Sustainable Economic Development Routes in Sub-Sahara Africa: A Dynamic Long-Run Relationship Analysis of Fiscal Policy, Energy Consumption and Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Purpose: This study investigates the relationship between fiscal policy, energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions in the sub-Saharan African region. Approach/Methodology/Design: The cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag, common correlated effect means group, and the augmented mean group were used to analyze the long-run effect of fiscal policy, and energy consumption on carbon dioxide emissions for the period 1990–2018. Findings: The findings of this study indicate that expansionary fiscal policy drives carbon dioxide emissions, while contractionary fiscal policy mitigates carbon dioxide emissions for the sub-Sahara African region. The study's findings also indicate that an increase in renewable energy consumption help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, while non-renewable energy consumption causes carbon emissions to rise. Similar results were obtained for the various income-based economies except upper-middle-income economies that recorded insignificant long-run effect of fiscal policy, renewable energy and non-renewable energy consumption on carbon emissions. Practical Implications: The significant role of expansionary and contractionary fiscal policies established from this study’s results indicate the possibility of economic managers of various nations to promote sustainable development through fiscal policy implementations. Thus, governments of various economies could use fiscal policy especially expenditure as a tool to ensure sustainable development. Originality/value: This study innovates by employing econometric tools that deal with the problem of cross-sectional dependence that may exist among the study variables. This study innovatively considers the income levels of the selected countries to ascertain the role of income levels in the dynamic relationships between fiscal policy and carbon emissions, which is novel in this area of study within the Sub-Saharan African region

The Impact of the Performance of Listed Banks on Their Profitability and Economic Growth of Ghana

This study examines the factors that influence the performance of listed banks and the impact of on Ghana's economic growth. The study used panel data from GCB Bank, HFC Bank, Ghana Economic Bank (EBG), SG-SSB Bank and CAL Bank for the period 2010 to 2019. The Hausman test for panel regression was employed to determine the best method between the fixed effect and random effect models. The results of the Hausman test show the fixed effect was the most efficient method of estimation. The findings of the fixed effect model show that liquid assets to short term liability and non-performing loan ratio have significant negative effect on return on assets.  Furthermore, non-interest expense income, return on assets and return on equity have high significant impact on economic growth. Capital adequacy ratio on the other hand adversely affect economic growth. The positive result of the profitability measures explains how a good financial sector can affect the state of an economy. The study therefore suggests that stakeholders, policymakers and Governments must implement pragmatic policies and enforce existing ones to encourage financial institutions to maintain disciplined and profitable management practices

Investigating the Validity of the Agricultural-Induced Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) Hypothesis for Pakistan: Evidence from Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Approach with a Structural Break

The objective of this study is to check the feasibility of the agriculture-induced EKC hypothesis for Pakistan from 1971 to 2014 using findings from an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique with a structural break that includes real income and energy consumption in the model.The agriculture-induced EKC model was studied using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique, which has never been explored before in Pakistan.The direction of relationship between the research factors was explained with Toda-Yamamoto Granger Causality test. Real gross domestic product per capita and square of real gross domestic product per capita  all have significant positive effects on carbondioxide emissions, while square of real gross domestic product per capita reduces carbondioxide emissions, according to the ARDL findings. The results of the Toda-Yamamoto causality test reveal a long-run unidirectional causation exists between real gross domestic product per capita, square of real gross domestic product per capita and long-run carbondioxide emissions. The long-run unidirectional causal relationship between agricultural value added, square of real gross domestic product per capita  and real gross domestic product per capita and bidrectional long-run causal link between energy consumption and real gross domestic product per capita. The presence of the agriculture-induced EKC hypothesis in Pakistan in the short and long run was substantiated by the bidirectional and unidirectional causal links between the two variables and real gross domestic product per capita. As a result, special strategies to increase Agricultural sector quality in Pakistan are proposed to reduce unsustainable agricultural practices in preparation for a worldview transition from primitive technology to modern sustainable agrarian technologies.This work is unique in the EKC literature in Pakistan since no other study on agriculture-induced EKC in Pakistan and other EKC studies have failed to account for structural fractures, as this study has done. This study also contains a causality analysis to look into the direction of the link, which is something that the few EKC studies in Pakistan haven't investigated into

