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This paper measures the macroeconomic influence of recent political crisis, protest and uprisings in Africa with the generalized synthetic control method and evaluates the role played by natural resource dependence on the modulation of the nexus. We find that political crisis, protests and uprisings have a significant and negative nexus with economic growth while the nexus is positive with investment and price level. For economic growth, the deviation of the actual series from the counterfactual is negative, instantaneous, persistent and highly significant; indicating non-negligible costs of the shock. Indeed, dependence on natural resources amplifies the negative influence of political crisis, protests and uprisings on GDP. Finally, the more the treated country depends on natural resources, the more it becomes resilient to the investment losses caused by political crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for gender inclusion was highlighted as the fifth sustainable development goal (SDG) (i.e. SDG5) and policies have been gearing towards attaining this objective and its subsequent effect on macroeconomic outcomes. Equally, the demonstrated trend of infrastructures in Africa in terms of stocks and future need is unique compared to the rest of the world. The objective of this study is therefore to empirically examine the effect of women's political inclusion on infrastructural development in Africa. The results through the system GMM and Quantile Regression techniques show that women's political inclusion enhances infrastructural development in Africa. The result is robust across different measures of infrastructures and political inclusion. Besides, the positive relationship is maintained across income groups, levels of political stability and export structure. However, the effect is not significant in countries with infrastructural scores around the extreme quantiles. The results of the study recommend African policy makers to prioritise the inclusion of women in the political agenda as one of the strategies towards the development of infrastructures. This could come through the putting in place of laws that favour women's participation in politics. Moreover, the countries should ratify international conventions that favour gender inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the economic impact of severe natural disasters in Africa using the generalised synthetic control method. In other words, it assesses how gross domestic product (GDP) would have been affected, had severe natural disasters not occurred. Moreover, it explores the determinants of the destructiveness of the impact of natural disasters, focusing on the role played by capital. We find that severe natural disasters induce a significant and continuous reduction of GDP many years after the event. Indeed, economic losses caused by disasters depend on the level of capital (human capital, employment and capital stock) and aspects of governance quality (political stability and absence of violence). In other words, negative synergies are apparent because while capital stock, employment and human capital unconditionally reduce the macroeconomic impact of natural disasters, the corresponding conditional or interactive effects with political stability are also negative. Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate policy instruments by which the persistence of inequality is affected by financial development channels in 48 African countries for the period of 1996–2014. Financial dynamic channels of depth, efficiency, activity and stability are used. Political, economic and institutional governance policy instruments are also involved. The empirical evidence is based on the generalised method of moments. The results show that financial depth and financial stability are the best channels of reducing inequality. Moreover, the relevance of these financial channels is significantly apparent when policy instruments are exclusively governance variables. The comparative relevance of governance dynamics in the persistence of inequality is discussed. The study responds to two recent policy and scholarly challenges, notably: the persistence of inequality in Africa and the relevance of governance in addressing income inequality by means of financial access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines policy tools in the fight against terrorism when existing levels of terrorism matter in 53 African countries for the period 1998–2012. The empirical evidence is based on contemporary, non-contemporary and Instrumental Variable Quantile regressions (QR) which enable the investigation throughout the conditional distributions of domestic, transnational and total terrorism dynamics. The following findings are established. First, counterterrorism policy instruments of inclusive human development and military expenditure further fuel terrorim. Second, political stability negatively affects terrorism with a negative threshold effect. Political stability estimates are consistently significant with increasing negative magnitudes throughout the conditional distributions of domestic and total terrorism. Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses the role of globalization-fueled regionalization policies on the financial allocation efficiency of four economic and monetary regions in Africa from 1980 to 2008. Banking and financial system efficiency proxies are used as dependent variables and seven bundled and unbundled globalization variables are employed as independent indicators. The bundling is achieved by principal component analysis, while the empirical evidence is based on interactive fixed effects regressions. The findings are as follows. First, financial allocation efficiency is more sensitive to financial openness compared to trade openness and most sensitive to globalization. The relationship between allocation efficiency and globalization-fueled regionalization policies is defined by: (i) a Kuznets or inverted U-shaped curve in the UEMOA and CEMAC zones (evidence of decreasing returns for allocation efficiency from globalization-fueled regionalization) and (ii) a U-shaped relationship overwhelmingly in the COMESA and scantily in the EAC (increasing returns to allocation efficiency due to globalization-fueled regionalization). These relationships are relevant to the specific globalization dynamics within regions. Economic and monetary regions are more prone to surplus liquidity than pure economic regions are. Policy implications and measures for reducing surplus liquidity are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information technology is increasingly facilitating mechanisms by which information asymmetry between lenders and borrowers in the financial sector can be reduced in order to enhance financial access for human and economic development in developing countries. We examine conditional financial development from ICT-driven information sharing in 53 African countries for the period 2004–2011, using contemporary and non-contemporary quantile regressions. ICT is measured with mobile phone penetration and internet penetration, whereas information-sharing offices are public credit registries and private credit bureaus. The following findings are established. First, there are positive effects with positive thresholds from ICT-driven information sharing on financial depth (money supply and liquid liabilities) and financial activity (at banking and financial system levels). Second, for financial intermediation efficiency, the positive effects from mobile-driven information sharing are apparent exclusively in certain levels of financial efficiency. Third, with regard to financial size, mobile-driven information sharing is positive with a negative threshold, whereas internet-driven information sharing is positive exclusively among countries in the bottom half of financial size. Positive thresholds are defined as decreasing negative or increasing positive estimated effects from information-sharing offices and vice versa for negative thresholds. Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in modulating the impact of education and lifelong learning on income inequality and economic growth. It focuses on a sample of 48 African countries from 2004 to 2014. The empirical evidence is based on the generalized method of moments. The following findings are established. First, mobile phone and internet each interact with primary school education to decrease income inequality. Second, all ICT indicators interact with secondary school education to exert a negative impact on the Gini index. Third, fixed broadband distinctly interacts with primary school education and lifelong learning to have a positive effect on economic growth. Fourth, ICT indicators do not significantly influence inequality and economic growth through tertiary school education and lifelong learning. These main findings are further substantiated. Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the role of information sharing in modulating the effect of financial access on income inequality in 48 African countries for the period 2004–2014. Information sharing is proxied with private credit bureaus and public credit registries. All dynamics of financial development are taken into account, namely: depth (money supply and liquid liabilities), efficiency (at banking and financial system levels), activity (from banking and financial system perspective) and size. The empirical exercise is based on interactive Generalised Method of Moments. It can be established from the findings that: first, a threshold of 18.072 percentage coverage of public credit registries is needed to counteract the unconditional positive effect of banking system efficiency. Secondly, on the role of private credit bureaus in financial depth, both the unconditional and the conditional effects are negative, implying a negative synergy. Overall, the findings show that, contingent on the type of financial development dynamic, credit registries broadly play their theoretical role of decreasing financing constraints in order to ultimately reduce inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses the feasibility of policy harmonization in the fight against terrorism in 53 African countries with data for the period 1980–2012. Four terrorism variables are used, namely: domestic, transnational, unclear and total terrorism dynamics. The empirical evidence is based on absolute beta catch-up and sigma convergence estimation techniques. There is substantial absence of catch-up. The lowest rate of convergence in terrorism is in landlocked countries for regressions pertaining to unclear terrorism (3.43% per annum for 174.9 years) while the highest rate of convergence is in upper-middle-income countries in domestic terrorism regressions (15.33% per annum for 39.13 years). After comparing results from the two estimation techniques, it is apparent that in the contemporary era, countries with low levels of terrorism are not catching-up their counterparts with high levels of terrorism. As a policy implication, whereas some common policies may be feasibly adopted for the fight against terrorism, the findings based on the last periodic phase (2004–2012) are indicative that country-specific policies would better pay-off in the fight against terrorism than blanket common policies. Some suggestions of measures in fighting transnational terrorism have been discussed in the light of an anticipated surge in cross-national terrorism incidences in the coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effect information sharing has on financial sector development in 53 African countries for the period 2004 to 2011. Information sharing is measured with private credit bureaus and public credit registries. Hitherto unexplored dimensions of financial sector development are employed, namely: financial sector dynamics of formalization, informalization, and non-formalization. The empirical evidence is based on Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The following findings are established. Information-sharing bureaus increase (reduce) formal (informal/non-formal) financial sector development. In order to ensure that information-sharing bureaus improve (decrease) formal (informal/non-formal) financial development, public credit registries should have between 45.45 and 50% coverage while private credit bureaus should have at least 26.25% coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]