The impact of financial development and foreign direct investment on environmental sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa: using PMG-ARDL approach

This study is aimed at establishing the impact of foreign direct investment and financial development on carbon dioxide emission and clean energy using 44 countries in sub-Saharan Africa ranging from 1998 to 2017. Employing a second generation unit root test in conjunction with Pooled Mean Group, the study established that financial development have significant positive impact on clean energy consumption in sub-Saharan Africa. This was found to be consistent in both low-income and middle-income countries in sub- Saharan Africa. Financial development is however found to be significantly negative with carbon dioxide in sub-Saharan Africa and middle-income countries. This relationship is only positive in the low-income countries. Foreign direct investment does not have any significant impact on clean energy consumption in sub-Saharan Africa. A significant impact is noted after the decomposition of the sample into low-income and high-income countries. In low-income countries, foreign direct investment inflows impact positively on clean energy consumption. This relationship is however negative with middle-income countries. The link between foreign direct investment and carbon dioxide is significantly positive in the whole sample and also in low-income countries. These long-run relationships have been confirmed by the causality test

Determinants Of Capital Structure Of Listed Firms In Ghana: Empirical Evidence Using A Dynamic System GMM

The main aim of this study is to empirically investigate the factors influencing the capital structure decisions of listed firms in Ghana. In examining the determinants of capital structure, 28 firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange were used for a time period of 8years, spanning from 2007-2014. We employed a dynamic panel system of General Methods of Moments (GMM) in testing the hypotheses. The results from the empirical estimation revealed that listed firms in Ghana use less debt that equity and they prefer using short-term debt rather than long-term debt in financing their operations. The study also finds a significant positive relationship between tangibility of firms, liquidity, managerial ownership, firm size and long-term debt ratio. However, we find that profitability, growth opportunities, firm age, and business risk relate negatively with long-term debt ratio for listed firms in Ghana.&nbsp

Innovation and Firm Productivity: Empirical Evidence from Ghana

The study investigates empirically the impact of innovation on firm productivity in Ghana. In examining the relationship between innovation and firm productivity, two robust Instrumental Variable estimation techniques (Two Stage Least Squares and Optimal Generalized Methods of Moment) have been employed so as to cure any endogeneity problems that may exist in our models. The study realized that innovation impacts positively on the productivity of firms. Both process and product innovation have strong positive relationship with firm productivity in Ghana. It is also noted that while most employees in Ghanaian firms have got formal education, less practical or on-job training is offered to the employees by the firms. This study does not only serve as a reference work for subsequent investigations on the impact of innovation on productivity in Ghana, but it also serves as a guide to policy makers on drafting innovation policies. &nbsp

Impact of Computerized Accounting Systems on the Quality of Financial Reports in the Banking Sector of Ghana

The ongoing advancement of information technology has affected accounting information systems; PCs become smaller, quicker, simpler to utilize and more affordable prompting the computerization of accounting information systems. This research is therefore designed to examined the impact of computerized accounting systems on quality financial reports of banks in Ghana. The instrument of data collection was the survey method. The study population comprised of all banks listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. The quantitative research approach was adopted for the study and data processed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) programming version 21. Findings from the study discovered that taking all other autonomous factors at zero, a unit increment in automated computerized accounting system will bring about 0.50 increment in the quality of financial reports of banks. The implication of this study is that, for banks to have quality financial reports efforts must be made to invest in computerized accountings systems so as to improve the speed, practicality, accuracy and relevance of the financial reports of their operations. Keywords: Financial Reports, Banks, Computerized Accounting, Quality Reports, Information Technology DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-17-12 Publication date:June 30th 202

Remittances and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Ghana

This study investigated the link between remittances and economic growth in Ghana. The inflow of remittances into Ghana specifically and into Sub-Saharan Africa in general is very insignificant compared to other parts of the developing world. The study used the Granger-causality and Cointegration tests under the Vector Autoregression (VAR) framework. The results showed a unidirectional link between remittances and economic growth in Ghana. They showed that remittances lead to economic growth marginally but economic growth does not lead to remittances. They also established that remittances have been very useful in promoting household welfare and health. Keywords: Remittances, Economic Growth, Cointegration, Granger-causalit

