Total Factor Productivity Growth of African Public Universities

The study investigates the Total Factor Productivity Growth of 15 African public universities using the DEA-Based Malmquist Productivity Index. The general model, teaching-only model and research-only model are estimated. The operating environment is adjusted to ascertain the extent to which it affects the productivity of the African public universities. Total factor productivity gains for African public universities averaged at 7.5%, 0.7% and 6.8% for the general model, teaching-only model and research-only model, respectively. Productivity improvements are therefore majorly a result of research productivity gains rather than teaching productivity gains before and after adjusting for the operating environment. The university research productivity gains are, however, mainly attributed to technological progress rather than technical efficiency change. Keywords: African public universities, Malmquist Productivity Index, Technical efficiency change, Technological change, Total factor productivity growth DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-2-1

Technical Efficiency of African Public Universities: A Data Envelopment Analysis

Using the Data Envelopment Analysis techniques, the study examines the relative technical efficiency of 15 African public universities using 2000-2007 data set. The operating environment is adjusted to ascertain the extent to which it affects the relative efficiency scores of the universities. The universities post mean technical efficiency scores of: 0.886, 0.900 and 0.971 for the general model, teaching-only and research-only model, respectively. African public universities are hence more efficient in their research function than in their teaching function. The productivity gains of the universities are attributed more to embracement of technological advancements in both their teaching and research function rather than to improvements in the efficiency of their internal processes. Keywords: African public universities, Data envelopment analysis, Technical efficiency, Scale efficiency DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-3-2

Role of Mobile Money and Digital Payments in Financial Inclusion for Sustainable Development Goals in Africa

Financial inclusion has been presented in some global policy documents, for instance, the Universal Financial Access 2020, to be a tool that can potentially reduce socioeconomic deprivation around the world. Financial inclusion of economically challenged households will enable them to accumulate human capital through, for instance, education, consumption of healthcare services, medical insurance, and other social determinants of health. This chapter describes the role of mobile money and digital payments in financial inclusion for the realization of Sustainable Development Goals in Africa. During the COVID-19 pandemic era, mobile money and digital payments kept people connected by delivering vital financial support and providing safe, socially distanced or no-contact ways to pay for food, electricity, and other essentials of life. Financial inclusion is not a panacea to the problems of the economically challenged families, despite the merits of both mobile money and digital payments for financial inclusion. The economically challenged need a combination of knowledge, skills, attitude, and habits to be able to break out of the poverty trap. Besides other objectives, financial inclusion programs should seek to build appropriate intellectual competencies, for example, financial literacy, problem-solving skills, emotional intelligence as well as financial capability

Policy Stringency, Handwashing and COVID-19 cases: Evidence from Global dataset

Objective: : Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments globally have introduced policy measures to contain the spread of the virus. Popular COVID-19 containment measures include lockdowns of various forms (aggregated into government response stringency index [GRSI]) and handwashing (HWF). The effectiveness of these policy measures remains unclear in the academic literature. This study, therefore, examines the effect of government policy stringency and handwashing on total daily reported COVID-19 cases. Method: : We use a comprehensive dataset of 176 countries to investigate the effect of government policy stringency and handwashing on daily reported COVID-19 cases. In this study, we apply the Lewbel (2012) two-stage least squares technique to control endogeneity. Results: : Our results indicated that GRSI significantly contributes to the increase in the total and new confirmed cases of COVI-19. Sensitivity analyses revealed that the 1st, 4th, and 5th quintiles of GRIS significantly reduce total confirmed cases of COVID-19. Also, the result indicated that while the 1st quintile of GRIS contributes significantly to reducing the new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th quintiles of GRSI contribute significantly to increasing the new confirmed cases of COVID-19. The results indicated that HWF reduces total and new confirmed cases of COVID-19; however, such effect is not robust to income and regional effects. Nonlinear analysis revealed that while GRSI has an inverted U-shaped relationship with total and new confirmed cases of COVID-19, HWF has a U-shaped relationship. Conclusion: : We suggest that policymakers should focus on raising awareness and full engagement of all members of society in implementing public health policies rather than using stringent lockdown measures