Effect of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRS) and absorptive capacity on research & development (R&D): empirical evidences in developing economies

This study investigates the impact of IPRs protection and absorptive capacity on research and development (R&D) expenditure in developing economies. Utilizing panel data from 2009-2014 for a sample of 41 developing countries and applying the SystemGMM estimator, we reached important conclusions. The estimated results show that IPRs protection has a positive and significant impact on R&D, however, absorptive capacity does not have a significant impact on R&D when estimated separately. The effect changes when we consider the interaction of the both variables, such that there exists a negative relationship between the interaction variables. This indicates that stronger level in IPRs protection hinders R&D efforts in the country with an inadequate level of absorptive capacity. The results also imply that both appropriate levels of IPRs protection and adequate level of absorptive capacity are necessary to increase R&D activities in the host developing countries

Growth, volatility and education: panel evidence from developing countries

The investigation of the growth-volatility link is an important one in empirical macroeconomics. There is no empirical evidence supporting the predictions of recent theoretical models that incorporate and explicitly recognize the role of human capital in this link. The objective of the study is to examine whether the significance of volatility-growth relationship varies according to the average years of education. Using a panel data, we empirically show how the detrimental effect of output volatility on growth is diluted by education. The main contribution of our work is that while the level of volatility negatively affects growth, the effect is mediated via education. This is true even for countries with low as well as moderately high levels of volatility. This finding is consistent with Canton’s (2000) theoretical work. We also provide robustness checks and policy implications of our finding

Remittances, poverty and human capital: evidence from developing countries

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between remittances and poverty through the human capital channel in developing countries, which has received less attention in the literature. Design/methodology/approach: The paper applied the system GMM developed by Arellano and Bond (1991) and Arellano and Bover (1995) containing 54 developing countries. This estimator is appropriate compared to a cross-section technique because it controls for the endogeneity of all explanatory variables, includes unobserved country-specific effects and allows for the inclusion of lagged dependent variables. Findings: The results suggest that, while remittances reduced poverty, the effect is moderated via education. A 1 percent increase in remittances reduces the poverty headcount by 0.47 percent, while the reduction is 0.33 percent via education. The marginal effect of remittances is negatively related to the level of education, indicating that education mitigates the effect of remittances on poverty. Practical implications: This paper includes the implications for the policymakers to justify the need for more effective approaches. It is useful to identify whether and how remittances and human capital interact in their effect on poverty when deciding the most desirable allocation of available resources between these two priorities. Originality/value This paper takes a step forward filling the limited evidence on the role of human capital in remittances–poverty relationship in developing countries. Different from the existing studies which have used the traditional panel estimators, this study utilizes the dynamic panel estimators such as system GMM to tackle the specification issues of endogeneity, measurement errors and heterogeneity

Modelling tourism demand from United Kingdom to Maldives: a cointegration analysis

Maldives depends heavily on tourism industry. According to 2016 Tourism Yearbook, the demand for international tourism remains robust despite political and economic conflicts around the world. In 2015, tourist arrivals grew at a pace of 4% exceeding the long-term average (3.8%) for the sixth consecutive years (Ministry of Tourism, Maldives, 2016). Europe has been one of the major market generators for Maldives tourism since 1990’s. At the end of 2015, United Kingdom was the third largest market with 7.5% market share behind Germany and China. The aim of this paper is to examine the short run and long run demand for tourism to Maldives by United Kingdom. Using quarterly data from 2006Q1 to 2016Q4, the paper examines the significance of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of United Kingdom, tourism price and cost, as well as exchange rate in determining the important factors for tourist arrivals. The paper employs a cointegration approach that is the bounds testing approach within the ARDL framework which has been used previously in tourism demand model. The findings are consistent with the theory and existing literature whereby income, tourism price and transportation cost are important determinants for tourism demand in Maldives

Determinants of crime in Malaysia: evidence from developed states

Despite the alarming statistics and growing concerns over crime, the study of crime in Malaysia has received little attention and is largely neglected by the literature on crime in general. Thus, this study is an attempt to add to the existing literature on crime research in developing countries, specifically, in Malaysia. This study aims to determine the socioeconomic and socio-demographic determinants of crime in four developed states of Malaysia from 1990 to 2008. The study utilises fixed effects to examine the determinants of crime in selected states. The findings reveal that GDP per capita, unemployment rate, population density and the number of police officers are significant determinants of total and property crime. On the other hand, violent crime is determined by population density and number of police officers only. The robustness test shows that both population density and the number of police officers are the determinants of property and violent crimes

