ICT for Sustainable Development: Global Comparative Evidence of Globalisation Thresholds

The objectives of this paper are to investigate the effect of ICT on sustainable development and the mechanisms through which the effect is modulated. The methodology involves the: (i) Fixed Effects estimator to control for individual heterogeneity, (ii) Driscoll and Kraay estimator to control for cross-section dependence between panels, (iii) the Mean Group estimator to take into account the averages between panel groups, (iv) the system GMM to correct for unobserved heterogeneity and simultaneity bias and (v) the instrumental variable Fixed Effects Tobit to take in to account the limited range in our dependent variable. The results show that ICT has a positive and significant effect on sustainable development. Whereas overall net effects are positive, the findings are contingent on the choice of the ICT measurement, the geographical location of the economy and the income group category. The study recommends policy makers to take into account ICT and the advantages it offers in the elaboration of measures for the sustainable development agenda

The terrorism-finance nexus contingent on globalisation and governance dynamics in Africa

This study empirically verifies the effect of terrorism on financial development and how globalisation and governance modulate the incidence of terrorism on financial development in Africa. Two terrorism indicators are adopted for this study, namely, the: number of terrorism incidences and number of terrorism deaths. The methodology involves the pooled data technique running from 1996-2018 for 34 African countries. The results from the POLS, Driscoll-Kraay and the Newey-West standard error corrections show that terrorism is detrimental to financial development. From the interactive regressions, three major tendencies are apparent. First, terrorism dynamics consistently have an unconditional negative effect on financial development. Second, the globalization and government dynamics modulate the terrorism dynamics to broadly induce a negative net effect on financial development. Third, policy thresholds at which the modulating variables reverse the net effect on financial development from negative to positive are: (i) 71.61572 trade (% of GDP) and 13.97872 FDI (% of GDP) for the incidence of terror and (ii) 1.16201 trade (% of GDP) for terror deaths. The computed thresholds make economic sense and worthwhile in terms of policy implications because they are within statistical range. The result is robust to alternative measures of terrorism and financial development. Policy implications are discussed

Effects of Infrastructures on Environmental Quality Contingent on Trade Openness and Governance Dynamics in Africa

The objective of this study is to evaluate: (i) the effects of infrastructures on CO2 emission and (ii) how trade openness and governance contribute to mitigating these effects. The results from the system GMM methodology for 36 African countries between the 2003-2019 period show that infrastructural development exacerbates CO2 emission in Africa. This result is robust across different types of infrastructural development indexes. When the indirect effect regressions are carried out by interacting governance and trade openness with the different infrastructural development variables, the following results are obtained. Firstly, infrastructural development interacts with governance producing a positive net effect, up to a governance threshold estimate of 0.532 when the positive net effect is nullified. Secondly, infrastructures interact with trade openness producing a negative net effect up to a trade openness threshold of 78.066914 (% of GDP) when the negative net effect is nullified. Positive and negative synergy effects are also apparent. Practical policy implications are discussed based on the results obtained

The political implication of women and industrialisation in Africa

This study examines the effect of political implications of women on industrialisation in Africa. The results after controlling for cross-sectional dependency show that women political implication Granger causes industrialisation in Africa. Besides, the Fixed effect Driscoll/Kraay standard error estimator reveal that women political empowerment negatively affect industrialisation in Africa. These negative effects are nullified by high economic freedom and high female economic participation in the economy. The investment freedom thresholds require for the negative net effects to be nullified are 52.30469, 55.51639, 49.324895, and 55.594059 respectively for the women political empowerment index, women civil liberty, women political participation and women civil society participation interactions; while when women economic participation rates of 43.0777, 35.82, and 46.9 are attained for women political empowerment index, women civil liberty and women civil society participation respectively, complementary policies are needed for a positive effect on industrialisation. The study implores policy makers to improve on the economic freedom of the countries and to elaborate on policies that favour women economic inclusion, if policy towards political inclusion is foreseen in the industrialisation agenda

Financing renewable energy generation in SSA: Does financial integration matter?

Despite growing attention on the role of renewable energy in promoting economic growth and environmental sustainability, its adoption rate remains uncomfortably low, especially in developing countries. This study attempts to explore the ways to extend the installed capacity of renewable energy in 16 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period 1980-2017. The results from panel cointegration econometric techniques suggest that policies to enhance financial integration should increase the installed capacity of renewable energy in SSA, though the beneficial effect is only statistically significant in the long run. This effect holds, although disproportionately when the financial integration index is disaggregated into its de facto and de jure aspects. Moreover, the quantile regression analysis reveals that the effect of financial integration on renewable energy capacity is positive but heterogeneous across the conditional distribution of renewable energy capacity. However, the positive effect of financial integration is not enough to ensure the diversification of the energy mix, measured as the share of renewable installed capacity in the total installed capacity. The results show that economic growth is positively linked to renewable energy generation capacity while financial development is negatively associated with renewable energy production. Overall, these findings suggest that policies to increase the openness to foreign capitals are welcomed as far as renewable energy generation is concerned

