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The purpose of this study is to assess how some governance dynamics, such as political stability and the rule of law, moderate the incidence of some macroeconomic factors (i.e., domestic investment and trade openness) on tourism development. The focus of this study is on 47 countries in sub‐Saharan Africa with data from 2002 to 2018, and the Generalized Method of Moments is employed as the empirical strategy. From the findings, synergy effects are apparent in the role of the rule of law in moderating domestic investment for tourism development in terms of tourism receipts. It follows that, for the sampled countries, promoting tourism development can be most effective if policies for enhancing domestic investment and promoting the rule of law are implemented simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, nexuses between governance and trade performance in terms of natural resource rents are assessed in 44 Sub‐Saharan African countries. The empirical evidence is based on Tobit regressions. The findings show that political governance (entailing "voice and accountability" and political stability) and institutional governance (consisting of the rule of law and corruption control) have a negative effect on trade performance. The findings are consistent with the perspective that resource rents are linked to inefficiencies in governance which are further detrimental to trade performance within the remit of natural resource rents on the one hand and, on the other, the premise of the prevailing weak institutions in the region less likely to boost trade performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the nexus between governance and human development in Africa. It uses data for the period 2010–2019 and takes into account the existence of spatial dependence and controls for the endogeneity problem through a Generalized Spatial Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS) technique. The exploratory spatial data analysis reveals the existence of spatial dependence on human development and governance quality. Our empirical findings support that in Africa, "good fences make good neighbors," or proximity matters in the distribution of human development. Implications are discussed. This study complements the extant literature by using more updated data and employing an alternative and more robust estimation approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Africa has witnessed an upsurge in its infrastructure endowments mostly attributed to developments in the ICT sector. At the same time, while CO2 emission is reducing in other regions such as Europe, Africa is rather witnessing an upsurge. The objective of this study is to evaluate: (i) the effects of infrastructures on CO2 emission and (ii) how trade openness and governance contribute to mitigating these effects. The results from the system GMM methodology for 36 African countries between the 2003-2019 period show that infrastructural development exacerbates CO2 emission in Africa. This result is robust across different types of infrastructural development indexes. When the indirect effect regressions are carried out by interacting governance and trade openness with the different infrastructural development variables, the following results are obtained. Firstly, infrastructural development interacts with governance producing a positive net effect, up to a governance threshold estimate of 0.532 when the positive net effect is nullified. Secondly, infrastructures interact with trade openness producing a negative net effect up to a trade openness threshold of 78.066914 (% of GDP) when the negative net effect is nullified. Positive and negative synergy effects are also apparent. Practical policy implications are discussed based on the results obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the nexus between governance and education quality in a panel of 49 sub‐Saharan African countries over the 2000–2012 period. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and quantile regression (QR) are employed as estimation strategies. The following findings are established. First, from the OLS, governance variables are negatively correlated with poor education quality. Second, with regards to QR, about half of the governance dynamics are not significantly correlated with poor education quality in the lowest quantile of poor education quality. With the exception of corruption control, the other governance dynamics are negatively correlated with poor education quality in a non‐monotonic pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study investigates the role of financial access in moderating the effect of governance on insurance consumption in 42 sub-Saharan African countries using data for the period 2004–2014. Design/methodology/approach: Two life insurance indicators are used, notably: life insurance and non-life insurance. Six governance measurements are also used, namely: political stability, 'voice and accountability', government effectiveness, regulation quality, corruption-control and the rule of law. The empirical evidence is based on the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) and Least Squares Dummy Variable Corrected (LSDVC) estimators. Findings: Estimations from the LSDVC are not significant while the following main findings are established from the GMM. First, financial access promotes life insurance through channels of political stability, 'voice and accountability', government effectiveness, the rule of law and corruption-control. Second, financial access also stimulates non-life insurance via governance mechanisms of political stability, 'voice and accountability', government effectiveness, regulation quality, the rule of law and corruption-control. Originality/value: This research complements the sparse literature on insurance promotion in Africa by engaging the hitherto unexplored role of financial access through governance channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates how openness influences information and communication technology (ICT) penetration for improved government quality in sub-Saharan Africa for the period 2000–2012. Openness is measured in terms of trade and financial globalization whereas ICT is proxied with mobile phone and internet penetration rates. Ten bundled and unbundled governance indicators are used. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments with forward orthogonal deviations. The main findings are First, financial openness has an edge over trade openness when combined with ICT to affect both economic and institutional governance. Second, mobile phones have an edge over internet penetration in complementing (i) trade openness for economic governance and (ii) financial openness for institutional governance. Third, net effects on political governance are consistently negative. Taken together, in the short-run, openness-driven ICT policies are more rewarding in terms of economic and institutional governance than political governance. Fourth, catch-up in governance is facilitated by the interaction between openness and ICT. Contributions of these findings to literature are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses linkages between social media and governance dynamics in 49 African countries for the year 2012. The empirical evidence is based on ordinary least squares and quantile regressions. Ten bundled and unbundled governance dynamics are used, notably: (i) political governance (entailing "voice & accountability" and political stability/no violence); (ii) economic governance (involving regulation quality and government effectiveness); (iii) institutional governance (comprising the rule of law and corruption-control) and (iv) general governance (entailing political, economic and institutional governance). Social media is measured with Facebook penetration. The findings show that Facebook penetration is positively associated with governance dynamics and these positive nexuses