Improving ICT and renewable energy for environmental sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa

The study investigates the role of information and communication technology (ICT) and renewable energy on environmental sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa. The system generalized method of moments (GMM) was employed to estimate data of 45 sub-Saharan countries that cover the 2008 -2016 period. Result reveals that increasing ICT penetration and renewable energy use reduce CO2 emissions and improves environmental sustainability. Economic growth and population growth also mitigate CO2 emissions while education and trade openness have a neutral impact. These findings imply that increasing penetration of ICT facilities and renewable energy in the region will promote inclusive environmental sustainability. The interactive estimation of ICT variables was further considered to determine net effects and the ICT threshold that is relevant for policy implication

Monetary Policy Rate, Interbank Rate, Savings Deposit and Inflation Rate in Nigeria: Evidence from ARDL Approach

This study investigated the impact of monetary policy rate, interbank rate and savings deposit on inflation rate in Nigeria over the period of January, 2006 – November, 2014. To achieve the objective, an autoregressive distributed lag model was employed to estimate both the long-run and short-run models. The result of the long-run model reveals that monetary policy rate, interbank rate and savings deposit were all negatively and significantly affecting inflation rate within the studied period. In similar vein, in the short-run, monetary policy rate and interbank rates were negative and significant in determining inflation fluctuations. Though savings deposit depicts positive sign but was found to be insignificant in the short-run. As such, both long-and short-run findings were in conformity with the theoretical expectations. Therefore, the policy suggestion is that the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) should consider strengthening the use these policy instruments in controlling inflation shocks in Nigeria. Key words: Monetary policy rate, interbank rate, savings rate, inflation rate, ARDL approac

Export of Agricultural Raw Materials, Exchange Rate and Economic Growth in Nigeria: An ARDL Approach to Cointegration

This paper investigated the long run cointegration between export of agricultural raw materials, exchange rate and economic growth in Nigeria. An annual time series data was used for the period of 32 years from 1981 to 2013, and Auto Regressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) cointegration approach was employed in achieving the objective of the study. The result revealed that, both short run and long run models were cointegrated. Agricultural raw material export and exchange rate are instatistically and negatively related to GDP with the exception of exchange rate. Therefore, this paper suggested as part of its policy recommendation that, the Federal Republic of Nigeria in line with  its transformation agenda should focus more on human capital, infrastructural and agricultural sector development, and not only increase export of agricultural raw materials, but also encourage exportation of processed agricultural products for achieving inclusive economic growth and development. Keywords: Agricultural raw materials export, Exchange rates, GDP, ARDL cointegration, Nigeria.

External Debt Burden and its Determinants in Nigeria: An ARDL Cointegration Technique

This study focuses on the empirical determinants of external debt burden in Nigeria from 1973 – 2013 using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Cointegration Technique. Findings from the study reveals that consumer price index (CPI), interest rate on external debt (IR), gross domestic product (GDP), and money supply (M2) are cointegrated with external debt (ED) in both the short-run and long-run within the study period. The result also indicates that, CPI and IR are negatively correlated with ED. Whereas GDP and M2 reveals a positive relationship with ED. The coefficient of ECM is also consistent with the rule of thumb which suggests that, the coefficient of error correction term (ECT) should be negative, less than one in its absolute value and significant. Nigeria’s external debt burden can be settled through economic diversification such as massive investment in agricultural and solid minerals sectors, boosting internally generated revenues (IGRs) and reducing overdependence on oil revenue. Keywords: External debt, Interest rate, Money supply, Inflation, Gross Domestic Product, ARD

Export of agricultural raw materials, exchange rate and economic growth in Nigeria: an ARDL approach to cointegration

This paper investigated the long run cointegration between export of agricultural raw materials, exchange rate and economic growth in Nigeria. An annual time series data was used for the period of 32 years from 1981 to 2013, and Auto Regressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) cointegration approach was employed in achieving the objective of the study. The result revealed that, both short run and long run models were cointegrated. Agricultural raw material export and exchange rate are instatistically and negatively related to GDP with the exception of exchange rate. Therefore, this paper suggested as part of its policy recommendation that, the Federal Republic of Nigeria in line with its transformation agenda should focus more on human capital, infrastructural and agricultural sector development, and not only increase export of agricultural raw materials, but also encourage exportation of processed agricultural products for achieving inclusive economic growth and development

Access to safe drinking water, good sanitation, occurrence of under-five mortality and standard of living in developing countries: system GMM approach

The present study aims to examine the impact of access to safe drinking water and good sanitation on under-five mortality in developing countries by using a panel data-set for 81 selected developing countries with data spanning from 2008 to 2016. System generalized method of moments (GMM) was applied to achieve the objectives of the study. The findings of the first objective reveal that access to safe drinking water is negative and significantly related to under-five mortality. Similarly, the result of the second objective shows that good sanitation is also negatively related with the prevalence of under-five mortality in developing countries. The results have implication on the availability of future workforce and the citizens’ standard of living in developing countries. Thus, the study recommends that, by providing safe drinking water and good sanitation for all, could potentially reduce water-related diseases and death prevalence amongst children below the age of five, especially in developing countries where more than 80% of global under-five mortality exists

