Post-Secondary Schooling Quality and Manufacturing Capacity in Africa

Quality investment in post-secondary schooling could facilitate structural transformation of African economies presently dominated by small-scale agricultural activities. To probe the causal relationship between human capital quality and manufacturing capacity, we build a new database of schooling quality. The country-level average test score of students in the GMAT examinations between 1984 and 2006 is used as the main measure of post-secondary schooling quality. Our OLS results suggest a strong and positive relationship between schooling quality and manufacturing capacity. Our results are robust to the addition of a fairly large number of relevant variables, corrections for influential observations and check for self-selection related biases. Furthermore, we use 2SLS technique to correct for possible endogeneity, omitted variable bias and measurement error of the schooling quality indicator. Our instrument passed the tests of exogeneity, although the maximum likelihood technique is used due to weak instrument proble

Migration Prospects of Youths Employed in Nigerian Cities

This paper explores the challenge of youth employment in the Nigerian context with a bid to demonstrate interconnections among socio-economic characteristics and incessant youth migration. Univariate and multivariate analysis were carried out with the use of youth data (N= 1353) culled from a survey of street traders in urban centres of Nigeria. The analysis results indicate gender, employment status, marital commitments, migrant status and mode of trading as statistically significant determinants of youth migration in search of better opportunities. Owing to the non-availability of desirable jobs for the educated youths, majority seek further migration from their current business locations in search of better job opportunities: both at home and abroad. In order to reduce the incidence of skilled migration we recommend that policy emphasis be placed on vocational and entrepreneurship training. Further, given the growing incidence of urbanization, we noted the crucial need for an employment-generating macroeconomic framework

ICT Leapfrogging Amidst Labour Force-Economic Growth Nexus in EAP and ECA Regions

Towards achieving the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, this study revisits the information and communication technology (ICT) leapfrogging hypothesis of Steinmueller (2001), and Fong (2009) to expand the literature by testing its relevance in the labour force-growth dynamics in Asia. To achieve this, the study addresses four objectives: (i) test the ICT leapfrogging hypothesis; (ii) investigate the growth-enhancing impact of labour; (iii) examine whether ICT enhances or distorts the productivity of labour on economic growth; and (iv) if these effects differ by economic development. The study uses an unbalanced panel data on 81 countries located in East Asia and Pacific (EAP) and Europe and Central Asia (ECA) from 2010 to 2019. Two estimation techniques, namely panel spatial correlation consistent fixed effects (PSCC-FE) and random effects instrumental variables two-stage least squares (RE-IV2SLS), are deployed. To appraise if the impact differs by economic development, the study engages income group analysis. Among other findings: the leapfrogging hypothesis holds; labour is a significant predictor of economic growth; mobile phones usage is a more potent ICT indicator with more leapfrogging potentials relative to fixed telephones subscription; the net effect of labour on growth is mostly positive in the mobile phones’ models

Human Capital, Institutions and Innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa

This study examined the impact of human capital and institutions on innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa and clearly highlighted the relevance of the human factor in determining innovation outcomes in the Sub-Saharan African region. Using the System Generalized Method of Moments, coupled with some descriptive analyses, it was found out that human capital, as well as an enabling institutional environment, affects innovation outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). On the contrary, innovation outcomes in the region did not benefit from foreign investment. The study, therefore, recommends that human capital capacity be cultivated and given the enabling environment to contribute to innovation outcomes. This is expected to attract innovation-centred investments into the region. Keywords: Human Capital; Institutions; Innovation; Sub-Saharan Africa JEL Classifications: I25; O15; O31; O32; O43; O5