differ in terms of significance and magnitude of significance throughout the conditional distribution of the governance dynamics. • This study assesses linkages between social media and governance in Africa. • The empirical evidence is based on quantile regressions. • The findings show that Facebook penetration is positively associated with governance. • The nexus is contingent on initial levels of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of inclusive human development and military expenditure in modulating the effect of terrorism on governance. Design/methodology/approach: It is based on 53 African countries for the period 1998–2012 and interactive generalised method of moments is employed. Six governance indicators from the World Bank and two terrorism variables are used, namely, domestic and transnational terrorism dynamics. Findings: The following main findings are established. There is a negative net effect on governance (regulation quality and corruption-control) when inclusive human development is used to reduce terrorism. There is a positive net impact on governance (voice and accountability and rule of law) when military expenditure is used to reduce domestic terrorism. Originality/value: The authors have complemented the sparse literature on the use of policy variables to mitigate the effect of policy syndromes on macroeconomic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This study investigates how terrorism affects governance in 53 African countries for the period 1998–2012. Four terrorism indicators are used namely: domestic, transnational, unclear, and total terrorism. Ten bundled and unbundled governance indicators are also employed namely: political governance (consisting of political stability and voice and accountability), economic governance (encompassing government effectiveness and regulation quality); institutional governance (entailing corruption-control and the rule of law), and general governance. The governance indicators are bundled by means of principal component analysis. The empirical evidence is based on Generalized Method of Moments. Three key findings are established. First , all selected terrorism dynamics negatively affect political governance and its constituents. Second, evidence of a negative relationship is sparingly apparent in economic governance and its components. Third, no proof was confirmed in relation to the impact of terrorism and institutional governance with its elements. Fourth , compared with domestic terrorism, transnational terrorism more negatively and significantly affects political, economic, and general governances. Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on the need for Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries to increase female participation in the economic sector has intensified the coming into force of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and good governance. This study investigates the joint effects of governance (comprising of political, economic and institutional governance) and trade openness on female economic participation in SSA. The study employs panel data of 42 countries in SSA for the period 1996–2020. The empirical strategy is the dynamic System Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM) estimation technique. The findings reveal that the single effect of trade openness on female economic participation is necessary but not sufficient. Hence, complementing trade openness with good governance further enhances female economic participation in SSA. In general, the joint effect of trade openness and good governance should be a concern for policy makers to promote female economic inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This study assesses the mobile phone in the diffusion of knowledge for better governance in Sub-Saharan Africa from 2000 to 2012. For this purpose we employ Generalised Method of Moments with forward orthogonal deviations. The empirical evidence is based on three complementary knowledge diffusion variables (innovation, internet penetration and educational quality) and 10 governance indicators that are bundled and unbundled. The following are the main findings. First , there is an unconditional positive effect of mobile phone penetration on good governance. Second , the net effects on political, economic, and institutional governances that are associated with the interaction of the mobile phone with knowledge diffusion variables are positive for the most part. Third , countries with low levels of governance are catching-up their counterparts with higher levels of governance. The above findings are broadly consistent with theoretical underpinnings on the relevance of mobile phones in mitigating bad governance in Africa. The evidence of some insignificant net effects and decreasing marginal impacts may be an indication that the mobile phone could also be employed to decrease government quality. Overall, this study has established net positive effects for the most part. Five rationales could elicit the positive net effects on good governance from the interaction between mobile phones and knowledge diffusion, among others, the knowledge variables enhance: reach, access, adoption, cost-effectiveness, and interaction. In a nut shell, the positive net effects are apparent because the knowledge diffusion variables complement mobile phones in reducing information asymmetry and monopoly that create conducive conditions for bad governance. The contribution of the findings to existing theories and justifications of the underlying positive net effects are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of sustainable development, this study investigates the intricate dynamics among good governance, renewable energy investment, and green finance in BRICS nations. The aim of the study is to assess how green finance and governance effectiveness moderate the impact of renewable energy investment on CO 2 emissions. Utilizing the Cross-Sectional Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) model, a meticulous analysis spanning two decades was conducted to unravel the relationships among key variables and CO 2 emissions. The findings underscore a nuanced interplay where renewable energy investments, synergized with robust governance and strategic green finance, significantly mitigate CO 2 emissions, contributing to sustainable economic development. However, the study reveals non-linear relationships, highlighting the necessity for optimal allocation and strategic planning to maximize environmental benefits. In the short-run, a government effectiveness policy threshold that should be attained in order for renewable energy investment to reduce CO 2 emissions is provided. In the long-run, the negative responsiveness of CO 2 emissions to renewable energy investment is further consolidated by green finance. Moreover, enhancing renewable energy investment in the long run is positive for environmental sustainability. It follows that policy makers should tailor policies aimed at enhancing renewable energy investment in the long-run as well as complementing renewable energy investment with green finance in the long-run in order to ensure environmental sustainability by means of reducing CO 2 emissions. Policymakers in BRICS nations are urged to strengthen governance structures, promote renewable energy investments, leverage green finance, foster public-private partnerships, adopt a holistic approach, and address non-linear effects to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy. • The study investigates linkages among governance, renewable energy investment, and green finance. • The study uses the Cross-Sectional Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) model. • Renewable energy investments, with robust governance and strategic green finance, mitigate CO 2 emissions. • The study reveals non-linear relationships, highlighting the necessity for optimal allocation and strategic planning. • Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]