Impact of globalization on unemployment in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries

This study examined the impact of globalization on unemployment in 35 countries in Sub-Saharan African for the period 2007-2014. The study period and number of countries used are based on data availability. The system generalized method of moments estimation technique was applied because unemployment is considered a dynamic phenomenon. The empirical findings shows that aggregated globalization measures (economic, social and political) significantly impact unemployment rate in SSA while among the components of globalization, only political globalization reduces unemployment. Economic growth rate and labour market regulations are significant and negatively related to unemployment while wage rate and inflation increases the rate of unemployment. Maintaining a low level of inflation is key to address the unemployment problems because the results suggest that stagflation exist in the case of SSA at the moment. Therefore, policies aimed at reducing the rate of unemployment should focus on low inflation rate, political globalization, labour market regulation and economic growth. Policies should also ensure that the regulations of the labour market are more flexible so as to benefit from globalization which can impact significantly on unemployment rate

The impact of gender equality on education inequality: a global analysis based on GMM dynamic panel estimation

Gender and education inequalities are a widespread phenomenon. This study investigates the impact of gender equality and its sub-indices on education inequality using panel data of 103 countries, over the period 2006-2014. Results reveal, by employing the System Generalize Method of Moment (Sys-GMM) estimation method, gender equality and its subindices of gender equality; health and survival, economic participation and opportunity and political empowerment gender equality exert a significant negative effect on education inequality, indicating that higher gender equality between males and females results in lower education inequality. GDP per capita, schooling and democracy have a negative and significant effect on education inequality. Conversely, unemployment, population density and dependency have a positive and significant impact on education distribution. Finally, the result implies that higher gender equality is the primary pathway to lower education inequality or achieving greater fairness in education access

The effect of the gender equality on income inequality : a dynamic panel approach

This study investigates the effects of gender equality on income inequality along with several dimensions of gender equality using panel data of 103 countries for the period of 2006-13. We use the dynamic econometric method system Generalized Method of Moments (Sys-GMM) to explore the link between these two variables. The empirical evidence shows a negative and significant impact of gender equality and its sub-indices on income distribution, suggesting that by increasing equality between males and females will result in lower income inequality. GDP per capita has nonlinear effect income inequality. Education attainment has a negative effect on income distribution, while higher inflation rate increases income inequality. This analysis implies that by narrowing the gender gap or increasing equality between males and females will effectively contributes to expanding equality in income

The effect of the gender equality on income inequality: a dynamic panel approach

This study investigates the effects of gender equality on income inequality along with several dimensions of gender equality using panel data of 103 countries for the period of 2006-13. We use the dynamic econometric method system Generalized Method of Moments (Sys-GMM) to explore the link between these two variables. The empirical evidence shows a negative and significant impact of gender equality and its sub-indices on income distribution, suggesting that by increasing equality between males and females will result in lower income inequality. GDP per capita has nonlinear effect income inequality. Education attainment has a negative effect on income distribution, while higher inflation rate increases income inequality. This analysis implies that by narrowing the gender gap or increasing equality between males and females will effectively contributes to expanding equality in income

Exploring the asymmetric effect of oil price on exchange rate: Evidence from the top six African net oil importers

The paper investigates the oil price fluctuation on exchange rates for main African net oil importing countries, namely South Africa, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Ghana and Senegal that cover for the period from 1983Q2 to 2018Q4. In order to thoroughly examine the subject matter, this study takes a specific account of the symmetric and asymmetric effects of oil price changes in modelling process by utilizing innovative linear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique and asymmetric nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) technique, which accommodate the short-run and long-run asymmetries via positive (increase) and negative (decrease) partial sum decompositions of oil price shocks. The result suggests that the variables are cointegrated, signifying the evidence of long and short run relationships of each country. Evidence of long and short run asymmetries is also confirmed in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Senegal, suggesting that rising and declining oil price have different effect on exchange rate, while symmetric effect is observed in South Africa and Morocco. Rising oil price has positive effect on exchange rate in South Africa and Senegal leading to depreciation of exchange rate, while falling oil price leads to exchange rate appreciation of South Africa rand, Ghanaian cedi and Senegal francs but exchange rate depreciation of Moroccan dirham and Cote d’Ivoire francs. The result further suggests that negative decrease in oil price has a larger impact on exchange rate than the positive increase that varies in sign and size across countries. This suggests that oil price changes play a significance role that influence the behaviour of exchange rate and hence leading to contribute to the development of national economic progress