Diseases and economic performance: evidence from panel data

The current study aims to estimate to what extent economic performance is affected by different types of diseases. Particularly, we intend to examine the impact of diseases such as dengue, TB and HIV on GDP per capita in selected Southeast Asian countries. The panel data analysis and cointegration estimation technique are adopted to achieve the objectives of the study. The findings reveal that the variables move together in the long-run, and the results confirmed by three cointegration tests: Johansen-Fisher, Kao and Pedroni. Additionally, the coefficients estimated using FMOLS and confirmed by DOLS. Most importantly, it has been shown that shocks to human capital (diseases) have a large adverse impact on economic performance, especially; dengue, TB and HIV. The second major finding was that the role of human capital is found to be very crucial expressed by education and labor. The findings of this study suggest that reduction of diseases can lead to considerable improvement in economic performance

Environmental health, health outcomes, poverty and sustainable development in developing countries

Safe drinking water and good sanitation are very important facilities to humanity especially to improve health outcomes and achieving sustainable development. There exists a large variation in accessibility of these facilities amongst the more developed (higher- and upper-middle income) and less developed (low- and lowermiddle income) countries. Therefore, socioeconomic indicators such as health outcomes, poverty and sustainable development could be largely affected as population get access to safe drinking and good sanitation. This study aims to estimate the impact of environmental health (access to safe drinking water and good sanitation) on health outcomes (under-five mortality) in 81 low- and lower-middle income countries in the world. The second objective examines the direct effect of environmental health on poverty in 81 low- and lowermiddle income countries. Also, it estimated the indirect effects of environmental health on poverty through labour-force productivity. While the third objective aims at to examine the impact of environmental health, under-five mortality, and poverty on sustainable development in 47 developing countries. Generalized method of moments (GMM) was employed to estimate the dynamic models in all the three objectives. The period of nine years was used in all the three models from 2008 to 2016. The results show that, access to safe drinking water and good sanitation are very critical determinants for reducing the prevalence of under-five mortality in developing countries (low- and lower-middle income countries). Interestingly, both results of difference and system GMM have indicated a negative relationship between access to safe drinking water and good sanitation and under-five mortality.This implies that as population get access to safe drinking water and good sanitation facilities, the prevalence of water-related diseases such as malaria, cholera, diarrhea and dengue would be reduced, hence the prevalence of under-five mortality would also declined. Regarding the second the objective, the result reveal that, access to safe drinking water and good sanitation also plays a significant role both direct and indirectly in poverty reduction in low- and lower-middle income countries. Both the direct and indirect links have indicated that access to safe drinking water and good sanitation is negatively related to poverty. The indirect relationship explained the conditional hypothesis, in which the marginal effect of the interaction term between labour-force productivity and access to safe drinking water and good sanitation. The result shows that reduction of poverty due to access to safe drinking water and good sanitation is conditional on the effectiveness of human capital (labour-force productivity). Finally, the third objective discloses a contribution to sustainable development literature by providing empirical link between environmental health, under-five mortality and poverty with sustainable development using the Green Solow growth model. The estimated results revealed that, environmental health especially access to safe drinking water is an essential factor for achieving sustainable development, with a positive relationship amongst them. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission and under-five mortality were found to be negatively related to sustainable development in developing countries. This study has also utilised the three indicators of governors (control of corruption, regulatory qualities and governance effectiveness) in the analysis. The results of difference and system GMM suggested that governance indicators are important and crucial factors for achieving sustainable development in developing countries. For policy implication, the study suggest that, governments in low- and lowermiddle income countries should ensure the provision safe drinking water for all. Also enforcement of environmental sanitation laws should be maintained. Secondly, to alleviate poverty, the study recommend Government policies especially fiscal policy should focused on provision of safe drinking water amongst households/communities as to overcome the suffering of people toward waterpoverty nexus. Enhancing productivity of labour through human capital investment is also recommended to mitigate poverty in those countries. Finally, Government of developing countries should enact policies that geared towards increasing economic growth and development alone side with ensuring quality of environment. Agreements signed by various governments during Rio-De Janerio (Rio- Summit) and beyond toward adopting sustainable practice in managing natural resources like water and reduction in green-house gasses globally should be implemented

Human Capital, Technology, and Economic Growth

This article investigated the impact of human capital and technology on economic growth in Nigeria. We employed annual time series data for the period of 35 years (1975-2010) and applied autoregressive distributed lag approach to cointegration to examine the relationship between human capital, technology, and economic growth. Two proxies of human capital (secondary and tertiary school enrollments) were used in two separate models. The cointegration result revealed that all the variables in the two separate models were cointegrated. Furthermore, the results of the two estimated models showed that human capital in form in secondary and tertiary school enrollments have had significant positive impact on economic growth. More so, technology also shows significant positive impact on economic growth. In a nutshell, both human capital and technology are important determinants of growth in Nigeria. Therefore, improvement of the educational sector and more funding for research and development (R&D) to encourage innovations are needed to facilitate Nigeria’s sustained economic growth

Effect of the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and the life expectancy rate on economic growth in SSA countries: difference GMM approach

The productivity of countries around the globe is adversely affected by the health-related problems of their labour force. This study examined the effect of the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and life expectancy on the economic growth of 33 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over a period of 11 years (2002–2012). The study employed a dynamic panel approach as opposed to the static traditional approach utilised in the literature. The dynamic approach became eminent because of the fact that HIV/AIDS is a dynamic variable as its prevalence today depends on the previous years. The result revealed that HIV/AIDS is negatively correlated with economic growth in the region, with a coefficient of 0.014, and significant at the 1% level. That is, a 10% increase in HIV/AIDS prevalence leads to a 0.14% decrease in the GDP of the region. Tackling HIV/AIDS is therefore imperative to the developing Sub-Saharan African region and all hands must be on deck to end the menace globally