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This study investigates the impact of natural resources on wealth inequality as a first attempt on a panel of 45 developed and developing countries over the period 2000-2014. Using the Generalized Method of Moments, the results provide stong evidence that natural resources increase wealth inequality within a linear empirical framework. These results are robust to the use of alternative natural resources and wealth inequality measures. Additionnaly, a nonlinear analysis provides evidence of an inverted U shaped relationship between natural resources and wealth inequality. The net effect of enhancing natural resources on wealth inequality is positive and building on the corresponding conditional negative effect, the attendant natural resource thresholds for inclusive development are provided. It follows that while natural resources increase wealth inequality, some critical levels of natural resources are needed for natural resources to reduce wealth inequality.

The main contribution of this study is the determination of an endogenous threshold of institutional quality, beyond which external debt would affect economic growth differently. The focus is on 14 countries of the African Franc zone over the period 1985-2015. Based on the panel Smooth Threshold Regression model, the results reveal that the relationship between external debt and economic growth is based on institutional quality. It is found that the level of indebtedness at which the effect of external debt on economic growth becomes negative is higher in countries with lower levels of corruption and high levels of democracy. This means that poor institutional quality prevents a country from taking full advantage of its credit opportunities. Thus, the more countries become democratic, the more debt helps finance economic growth. These results are robust to sensitivity analysis and Generalized Method of Moments estimation.

The study assesses the role of governance in modulating the effect of oil wealth on wealth inequality in 45 countries in the world. The empirical evidence is based on Pooled Ordinary Least Squares and the Generalised Method of Moments. The findings show that oil rents unconditionally increase wealth inequality while govenance dyanmics (in terms of rule of law, corruption-control, government effectiveness, regulatory quality) moderate oil rents for an overall net negative effect on wealth inequality. Good governance thresholds at which the unconditional effect of oil rents on the wealth inequality changes from positive to negative are computed and discussed. It follows that while governance is a necessary condition for improving the redistributive effects of oil wealth, it becomes a sufficient condition for net positive improvements in wealth distribution only when some critical levels of good governance have been reached. Other policy implications are discussed.

Surprisingly, little is known about the cross-country effect of information and communication technology (ICT) on wealth inequality. At the same time, there is some tentative evidence suggesting that information and communication technology is positively correlated with income inequality. However, whether and how ICT affects wealth inequality is less explored, particularly because of the lack of reliable data on wealth inequality. This paper, therefore, fills this gap and contributes to this new literature by investigating the effect of ICT on wealth inequality in a sample of 45 developed and developing countries over the period 2000-2017. ICT is measured with six different indicators (including internet penetration, mobile penetration, ICT service exports, the ICT index, ICT quality, and ICT quantity), while wealth inequality is measured with three different indicators (comprising billionaire wealth to GDP, the Top 1% wealth share, and the Top 10% wealth share). The empirical analysis is based on the Generalised Method of Moments, and the results show that ICT increases wealth inequality. Furthermore, we show that democracy mitigates the increasing effect of ICT on wealth inequality. This result suggests that improving democracy in both developed and developing countries is an effective mechanism for mitigating the effects of ICT on wealth inequality. Therefore, we encourage efforts to implement democratic institutions that ensure respect for citizens' freedoms, greater democratic accountability, and executive constraints that allow for a more egalitarian distribution of wealth.

The study examines how financial stability modulates the effect of inclusive intermediary education on female employment in the industry for the period 2008-2018 in Sub-Saharan Africa. The empirical evidence is based on Tobit, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Quantile regressions. There are positive interactive or conditional effects between inclusive intermediary education and financial stability in the Tobit, OLS and bottom quantiles estimations. A net positive (negative) effect is apparent in the 10th quantitle (median) of female employment in the industry distribution. Implications are discussed.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of financial development on economic complexity using a panel dataset of 24 African countries over the period 1983-2017. The empirical evidence is based on two different approaches. First, we adopt the Hoechle (2007) procedure which produces Driscoll-Kraay standard errors to account for heteroscedasticity and cross-sectional dependence. Second, we implement the system Generalized Method of Moments to account for endogeneity. The results show that financial development increases economic complexity in Africa. Looking at the regional difference, the results show that this effect is less beneficial for SSA countries.

This paper contributes to the literature by investigating the effect of natural resources on under-five mortality in a sample of 50 African countries over the period 1996 to 2018. We also examine the extent to which governance shapes the relationship between natural resources and under-five mortality. Our results show that natural resources have increased under-five mortality. Resource rents also have detrimental effects on child mortality by age, gender, and the three major causes of infant mortality from infectious diseases. However, an extended analysis of different types of natural resources suggests that point resources (such as oil, natural gas and mineral rents) increase under-five mortality, in contrast to the diffuse resources (such as forest rent). We also find that governance mitigates the positive effect of natural resources on child mortality. Corresponding governance policy thresholds that should be attained in order to reverse the positive effects of natural resources on child mortality are provided. We thus suggest an increase in the funds allocated to the health sector from resource rents and encourage efforts to improve governance standards in sampled countries.