The dynamic impact of structural adjustment policies on labour market and macroeconomic aggregates in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper employs a nonstructural technique to analyze the dynamic effects of two key structural adjustment policy instruments on the economics of some African countries. In particular, the paper evaluates the policies in the labour market and on two important macroeconomic variables. The general conclusion is that the policies are not effective in influencing the labour market either in the short-run or in the long-run for most of the African countries. In contrast, the policies have a moderate dynamic effect on the macroeconomic variables. The impulse response functions derived from the VAR suggest that the effects of the policies, if significant, are felt at different time periods. Also, different countries respond to these policies differently. An Important implication of the results is that, these policies alone may not be able to significantly arrest the poverty problem which is inimical in African countries.