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This study is aimed at establishing the impact of foreign direct investment and financial development on carbon dioxide emission and clean energy using 44 countries in sub-Saharan Africa ranging from 1998 to 2017. Employing a second generation unit root test in conjunction with Pooled Mean Group, the study established that financial development have significant positive impact on clean energy consumption in sub-Saharan Africa. This was found to be consistent in both low-income and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Financial development is however found to be significantly negative with carbon dioxide in sub-Saharan Africa and middle-income countries. This relationship is only positive in the low-income countries. Foreign direct investment does not have any significant impact on clean energy consumption in sub-Saharan Africa. A significant impact is noted after the decomposition of the sample into low-income and high-income countries. In low-income countries, foreign direct investment inflows impact positively on clean energy consumption. This relationship is however negative with middle-income countries. The link between foreign direct investment and carbon dioxide is significantly positive in the whole sample and also in low-income countries. These long-run relationships have been confirmed by the causality test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates empirically the impact of foreign direct investment inflows to firms on firm value in South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana using listed firms. In order to control for any possible endogenity problems in the model, the study adopts a robust System Generalized Method of Moments to investigate the relationship between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and firm value (measured using Tobin's Q and ROA) from the period of 2008 to 2019. From the findings, it is established that FDI has a positive significant impact on firm value in all the three countries (South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana). This positive relationship between FDI and firm value in the selected countries can be attributed to; technological transfer, managerial transfer, innovation transfer and skills transfer in favor of the host firms through inflows of FDI. This study does not only serve as a reference work for subsequent investigations into the impact of FDI on firm value in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it also serves as a guide to policy makers on the impact of FDI inflows to firm value in the region. It is one of the pioneering works that comprehensively examines the effect of FDI inflow on firm value among firms in Sub-Saharan African and also controls for endogeneity effects in the panel set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrant remittances to home countries have seen a significant increase over the years, especially in developing countries where due to a lack of jobs or unfavourable working conditions, citizens move to advanced countries to better their economic conditions and their dependents in home countries. This has been facilitated by globalisation in modern times. Whereas most previous studies have delved more into remittances and their impact on economic growth, less studies have examined the link between remittances and domestic investment. This study examined the impact of remittances on domestic investment in Africa using a system GMM econometric estimator. Our study departs from the few studies that examined this link by further investigating the moderating role of banking sector development and quality governance on the link between remittances and domestic investment. Using data from 41African countries from 2004 to 2018, the study discovered that migrant remittances have a direct negative impact on domestic investment in home countries. The study, however, found that both banking sector development and quality governance significantly positively impact domestic investment in Africa. Thus, when we interacted banking sector development and good governance separately with remittances, each interactive term had a significant positive impact on domestic investment. This means that for remittances to influence domestic investment, banking sector and good governance will need to be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have examined the influence of macroeconomic factors on environmental quality in Ghana. However, to the best of our knowledge, there has been no study on the connection between green investments, financial development, and environmental quality in the context of this Sub-Saharan African country. This study was therefore conducted to help fill this gap using annual frequency time series data ranging from 1970 to 2018. In attaining the objectives of this study, robust econometric techniques were employed. From the results, all the variables were first differenced stationary and cointegrated in the long run. The dynamic ARDL simulations technique with the support of the ARDL estimator was employed to examine the elastic effects of the predictors on the response variable, and from the discoveries, green investments improved environmental quality in Ghana both in the long and the short run via carbon dioxide mitigations. However, in both the long and the short run, financial development and energy utilization had a detrimental influence on environmental quality due to their positive influence on carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, the N-shaped association between national income and environmental pollution was validated for Ghana. On the causal directions amidst the variables, there was no causality between green investments and environmental degradation was evidenced; however, a bidirectional causality between financial development and environmental pollution was also discovered. Also, unidirectional causalities running from national income and energy consumption to environmental degradation were discovered. Based on the findings, the study recommend that investments in green sources should be intensified to help improve environmental quality in Ghana. Furthermore, improving developments in the financial sector is a vital means through which the country could attain its sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although West African nations are flourishing economically of late, they still have environmental issues due to the high rate of emissions in the bloc. Despite the worsening environmental condition, there have been limited studies on the causal agents of this situation in the region. Therefore, drawing strength from the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their targeted