Agriculture and Manufacturing Sector Growth in Namibia During the Period 1981 to 2012: A Granger Causality Test

Milner Siboleka

Division of Monitoring and Evaluation, Directorate Special Programs, Ministry of Health and Social Services, P/Bag 13198, Windhoek, Namibia

Jacob M. Nyambe *

Department of Economics, University of Namibia, P/Bag 13301, Windhoek, Windhoek, Namibia

Rigmar Osterkamp

School for Political Studies at Munich University, Ludwigstr. 8, D-80539 Munich, Germany

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.


Abstract

Namibia became independent in 1990. Since then, the democratic government has pursued various development policy tools to empower Namibians economically. The 4th National Development Plan identified four strategic economic growth enhancing activities, namely agriculture, manufacturing, logistics and tourism. Agriculture remains the largest employer while manufacturing, logistics and tourism are growing, but slowly. This paper is premised on investigating whether or not there is a causal and long term relationship between agriculture and manufacturing sector growth over the period 1981-2012. Ascertaining the direction of the relationship is part of the objectives. Analytical methods that were used include unit root, correlation test and a Granger Causality model. With the use of time series data, the results confirmed stationarity of the data. With 31 observations, no causal relationships were established between agriculture and manufacturing in Namibia. Appropriate policy interventions are required to influence how the two sectors should benefit from each other. Such holds potential for both sustained employment creation opportunities and economic growth in Namibia.

Keywords: Stationarity, causality, correlation


How to Cite

Siboleka, Milner, Jacob M. Nyambe, and Rigmar Osterkamp. 2014. “Agriculture and Manufacturing Sector Growth in Namibia During the Period 1981 to 2012: A Granger Causality Test”. Journal of Economics, Management and Trade 4 (11):1700-1707. https://doi.org/10.9734/BJEMT/2014/9299.

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