmental attributes of leather products in a hypothetical market. An eco-labeling scheme is used to differentiate leather products. Data was collected using two-stage sampling. First purposive sampling is used to select two kebeles based on their relative distance from the pollution source and polluted river. Next 300 households are selected using systematic random sampling. Descriptive statistics and an ordered probit model are used to analyse the data set. The result revealed that the majority of the households agreed that environmental pollution caused by conventional leather processing is a problem to the livelihood of the people. Besides, almost all respondents acknowledged the importance of the shift of production techniques from conventional to environmentally friendly production techniques. With regard to eco-labeling scheme, almost all respondents supported the programme. About 75% of the respondents are willing to pay a premium for environmental practices. The results suggest that monthly income, family size and location significantly affect willingness to pay. Finally, the findings in this study showed that there is a market for ecolabeled leather products. Therefore eco-labeling could be used as an important market instrument to complement mandatory laws and regulation for environmental protection.Item Impact of Population Growth on the Ethiopian Economic Performance(Addis Ababa University, 2014-06) Alemu, Kassahun; Mekonnen, Alemu (PhD)Ethiopia is the second populous country in Africa while it is one of the Sub-Saharan Countries trapped by poverty. Her population is increasing at an average rate of 2.5%. Thus the objective of this study to examine whether population growth has its own bad effects on the Ethiopian economy Population may be considered a major factor for the abject poverty trap of the country in the period 1970/71-1990/91 since per capita income was very low. Although there has been registered improvement of economic performance since 2004/05, population growth has been still high though the rate has been decreasing. Econometric analysis has shown that population growth has had a significant negative impact in the short run but that of positive impact in the long run on the economic performance of the country. Thus realisticpopulation policies should be designed and implemented to adjust/control high rate of population growth and make it a beneficial resource for the economy. For instance minimizing high birth rate can be an effective policy instrument since high birth rate can be a burden on the economy. Moreover, further research should be done to identify productivity of population.Item Public Expenditure in Ethiopia: Trend and its Significance(Addis Ababa University, 2014-06) Assefa, Zerihun; Mekonnen, Alemu (PhD)Improvement of life of citizens through public expenditure has raised questions for a number of years. Moreover, different theories were framed and varieties of policies were articulated on the importance of public expenditure and its significance to growth. This paper examines the impact of public expenditure (disaggregated into recurrent and capital expenditure) on economic growth from 1973 to 2005 E.C. Three variable multiple regression model was adopted while recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure were used as independent variables and gross domestic product - GDP, as dependent variable. The results suggest that both recurrent public expenditure and capital expenditure had positive and significant impact on economic growth. This necessitates the government to follow a parallel movement among these expenditures and avoid doing one at the expense of another as the nation should not be starved today for the return of tomorrow. Moreover, trend of capital expenditure is increasing that, if continued, shows the country‟s bright future in capital investment if it is properly managed and free from misallocation.Item Valuation of the Benefits of Out-Door Recreation using the Travel Cost Method: The Case of Wabi-Shebele Langano Recreation Site(Addis Ababa University, 2003-06) Enyew, Sitotaw; Mekonnen, Alemu (PhD)Out door recreation is a human activity that increases visitors’ utility. The demand for outdoor recreation has been increasing with the increase in population, income and mobility. There is, however, limited natural and financial resource for the provision of outdoor recreation. Thus, there is a need to have a quantitative estimate of economic benefit of outdoor recreation site so as to properly and efficiently allocate scarce resources. It is also important to estimate how much value people attach to the site in order to demonstrate how the Wabi Shebele Langano recreation site managers can extract revenue out of the excess benefit and improve the qualities of the recreation experience and expand the types and varieties of the services. Individual Travel Cost Method (ITCM) is employed to measure the recreational economic benefits from Wabi Shebele Langano recreaton site. ITCM is preferred to Zonal TCM because almost all visitors of Wabi Shebele Langano recreation area come from one area, i.e. Addis Ababa, though there are some foreigners who come from abroad as well as few visitors who visit the site as they pass-by. In the selection of a model we have taken into account the fact that number of visits, which is the dependent variable, is truncated. In this study, travel costs, visitors’ income, age, level of education, family size, acquaintance with the site, experience on other similar sites and being the head of the family were found to be major determinants of visits to the site. Using truncated Poisson model, the annual recreational benefit of the site was estimated to be Birr8, 685,774(USD 1,009,974) implying that the site authorities collected 20.87% of this sum.Therefore, this quantitative valuation may help policy makers make policy-oriented decisions on the area for better planning and management of the environmental resources. Furthermore, the study could inspire other researchers to do rigorous research work on the area. Key words: Recreational benefit; Travel cost method; Truncated model