Effects of a high-dose 24-h infusion of tranexamic acid on death and thromboembolic events in patients with acute gastrointestinal bleeding (HALT-IT): an international randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background: Tranexamic acid reduces surgical bleeding and reduces death due to bleeding in patients with trauma. Meta-analyses of small trials show that tranexamic acid might decrease deaths from gastrointestinal bleeding. We aimed to assess the effects of tranexamic acid in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding. Methods: We did an international, multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in 164 hospitals in 15 countries. Patients were enrolled if the responsible clinician was uncertain whether to use tranexamic acid, were aged above the minimum age considered an adult in their country (either aged 16 years and older or aged 18 years and older), and had significant (defined as at risk of bleeding to death) upper or lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Patients were randomly assigned by selection of a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Patients received either a loading dose of 1 g tranexamic acid, which was added to 100 mL infusion bag of 0·9% sodium chloride and infused by slow intravenous injection over 10 min, followed by a maintenance dose of 3 g tranexamic acid added to 1 L of any isotonic intravenous solution and infused at 125 mg/h for 24 h, or placebo (sodium chloride 0·9%). Patients, caregivers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. The primary outcome was death due to bleeding within 5 days of randomisation; analysis excluded patients who received neither dose of the allocated treatment and those for whom outcome data on death were unavailable. This trial was registered with Current Controlled Trials, ISRCTN11225767, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01658124. Findings: Between July 4, 2013, and June 21, 2019, we randomly allocated 12 009 patients to receive tranexamic acid (5994, 49·9%) or matching placebo (6015, 50·1%), of whom 11 952 (99·5%) received the first dose of the allocated treatment. Death due to bleeding within 5 days of randomisation occurred in 222 (4%) of 5956 patients in the tranexamic acid group and in 226 (4%) of 5981 patients in the placebo group (risk ratio [RR] 0·99, 95% CI 0·82–1·18). Arterial thromboembolic events (myocardial infarction or stroke) were similar in the tranexamic acid group and placebo group (42 [0·7%] of 5952 vs 46 [0·8%] of 5977; 0·92; 0·60 to 1·39). Venous thromboembolic events (deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism) were higher in tranexamic acid group than in the placebo group (48 [0·8%] of 5952 vs 26 [0·4%] of 5977; RR 1·85; 95% CI 1·15 to 2·98). Interpretation: We found that tranexamic acid did not reduce death from gastrointestinal bleeding. On the basis of our results, tranexamic acid should not be used for the treatment of gastrointestinal bleeding outside the context of a randomised trial

The Two-Gap Model of Economic Growth in Nigeria: Vector Autoregression (VAR) Approach

This paper explores the relevance and application of the theoretical prescriptions of the Two-Gap model to the Nigerian economic growth situation from 1970-2007. A cointegration test confirmed that long run relationship exists among the variables, giving an indication that they have the tendency to reach equilibrium in the long run. It was apparent from the results of the autoregression analysis that foreign aid does not give clear evidence of an imperative growth factor in Nigeria, FDI does but is volatile. This further confirmed the transfer paradox – which posits that foreign aid tends to immiserate the recipient country. The endogeneity of aid on real GDP re-emphasizes the imperative of economic reforms as a condition for aid. The study found no theoretical or empirical justification for the assumption that filling a “trade gap” determined by “aid requirements” will boost trade and growth in the Nigerian economy

Investigating tourism and exchange rate dynamics on economic growth in Sri Lanka

We re-examine the tourism-growth relationship to interrogate the role of the exchange rate as a future driver of the nexus. Using quarterly data on Sri Lanka from 1995 to 2018, preliminary tests reveal a long-run association among economic growth, tourism expenditures and the official exchange rate. Conclusions drawn from the linear models suggest that a percentage change in tourism expenditures contributes to an increase (between 0.46% and 0.52%) in growth. Likewise, the interaction with the exchange rate improves economic growth more so at the conditional distribution of economic growth (50th and 75th quartile). Additional evidence from the margin plot reveals that the effect of tourism on economic growth is positive as the Sri Lankan Rupee depreciates. From the non-linear models, the influence of the exchange rate improves the net effect of tourism on growth. These are novel contributions to the literature as it suggests that currency depreciation in Sri Lanka is pro-growth. Policy recommendations are discussed

Data set on moral values and parental primary school choice: A study of Ado-Odo Ota, Local Government Area, Ogun State

The Nigerian society has been infiltrated with poor public and private schools due to underfunding by government and intervention of private individuals who prioritize profit over qualitative education. The implication is on quality of human capital in the country which interconnect with social and economic development. The dataset examine how parents selects schools for their wards and investigated the influence of socio-economic status, school academic reputation, moral reputation of school and location of school. The data involve a multistage sampling technique and administered 250 questionnaires to parents. Structural Equation, Modelling was applied to test the influence of school academic performance, location, moral values and social economic status on parents’ choice of schools for their children and wards