Assessing the Viability of Vacant Farmhouse Market in China: A Case Study in Sichuan

Massive and rapid urbanization has led to population loss in rural areas, particularly in emerging and developing countries like China. As a result, houses in rural areas become vacant, and the house prices in cities, at the same time, skyrocket. While the research on the vacant farmhouses market (VFM) is a pressing issue for sustainable urbanization and has profound policy implications in China, few empirical studies have been conducted on analyzing the willingness of house owners and urban residents to participate in the VFM and any influencing factors—as there is no such operating market in China. To bridge the research gap, we first conducted a questionnaire-based survey on rural households and urban residents with a random sampling method in six cities in Sichuan Province, China. A total of 571 valid samples, including 284 rural households and 287 urban residents, were obtained. Based on these survey data, we then used logistic regression to estimate the influencing factors on the willingness of house owners and urban residents in renting in/out or selling/buying vacant farmhouses. The results showed that: (1) more than 60% of rural house owners and urban residents are willing to participate in a potential VFM; (2) the main influencing factors of house owners’ willingness to rent out or sell their houses include the sociodemographic characteristics of farmers (e.g., age, household income) and characteristics of the vacant houses (e.g., distance to the main roads, the status of vacant houses), while the major factors that affect the willingness of urban residents to rent in or purchase vacant rural houses are the sociodemographic characteristics of urban residents themselves (e.g., occupation), the status of the potential houses, and the perceived housing market; (3) most farmers want a regulated platform for the vacant farmhouses; urban residents pay more attention to the good natural environment in rural areas and the infrastructure and public service levels of vacant farmhouses in rural areas. This study thus showed the necessity, feasibility, and potential challenges and barriers involved in establishing a VFM in China

The off-farm income and organic food expenditure nexus: Empirical evidence from rural Ghana

AbstractThis study uses evidence gathered from survey responses from 572 rural households in Ghana to examine the link between organic expenditure and off-farm income. To solve the endogeneity problem related to off-farm income, we use the instrumental variable Tobit model. The findings showed that expenditure on organic food was strongly and favorably connected to off-farm income. According to the disaggregated findings, female off-farm income is significantly more positively correlated with organic food expenditure than male off-farm income. The results provide practical implications for facilitating organic food consumption and eliminating food and nutrition insecurity among rural dwellers

Determinants of agriculture credit fungibility among smallholder farmers: The case of rural Ghana

This study examined the determinants of rural household agriculture credit fungibility (CF). The study found agricultural CF among farmers, with approximately 79% of farmers involved in agricultural CF. Household financial burden was found to be the main cause of CF among the studied farmers. Most fungible credit was used for clothing and food consumption. A probit model was employed to analyze survey data collected from four regions in Ghana. We employed an instrumental variable approach (IV-Probit) to test for robustness due to endogeneity issues. The econometric model results show that the variables of off-farm income and farm size inversely influenced agricultural CF, while those of education, household size, male farmer gender, and chronic disease variables had a positive effect on agricultural CF. Our findings have policy implications for alleviating agricultural CF

Flood Disaster Risk Perception and Urban Households’ Flood Disaster Preparedness: The Case of Accra Metropolis in Ghana