impacts of 2030, this study explored the nexus between financial development and environmental sustainability in West Africa (WA) for the period 1990 to 2016. The cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) estimator alongside the cross-sectionally augmented distributed lag (CS-DL) and the cross-sectional augmented error correction (CAEC) estimators were engaged to examine the elastic effects of the explanatory variables on the explained variable and from the results, financial development was harmful to environmental sustainability in WA through high carbon emissions. Also, control variables foreign direct investments, energy consumption, industrialization, and population growth were detrimental to the sustainability of the environment. On the causal connections amid the series, a unidirectional causality from financial development and population growth to carbon emissions was uncovered. Also, feedback causalities between foreign direct investments and carbon emissions, between energy consumption and the effluents of carbon, and between industrialization and environmental pollution were unraveled. Based on the findings, the study recommended among others that the countries should integrate environmental welfare objectives into their financial development policies. Also, the nations should ensure that their citizens have access to energy that is affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern (SDG 7). Finally, improvement in energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, and good use of resources (SDG 12) should be promoted by the nations. The above recommendations if seriously taken into consideration will help the region to combat climate change and its impacts, which is the focus of SDG 13. The main flaw of this exploration was the lack of data for some specific time periods. Therefore, in future when such data become available, similar investigations could be carried out to confirm the robustness of the study's results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates empirically the impact of inward FDI on host firm Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) performance in South Africa. The data used for the study was sourced from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the Public Investment Corporation Governance Survey index for a period of 3 years ranging from 2011 to 2013. The study employs Panel Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) and Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) to estimate the effect of FDI on CSR and thus addresses contemporaneous cross-correlations across the panel cross-sections as well as endogeneity between FDI and CSR. It is established from the study that FDI has a strong positive impact on firm CSR performance. When CSR is decomposed further into its major components, FDI positively impacts social and environmental components but has no impact on governance components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates empirically the link between females in top management and firm performance in Ghana. This study employs the Instrumental Variable (IV) Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS) technique of estimation in determining the impact of females in top management on firm performance using World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) data across 720 firms in Ghana. This technique is very robust as it has the power to control for any possible endogeneity bias, which can lead to spurious results. After controlling for reverse causality, our results reveal that the inclusion of females in top management impacts positively on firm performance in Ghana. We further note that though innovation has direct positive impact on firm performance, there is no evidence of any moderating roles played by innovation or education in the link between female in top management and firm performance in Ghana. The results of our study should however be interpreted with a bit of caution as we have not been able to examine the time dynamics of our findings due to lack of reliable panel data. Apart from serving as a reference literature for future studies, the study is very useful to both government and firms who make decisions in respect of females in management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates empirically the impact of innovation on firm productivity in Ghana. In examining the relationship between innovation and firm productivity, two robust Instrumental Variable estimation techniques (Two Stage Least Squares and Optimal Generalized Methods of Moment) have been employed so as to cure any endogeneity problems that may exist in our models. The study realized that innovation impacts positively on the productivity of firms. Both process and product innovation have strong positive relationship with firm productivity in Ghana. It is also noted that while most employees in Ghanaian firms have got formal education, less practical or on-job training is offered to the employees by the firms. This study does not only serve as a reference work for subsequent investigations on the impact of innovation on productivity in Ghana, but it also serves as a guide to policy makers on drafting innovation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working capital management is a critical element in the survival of every firm. While the effective management of working capital leads to value creation in firms, ineffective management of working capital, on the other hand, does not only destroy value but can lead to the eventual solvency of the firm. The search for the factors that influence working capital management has, therefore, become a worthwhile exercise embarked upon by both managers and scholars. The main aim of this study is thus to empirically investigate the determinants of working capital requirement on the listed firms in Ghana. In examining the determinants of working capital requirements, 28 firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange were used for a time period of 8 years, spanning from 2007 to 2014. The study employed a dynamic panel system of General Methods of Moments (GMM) to test the hypotheses. This estimator has the ability to produce consistent and unbiased results when even there is an endogeneity in the model. This, therefore, makes our results more efficient and reliable. First, the study suggests that working capital in Ghanaian firms is determined by profitability, age, sales growth, GDP growth, operating cycles and leverage. Second, it is realized that while age, profitability and operating cycle strongly impacts positively on working capital, GDP growth, sales growth and leverage inversely correlate with working capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]