African Development Review-Revue Africaine De Developpement最新文献

This study examines the effects of aggregated (total) and disaggregated (direct, indirect, trade, corporate, and property) taxes on inclusive growth (IG). Motivated by the spatial spillover theory, we decomposed the effects of taxes on IG into direct, indirect (spatial spillover), and total effects to ascertain whether spatial spillover effects matter in the taxes and IG nexus. Applying the spatial Durbin model to the sample of 39 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the results show that indirect, trade, and corporate taxes positively and significantly influence IG. It is observed that across these taxes, the indirect effects from neighboring countries contributed a larger share of the total effect. The property taxes are negative and significant across all decompositions, yet the neighboring spatial effect is dominant. The results confirm the non-negligibility of spatial spillover effects. The study recommends that to maximize the positive effects of taxes on IG, countries should collaborate to develop harmonized regional tax policies that enhance efficiency, reduce tax evasion, and ensure equitable distribution of benefits across borders.

This paper employs a novel global uncertainty measure and a comprehensive financial development indicator to analyze the moderating role of financial development in the nexus between uncertainty and foreign direct investment (FDI). The analysis focuses on a sample of 36 sub-Saharan African countries and uses 5-year average data across the period 2003–2021. The two-step system generalized method of moments is used as the main empirical strategy, and fixed-effects regressions with Driscoll and Kraay standard errors are employed as an alternative to control for potential cross-sectional dependence. The findings indicate that the effect of global uncertainty on FDI inflows is inconsistent. Financial development has been identified as a key “pull factor” driving FDI. However, its synergy effect with global uncertainty acts as a deterrent for FDI activities. The marginal effects analysis indicates that this “crowding-out” effect is more pronounced in countries with more advanced financial development. As for policy implications, the study suggests differentiated and context-sensitive regulatory measures with varying levels of financial development.

In this article, we use unique firm-level data for Kenya and Tanzania hand-collected for 2019 and 2020 to examine the impact of firm-level financial constraints on the extensive and intensive margins of exports. Unlike previous studies in the African context that mostly rely on perceptual data to examine firm-level financial constraints, the data allow us to construct four measures of firm-level financial constraints—financial cost ratio, debt ratio, liquidity ratio, and profitability ratio—and assess their effects on the extensive and intensive margins of firm-level exports using a two-part fractional response model. We find that financial constraints reduce firms' participation in export markets as well as export-sales ratios in both Kenya and Tanzania. Particularly, the debt ratio appears to have a higher impact on export sales than other financial constraint measures. Our results contribute not only to the limited existing literature on financial constraints and trade in sub-Saharan Africa but also highlight the need to address firm-level financial frictions to encourage firm participation in trade and boost the region's exports.

In the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and across West Africa, terrorist attacks have risen sharply over the past decade. Beyond the tragic human toll, terrorism inflicts material, institutional, and economic damage and can impair banks' operations and productivity. This article investigates the impact of terrorism on bank performance, proxied by return on average equity (ROAE), return on average assets (ROAA), non-performing loans (NPLs), and the Z-score of insolvency risk, using a panel of 92 WAEMU banks from 2005 to 2019 and a system-GMM approach. The findings show that terrorism exerts a negative and statistically significant effect on all performance measures: a 1% rise in attacks reduces ROAE and ROAA by 4.7% and 3.9%, respectively, weakens bank solvency by 2.8%, and increases the NPL ratio by approximately 4.1 percentage points. These results underscore the need for WAEMU countries to intensify efforts to promote peace and security, and for regulators to implement reforms that explicitly safeguard financial stability and ensure sustained banking performance in the face of terrorism-related risks in the region.