Effect of women’s political inclusion on the level of infrastructures in Africa

The need for gender inclusion was highlighted as the fifth sustainable development goal (SDG) (i.e. SDG5) and policies have been gearing towards attaining this objective and its subsequent effect on macroeconomic outcome. Equally, the demonstrated trend of infrastructures in Africa in terms of stocks and future need is unique compared to the rest of the world. The objective of this study is therefore to empirically examine the effect of women’s political inclusion on infrastructural development in Africa. The results through the system GMM and Quantile Regression techniques show that women’s political inclusion enhances infrastructural development in Africa. The result is robust across different measures of infrastructures and political inclusion. Besides, the positive relationship is maintained across income groups, levels of political stability and export structure. However, the effect is non-significant in countries with infrastructural scores around the extreme quantiles. The results of the study recommend African policymakers to prioritise the inclusion of women in the political agenda as one of the strategies towards the development of infrastructures. This could come through the putting in place of laws that favour women’s participation in politics. Moreover, the countries should ratify international conventions that favour gender inclusion

Resource rents and inclusive human development in developing countries

This study aims to empirically verify the effects of natural resource rents on inclusive human development in developing countries. The results from the IV Tobit regression show that natural resource rents have a positive direct effect on inclusive human development in developing countries and that this relationship varies by regional groupings, income levels, level of development and export structure. Looking at the transmission mechanisms, when the interactive variables of governance and environmental quality is introduced, the modulating channel through governance exerts a robust negative synergy effect in the sample of developing countries and positive synergy effects for Africa and low-income countries. When the interactive variable of CO2 emissions is introduced for Africa, a negative net effect of natural resource rents on inclusive human development is obtained. This was up to a policy threshold of 25.4412 of CO2 emissions when the negative effect is nullified. For Asia and the Latin America and Caribbean, a positive net effect is obtained. This is up to a CO2 emissions threshold of 29.038 and 3.6752 respectively, when the positive effect is nullified. Besides, the high income and the upper-middle income countries produce a negative net effect of resource rents on inclusive human development through CO2 modulation, with up to positive CO2 emission thresholds of 37.9365 and 23.6257 respectively. Policy implications are highlighted. In summary, contingent on engaged specificities, where conditional effects are negative, negative thresholds for complementary policies have been provided and in scenarios where conditional impacts are positive, actionable positive thresholds have been provided

Unravelling the Mysteries of Underdevelopment in Africa

Achieving sustainable development has been the dream of every society across the globe especially sequel to the dawn of the industrial revolution. Thus, understanding the fundamental determinants of the socio-politico-economic development of every economy is of prime importance for investors, policymakers, development agencies and the society at large. It is in this light that this study sought to empirically examine the key factors that explain the socioeconomic development patterns in Africa. The Instrumental Variable Two Stage Least Squares (IV-2SLS) estimation technique is adopted for a panel of 38 African countries over the 1996-2019 period. The empirical findings reveal that financial development and human capital are development enhancing in Africa while external financial inflows are detrimental to economic development. In addition, when other specific macroeconomic and structural variables were introduced in the model, the results show that institutional quality through governance, natural resources abundance, and industrialisation all explain both the social and economic development dynamics. These results were specific to income group, export structures and level of development. Moreover, salient policy implications are discussed

Political inclusion and democracy in Africa: some empirical evidence

The objective of this study is to examine the effect of political inclusion on democracy in Africa. The results of the analyses through the OLS, system GMM, IV-Tobit and IV-2SLS show that political inclusion enhances democracy in Africa. This result is robust across alternative specifications of political inclusion and democracy. Besides, the results equally stood when controlled for colonisation and internal conflicts. As policy implications, policy makers in Africa should enhance their fight for political inclusion as one of the gateways to promoting democracy. In this respect, national laws could be put in place, which impose gender quotas in political positions in every country. Equally, the African Union could sign a convention on these quotas for respective countries to ratify

Linear and non-linear effects of infrastructures on inclusive human development in Africa

The objectives of this paper are to verify the linear and the non-linear effects of infrastructural development on inclusive human development in Africa. The results of the system GMM estimations show a positive effect of infrastructural development on inclusive development across all the infrastructural development indexes employed, except the ICT infrastructural composite index which presents an insignificant negative effect. Besides, a non-linear effect of infrastructures on inclusive development was established across all the infrastructure indicators except for the ICT indicator. Negative thresholds for complementary policies are established for the African Infrastructure Development Index (AIDI) and the transport index while positive thresholds are apparent for the electricity index and the water and sanitation infrastructure index (WSS). Accordingly, in order to sustain the positive incidence of the AIDI and transport index on human development, complementary policies should be engaged to avoid an overall negative effect on human development when the indexes are respectively, 31.12% and 25.56%. In the same vein, the electricity index and WSSI should exceed critical levels of respectively 49.79% and 41.92%, to engender an overall positive effect on inclusive human development