Socio-economic Factors that Determine Employment in Tanzania: Spatial Analysis

Abstract

This paper investigates the socio-economic determinants of Employment in Tanzanian regions. It used the cross-sectional data of 2014 on several variables as this was found to be the most recent dataset in the Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics. Despite the impressive growth rates of 7 percent observed in Tanzania poverty hasn’t been reduced as expected, and employment has been static. The paper applies spatial techniques including spatial lag (SAR), spatial error (SEM) and spatial Durbin models to discover the spatial patterns of employment. SAR model was selected as all the variables, GDP per capita, the number of schools, and health services measured by a number of dispensaries were significant. Also, the direct and indirect effects were conducted and GDP per capita were significant and conforms to the theory. The study concludes that there was some regional dependency on some variables hence spatial approach is appropriate as it avoids biased, inefficient and inconsistent results.