Flood disaster has gained global attention due to the huge impact it has on human lives, economies, and sustainable environments. Flood disaster preparedness, which can significantly be influenced by disaster risk perception, has been highlighted as an effective way to manage flood disaster risk, as many other means have proved futile, yet no study has attempted using multiple dimensions to analyze this relationship in Ghana. Therefore, this study, using a survey of 369 households in the most flood-prone region, Accra Metropolis, analyzed the influence of flood disaster risk perception on urban households’ flood disaster preparedness. Based on the Protective Action Decision Model, the empirical models were constructed and estimated using the Tobit and binary logistic regression models. The results show that the majority of households (60.16%) were unprepared for flood disasters, and the perception of flood disaster risk and the sustainability risk posed by floods significantly affect flood disaster preparedness behaviours of households in a positive direction. The total number of flood disaster preparedness behaviours adopted was significantly related to probability, the threat to lives, sense of worry, and sustainability risk perceptions. Finally, income, education, and house ownership, among other household and individual characteristics, had significant positive effects on preparations for flood disasters. These findings suggest that effective policies to mitigate flood disasters must incorporate risk communication to boost households’ flood disaster preparedness

Empirical impact of financial service access on farmers income in Ghan

The impact of access to financial services (AFS) and access to informal financial services (AIFS) on farmer income is examined in this study. After a multi-stage random sampling procedure, the study used a sample size of 478 people from two regions in Ghana. The endogenous treatment regression (ETR) model was used to account for selection bias while the unconditional quantile regression (UQR) model was used for a heterogenous analysis. The findings showed that education, financial literacy, IT access, farm size, and distance were all factors of access to financial services. Similarly, the findings revealed a positive and statistically significant link between household income and access to formal financial services. Similarly, there was a positive and significant association between access to informal financial services and household income. The findings showed that access to formal and informal financial services has different effects on household income. As a result, the effects of access to financial services on income varied by quantile. Based on the findings of the study, we developed policies to boost financial services accessibility as a means of increasing household income

Does the Adoption of Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices Impact Farmers’ Income? Evidence from Ghana

People’s lives, particularly farmers’, have been affected by extreme weather conditions that have reduced the yield of numerous crops due to climate change. Climate-smart agriculture practices can reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and have the propensity to increase farm income and productivity. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to ascertain whether CSA practices impact farmers’ income. This study includes all cocoa farmers in the selected districts in the Ashanti Region. The population includes those who live in the six cocoa production villages. The multistage sampling procedure was considered based on the dominants of literature. The study used an endogenous switching regression framework to examine the effects of the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) on farmers’ income. While estimating treatment effects, telasso uses lasso techniques to select the appropriate variable sets. The results revealed that gender, farm experience, age, household size, and farm size do not significantly influence the adoption of irrigation and crop insurance. The study revealed a significant positive impact of access to credit on adopting irrigation and crop insurance. The adoption of climate-smart practices has a positive coefficient. This indicates that if all respondents in each region adopts these practices, their income would increase significantly. This study shows that adopting irrigation practices leads to an increase in household income of 8.6% and 11.1%, respectively, for cocoa farmers. Crop insurance has a positive coefficient and is statistically significant on household income, on-farm, and off-farm. This paper shows that climate-smart practices such as crop insurance can positively influence farmers’ income in Ghana. We also conjecture that crop insurance is the most effective and efficient climate-smart practice among the various agricultural practices. The study suggests that access to credit and mass awareness should be compulsory modules coupled with the consistent training of farmers on new technologies for effective policy implementation. Expanding access to extension officers could enhance farmers’ adaptive capacity and warrant the efficiency of implemented practices

The Impact of Cooperative Membership on Fish Farm Households’ Income: The Case of Ghana

The emergence of agricultural cooperatives is extensively viewed as a necessary institutional arrangement that can help farmers in developing countries overcome the constraints that impede them from improving sustainable agricultural production and acquiring new marketing opportunities. Therefore, this study examines the determinants of cooperative membership and its impact on fish farm household income, using data collected from two regions in Ghana. An endogenous switching regression (ESR) model is utilized to address the potential sample selection bias issue. The results show that household heads’ decisions to join cooperatives are affected by their access to credit, off-farm work, education level, and peer influence. Cooperative membership can increase both household and farm income by 28.54% and 34.75%, respectively. Moreover, we show that different groups of households’ cooperative impacts on farm and household income are heterogeneous. Our findings highlight the importance of cooperative patronization and provide implications that can improve households’ welfare