Essays on foreign direct investment and firm economic activities in selected sub-Saharan African countries

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2018.ENGLISH SUMMARY : In recent times, the attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI) into economies has been a major task embarked upon by many nations. Though much have been documented on the impact of foreign direct investment inflow to host nations at the macro level, less is known about the impact of foreign direct investment at the firm level, especially in Africa, despite the greater efforts put in place to woo in FDI. This study investigated the link between FDI and firm economic activities in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The study specifically answered the following questions: (1) to what extent does FDI inflow to firms enhance the value of the host firms? (2) Do firms with FDI spend more on CSR than non-FDI owned firms? (3) What impact has FDI got on firm innovation? The outcome of the study has been organized into three empirical essays. The first empirical essay investigates the relationship between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and firm value (measured using Tobin’s Q and ROA) for selected African firms from Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa for the period of 2008 to 2012. Using the System Generalized Method of Moments, we established that FDI has a positive significant impact on firm value in all the three countries (South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana). This positive relationship between FDI and firm value in the selected countries can be attributed to technological transfer, managerial transfer, innovation transfer and skills transfer in favour of the host firms through inflows of FDI. The second essay investigates empirically the impact of inward FDI on host firm Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) performance in South Africa. The study employs Panel Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) and Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) to estimate the effect of FDI on CSR and thus addresses contemporaneous cross-correlations across the panel cross sections as well as endogeneity between FDI and CSR. It is established from the study that FDI has a strong positive impact on firm CSR performance. When CSR is decomposed further into its major components, FDI positively impacts on social and environmental components but has no impact on governance components. The third empirical essay investigates the impact of inward FDI on host firm innovation in Nigeria and South Africa. In examining the relationship between FDI and firm innovation, two robust Instrumental Variable estimation techniques (Two Stage Least Squares and Limited Information Maximum Likelihood) have been employed so as to account for endogeneity problems. While FDI positively influences firm innovation in Nigeria, we found no evidence of any impact of FDI on firm innovation in South Africa. This study does not only serve as a reference work for subsequent investigations on the impact of FDI on innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it also serves as a guide to policy makers on trade and investment policies. The contribution of this thesis is in a number of ways. One, it accounts for endogeneity between FDI and firm value and FDI and innovation, an issue often neglected by most studies. It is also the first study to empirically examine the relationship between FDI and CSR in a more encompassing manner by using a unique and comprehensive measure of CSR from the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) Governance Survey in South Africa. Again, unlike previous studies where CSR is measured by using only governance, or only legal or only environmental or only philanthropic issues or the combination of them in a limited manner. In this way new evidence is presented on the FDI effect on CSR. For instance, although the effect of FDI on one dimension of CSR e.g. governance may be insignificant, it does not tell us anything about the importance of social and environmental CSR effects of FDI unless these are equally investigated. The study again presents new evidence that shows that context matters in investigating the innovation impact of FDI. Furthermore, unlike most studies which use R&D and patents to measure innovation we create an innovation index using a multiple correspondent analysis (MCA) approach which captures innovation holistically. This approach captures the time lag problems associated with previous methods.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING : Geen opsomming beskikbaar

Determinants of working capital requirement in listed firms: Empirical evidence using a dynamic system GMM

Working capital management is a critical element in the survival of every firm. While the effective management of working capital leads to value creation in firms, ineffective management of working capital, on the other hand, does not only destroy value but can lead to the eventual solvency of the firm. The search for the factors that influence working capital management has, therefore, become a worthwhile exercise embarked upon by both managers and scholars. The main aim of this study is thus to empirically investigate the determinants of working capital requirement on the listed firms in Ghana. In examining the determinants of working capital requirements, 28 firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange were used for a time period of 8 years, spanning from 2007 to 2014. The study employed a dynamic panel system of General Methods of Moments (GMM) to test the hypotheses. This estimator has the ability to produce consistent and unbiased results when even there is an endogeneity in the model. This, therefore, makes our results more efficient and reliable. First, the study suggests that working capital in Ghanaian firms is determined by profitability, age, sales growth, GDP growth, operating cycles and leverage. Second, it is realized that while age, profitability and operating cycle strongly impacts positively on working capital, GDP growth, sales growth and leverage inversely correlate with working capital