Environmental Challenge and Water Access in Africa: Empirical Evidences based on Nigeria’s Households Survey

One of the environmental challenges is the effect on water availability and water-related diseases accounts for 80 percent of sicknesses in developing countries. Despite this, there has remained increasing research on poverty reduction, with little emphasis on water access particularly in Africa. Using micro-level data from survey conducted by the World Bank and National Bureau of Statistics, covering over 5,000 households and 27,000 household members across the 36 States of Nigeria, the study formulates an econometric model. The results from logistic regression analysis show that the main determinants of households access to water include: age of the household members, the marital status, the sector where the household member works, the type of employment, the number of working hours, access to informal means of financial credit and the income level of the household, among others. Some recommendations on how to boost water access of households are made in the study

On the solvency of firms: Can government's intervention reduce external financing of firms' workingcapital in Nigeria?

This chapter intends to examine the relationship between government incentives and the mode of firms' finance oftheir operation in Nigeria. Specifically, it does relate the solvency of the firm with the quality of their financing decisions andobserved if government incentives such as creation of export processing zones and industrial parks will affect the firm'sdecision of depending on external versus internal financing. Methodology/approach - The results presented in this chapterare based on analysis of a firm-level data taken from the 2014 firm-level survey of the World Bank's Enterprise Surveyproject for Nigeria. Different estimation techniques are applied for robustness and sensitivity. They include both theparametric and nonparametric regression approach. Findings - The robust estimations show that firms that benefit from thegovernment incentives tend to use more of internal funding to finance their operation unlike firms that are non-beneficiaries.In addition smaller firms are going to benefit more from the incentives than older firms, and less profitable firms are alsogoing to use more of internal financing if they benefit from government incentives. Practical implications - This chapter willbe helpful for both research and teaching for undergraduate and post-graduate students. Importantly, its analysis and resultwill be useful for policy makers and their allies. Originality/value - This chapter discusses solvency issues by considering thefinancing decision of firms, which is an important aspect in the going concern of firms. Copyright © 2016 by Emerald GroupPublishing Limited

Environmental pollution policy of small businesses in Nigeria and Ghana: extent and impact

This study provides a comprehensive assessment of firms’ operation and environmental protection polices in Nigeria and Ghana, where there has been a rising industrial growth amidst low regulatory and institutional frameworks. We analyze the extents to which firms’ adoption of environmental protection policies affect their performances. We use firm-level data of 842 firms (447 for Nigeria and 395 for Ghana) distributed across different regions of both countries for our descriptive and econometric estimations. We find, among other things, that firms’ adoption of internal policies on environmental protection is dismally low in both Nigeria (32%) and Ghana (17%), with policies focused on reducing solid (38%, Nigeria; and 35%, Ghana), gaseous (22%, Nigeria; and 44%, Ghana), and liquid (24%, Nigeria; and 14%, Ghana) pollution. Training appears to be an important intervention that can help improve firms’ adoption of such policies. We also found that firms’ adoption and implementation of environmental protection policies significantly improve their performance

How Terrorism Explains Capital Flight from Africa

We assess the effects of terrorism on capital flight in a panel of 29 African countries for which data is available for the period 1987-2008. The terrorism dynamics entail domestic, transnational, unclear and total terrorisms. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) with forward orthogonal deviations and Quantile regressions (QR). The following findings are established. First, for GMM, domestic, unclear and total terrorisms consistently increase capital flight, with the magnitude relative higher from unclear terrorism. Second, for QR: (i) the effect of transnational terrorism is now positively significant in the top quantiles (0.75th and 0.90th) of the capital flight distribution, (ii) domestic and total terrorisms are also significant in the top quantiles and (iii) unclear terrorism is significant in the 0.10th and 0.75th quantiles. Policy implications are discussed

Reforming of Women’s Litigant Rights and Child Wellbeing: Evidence from Nigeria

Does a legal reform with patriarchal interpretations of the religious law codes affect the wellbeing of the children? In this study, we show that reforming the legal system by adopting a religious law, with high enforcement in some Nigerian states, affects a woman's bargaining power and utility outside marriage, which could adversely affect a child's wellbeing. We find empirical support for this framework by using a difference-in-differences design that exploits variation in the women's religion, the state of residence, and the period of reform enforcement in Nigeria. The findings of this paper reveal that women exposed to the reforms are likely to report poor health investment and poor health outcomes in their children. The potential pathways through which the reform affects child wellbeing include early marriage entry and a decline in a woman's intra-household bargaining power

Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning Beyond the Environmental Kuznets Curve in Africa: Evidence from Panel Cointegration Beyond the Environmental Kuznets Curve in Africa: Evidence from Panel Cointegration

ABSTRACT The main objective of this study is to establish the applicability of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in explaining the relationship between environmental pollution and development in Africa. The EKC has been used to explain such relationships in a variety of contexts, yet rarely applied in Africa, despite it hosting both the poorest countries in the world, 60% of those with extreme environmental pollution vulnerability and having a distinct socio-economic and institutional profile that tests the validity of such a model. This paper describes an empirical model that applies the EKC hypothesis and its modifications to 50 African countries, using data from 1995 -2010. The empirical analysis suggests that there is a long-term relationship between CO 2 and particulate matter emissions with per capita income and other variables, including institutional factors and trade, leading to specific recommendations on future strategies for sustainable development in an African context