African Development Review-Revue Africaine De Developpement最新文献

The aim of this paper is to assess the effect of government spending on happiness in 39 African countries from 2006 to 2018. The neoclassical view predicts a positive effect, while public choice theory predicts the opposite. The results obtained using the Generalized Method of Moment reveal that public spending has no direct effect on happiness in Africa. However, public spending positively affects happiness in the poorest countries of Africa. Furthermore, governments can improve the happiness of African populations through public spending coupled with democratic regimes and the control of inflation.

This research investigates the effects of globalization on economic sophistication for 27 African countries over the 1996–2017 period by employing Driscoll and Kraay standard errors and system generalized method of moments. We find that globalization enhances economic sophistication. Accounting for the dimensions of globalization, the results show that economic, social, and political globalization matter for enhancing economic sophistication. Furthermore, the decomposition of economic and social globalization indicates that financial globalization, trade openness, and FDI enhance economic sophistication, whereas Internet usage negatively affects economic sophistication. Policies to sustain the global integration pathway can enhance the diversity and sophistication of products in African countries.

Investigating the impacts of globalization on vulnerable employment with a focus on sub-Saharan African (SSA) women's job experience is in line with efforts towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 8. We examined the impacts of social, economic, and political globalization, as well as de facto and de jure conditions, in explaining the proportion of women working in vulnerable jobs in SSA. Using the instrumental variable generalized method of moment approach with panel data from 37 SSA countries for the period 2000–2016, we found de facto/de jure globalization conditions to have positive/negative impacts on the proportion of women in vulnerable employment in SSA. Furthermore, estimates from disaggregated globalization indices indicate that both economic de facto and social de facto globalization conditions had negative impacts whereas political globalization had positive impacts on our subject matter. Developing inclusive socioeconomic policies that promote women's welfare in SSA would therefore necessitate political reforms as well as policies that support improvements in women's economic and social conditions.

This paper examines the impact of access to electricity on internal conflicts in Africa. Using income inequality as a transition variable and a sample of 36 countries, we estimate a panel data model by several regressions, including fixed effects, random effects, generalized least squares and the Driscoll–Kraay method from 1990 to 2017. Our findings show that regardless of the considered dimension, access to electricity reduces the risk of internal conflicts in Africa. However, its effects differ depending on whether a given area is urban or rural. The findings also suggest that income inequality is crucial to reducing internal conflicts in Africa.

This paper examines the effect of competition on nonperforming loans in the Nigerian banking industry between 2011 and 2018 using the system generalized method of moments. The findings establish the competition-stability hypothesis in the Nigerian context. The interaction between competition and bank size/capitalization has a positive and significant effect on nonperforming loans. These results showed that low competition increased nonperforming loans in the Nigerian banking industry while bank size and capitalization enhanced competition to increase nonperforming loans. Also, bank size/capitalization are complementary for addressing nonperforming loans. The paper recommends that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regulates the market power of the five largest banks in the industry to address the adverse effects of competition on mounting nonperforming loans in the Nigerian banking industry.

As coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) and other restrictions intensified, individuals, businesses and governments turned to mobile digital platforms to reduce the financial costs and mitigate the risk of spreading the virus within the population. Drawing on lessons from Kenya and Uganda, our study examines the drivers of digital financial inclusion as a pathway for financing post-COVID-19 recovery. We find that digital financial inclusion is higher in middle-aged male digital users with more SIM cards registered in their names. Results also show that users who trust mobile money agents were likely to use more digital financial platforms than others. Based on these results, we recommend the need for government to strengthen the National Identification Systems and consumer protection policies to increase trust in digital financial services. Additionally, financial sector players such as mobile network operators and commercial banks need to innovate and roll out customized digital financial products for the marginalized/unbanked population such as women, the elderly and the youth.