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This study explores the extent to which regional integration can be a viable tool in driving energy sustainability in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) sub‐region of Africa and vice versa. It examines the existing opportunities and the attendant challenges for improved firm productivity in the region through the appraisal of the ECOWAS West African Power Pool. Using three measures of energy sustainability, namely energy security, energy equity and environmental sustainability; the study presents the performance of the ECOWAS sub‐region in ensuring regional integration for energy sustainability. The findings from the study reveal, inter alia, that there are prospects and benefits for energy integration for sustainable development in the region. However, even though some progress had been made, there are many challenges. Also, where progress had been made, it is not uniform across the region, though factors such as rising population and political instability could be responsible. It is recommended that the political economy surrounding regional energy integration should be given a priority among member states to ensure that there is positive political will for speedy achievement of set goals. Also, investment in human capital to manage the different projects and maintain the facilities cannot be overemphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between female access to land, rights to such land, and engagement in non‐farm entrepreneurship in rural Africa. We used data from the four countries (Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania and Malawi) that were featured in the Living Standards Measurement Study—Integrated Surveys in Agriculture dataset for the period 2013–15. To estimate the relationship, we compute the marginal effect from the logistic regression, while controlling for other important covariates that explain non‐farm activities at the individual/household level. We find that overall, women's access to land and rights to such land significantly explain their likelihood to engage in non‐farm enterprises. However, this relationship is not seen across the sampled countries. In Nigeria, for instance, we find that though the relationship is positive, it was not significant. While for Ethiopia, Tanzania and Malawi, we find a positive and significant relationship. We explain our result based on two important perspectives. The policy implications of our result are included in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides empirical insights on the functioning of regional trade agreements within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) by identifying bilateral trade barriers that affect the extent of trade flows among member countries. Also, it highlights some trade barrier indicators that are rarely covered in extant studies, such as the multilateral resistance term, the extent of trade complementarity, and the presence of economic integration agreements among ECOWAS member countries. We then provide augmented gravity model estimation on the determinants of bilateral trade in the region. We find, among other things, that trade complementarity had a positive and significant effect on bilateral trade within the sub‐region region. Other important determinants of intra‐regional trade include multilateral trade resistance and economic integration agreements — meaning that countries with some kind of agreement like the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) tend to trade more among themselves than other member countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper verifies the Azzimonti et al. () conclusions on a sample of 53 African countries for the period 1996-2008. Authors of the underlying study have established theoretical underpinnings for a negative nexus between rising public debt and inequality in OECD nations. We assess the effects of four debt dynamics on Inequality Adjusted Human Development. Instrumental variable and interactive regressions were employed as empirical strategies. Two main findings were established which depend on whether debt is endogenous to or interactive with globalization. First, when external debt is endogenous to globalization, the effect on inclusive human development is negative, whereas when it is interactive with globalization, the effect is positive. This may reflect the false economics of preconditions. The magnitudes of negative estimates from endogenous related effects were higher than the positive marginal interactive effects. Policy implications were discussed in light of the post-2015 development agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]