The Augmented Solow Model and the African Growth Debate

Using panel data the question whether Africa's growth performance can be accounted for is analyzed in the framework of the augmented Solow model. Our results indicate that this model can account for Africa's low growth performance, provided that we allow for unobserved country specific effects and the endogeneity of investment in estimating the parameters of the model.Growth, Panel Data Analysis, Sub-Saharan Africa

The Augmented Solow Model and the African Growth Debate.

Using panel data the question whether Africa's growth performance can be accounted for is analysed in the framework of the augmented Solow model. OLS levels results suggest that the model cannot fully account for Africa's low growth performance. However, these OLS estimates are likely to suffer from inconsistency and endogeneity problems. As our preferred estimation method we suggest the use of recently developed system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator. Our system GMM results indicate that the augmented Solow model can account for Africa's low growth performance, provided that we allow for unobserved country specific effects and the endogeneity of investment in estimating the parameters of the model. Hence, rather than concentrating research efforts on the analysis of a spurious Africa dummy, it may be more worthwhile to focus on the continent's low investment ratios and high population growth rates, which we found to be sufficient to explain Africa's low growth rates

Charity, social justice and sporting celebrity foundations

Within the research on sport and social protest, there has been little consideration on the role celebrity foundations might play. Through an analysis of the charity foundations of three of the world’s richest and most popular sport stars globally - Roger Federer, David Beckham and Andre Agassi - this paper maps the potential impacts of their foundations for activism and social justice. The paper argues that it is a particular kind of “soft activism’ that sporting celebrities engage in through their philanthropic organisations. Through their foundations, sporting figures operate as well-intentioned celebrities and institutional entrepreneurs who care from afar. Such work does not threaten the hierarchies and inequities built into the institutions of sport but instead legitimate a form of social activism that is fully enabled by and enabling of wider narratives of celebrities ‘doing good work’

Shocks and growth: adaptation, precaution and compensation.

In this paper we investigate how a wide array of types of shock arising from world prices, natural events, and political violence affect growth. Our results suggest that the impact from political shocks are far greater than from natural shocks. However, our preliminary cointegration results suggest that the cost from primary commodity exporting are very large. Potentially shocks can affect growth either due to their impact, or due to the volatility that repeated shocks generate. In our empirical investigation we find little evidence that volatility is a problem. We investigate the efficacy of economic structure and domestic as well as external policy responses to the various shocks. What can a government do to moderate the adverse effects of negative shocks and to make the most of favourable shocks? The answer appears to be that governments can do a lot, partly through policies that alter exposure, partly through policies that encourage adaptation and flexibility, and partly by precautionary policies. Countries at risk are better placed with lower levels of debt, smaller fiscal deficits, and larger reserves. In addition international assistance can help to mitigate the impact of shocks. Development assistance as well as remittances can cushion the adverse effect of shocks