Economic policy, does It help life expectancy? an african evidence of the role of economic policy on longevity.

This paper evaluates some factors that affect longevity in Africa, with the aim of offering an insight on how government economic policy and consumption spending affect the lives of people in developing countries. Government economic policy was found to be contributing in a negative manner to life expectancy in the countries in our sample. It was also found that apathy between the civil service (the embodiment of institutions) and political office holders to be the greatest stumbling block against the success of governmental economic policy, this creates a hole in institutions since they remain the pipe through which revenue is disbursed and policies are implemented for the general good of the populace. After interacting institution with economic policy economic policy had significant effect on life expectancy it was likely that institutions were either circumvented or ignored, leading to possible short comings on the overall effect that government economic policy would have had on life expectancy

Foreign Aid and African Exporters: Help or Harm?

Abstract Export growth is pursued by many developing countries as a path to economic prosperity. Consistent with this goal, many foreign donors have attempted to use aid to promote African exporters. The relationship between foreign aid and exports is a complex one as aid comes from different sources and has varied destinations in the recipient country. In this paper, we utilize a panel data set of African countries from 1970-2008 to examine the impact of foreign aid on exports. The results find that aid designated for sectors such as infrastructure and education have a positive impact on exports while those going to agriculture and industry do not. Results also show that both multilateral and bilateral aid has a positive impact on exports. Also, less concessionary official development assistance does at least as well, if not better, in boosting exports as does more grant-based effective development assistance. There is significant evidence that natural resources and foreign aid are being viewed by donors, and functioning, as complements. Evidence finds that sound economic policy by the recipient to be an important factor in export growth and that better policy can act as a substitute for foreign aid. These results suggest the important of properly directing aid to the right sectors and promoting sound economic policies by recipient countries. Keywords: Foreign Aid, Exports, Natural Resources, Afric

Foreign Aid and African Exporters: Help or Harm

Export growth is pursued by many developing countries as a path to economic prosperity.  Consistent with this goal, many foreign donors have attempted to use aid to promote African exporters.  The relationship between foreign aid and exports is a complex one as aid comes from different sources and has varied destinations in the recipient country.  In this paper, we utilize a panel data set of African countries from 1970-2008 to examine the impact of foreign aid on exports.  The results find that aid designated for sectors such as infrastructure and education have a positive impact on exports while those going to agriculture and industry do not.  Results also show that both multilateral and bilateral aid has a positive impact on exports.  Also, less concessionary official development assistance does at least as well, if not better, in boosting exports as does more grant-based effective development assistance. There is significant evidence that natural resources and foreign aid are being viewed by donors, and functioning, as complements.  Evidence finds that sound economic policy by the recipient to be an important factor in export growth and that better policy can act as a substitute for foreign aid.  These results suggest the important of properly directing aid to the right sectors and promoting sound economic policies by recipient countries. Keywords: Foreign Aid, Exports, Natural Resources, Afric

Does Foreign Aid Promote Trade? Evidence from Some Selected African Countries

Will aid given to specific sector promote growth? Will bilateral aid be more effective than multilateral aid in export promotion? This paper fills a gap in the literature by studying the implications of aid channeled specifically to trade and export oriented growth.Many African Countries look towards increase in trade driven growth as a means of improving living standards and boosting growth of their economies. Aid given to trade in desperately poor countries can be of tremendous advantage to such countries. We investigate some peculiar components of temporal self limiting aid (often referred to as development assistance)to sectors that can affect trade in developing countries. Aid to four sectors was found to have significant impact on trade although the presence of natural resources tends to reduce the effectiveness of aid in promoting trade. Institutions and government economic policies were also found to be weak in the African countries in our sample reducing aid overall effect on trad

Estimating the long run effects of exchange rate devaluation on the trade balance of Nigeria.

This paper attempts an empirical investigation of the impact of currency devaluation on Nigeria trade balance using the Johansen co-integration and variance decomposition analyses from 1970-2010; whether exchange rate devaluation improves or worsens trade balance has been at the centre of literature debate over time with varying empirical evidences for developed and developing nation. The empirical results indicate that there exist a long-run stationary relationship between trade balance and its determinant- domestic income, domestic and foreign money supply, domestic interest rate and nominal exchange rate; as employed in the study. Also, there exists an inelastic and significant relation between trade balance and its determinants. Our major findings include; exchange rate induce an inelastic and significant relation on trade balance in the long run, there exist no short run causality from exchange rate to trade balance and money supply volatility contributes more to variance in trade balance than exchange rate volatility. The paper concludes with important implications for policy makers because it provides evidence supporting that fact that level of money supply has a major impact on trade balance adjustment and that devaluation of the exchange rate worsens the trade balance of Nigeria in the long run