Africa's Money in Africa

Workers' remittance and compensation of employees received in Sub‐Sahara Africa (SSA) increased from USD 1.398 billion in 1980 to USD 4.834 billion in 2000 and soared to USD 21.101 billion in 2010. The impact of remittance on recipient economy requires further empirical investigation as there has not been consensus on whether remittance induces “financial prodigality” or investment in Africa. Differing from extant studies, this study employed rule of law, regulatory quality and government effectiveness as indicators of institutional quality. This is with a view to exploring how institutional quality and financial depth interact with remittance to influence investment in 44 African countries (1995‐2010). The major finding from the study, inter alia, is that institutional quality and financial depth play complimentary role in influencing remittance for investment in Africa. This study concludes that the impact of Africa's money in Africa will be enhanced in the presence of reliable institutional quality and viable financial sector. Thus, the side effect of “financial prodigality” that might be associated with remittance can be ameliorated.     

Integrating internal customer orientation,internal service quality,and customer orientation in the banking sector: an empirical study

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interrelationships between internal customer orientation (ICO), internal service quality (ISQ), and customer orientation (CO) to develop and test a conceptual model of the antecedents of CO in the banking sector. The conceptual framework consists of the following constructs: ICO, interdepartmental conflict, interdepartmental connectedness, ISQ, job satisfaction, empowerment, and CO. Moreover, 10 hypotheses were developed and tested using a sample of 202 banks. Reliability analysis and confirmatory factor analysis have been used to test the validity of the constructs, while the structural equation modelling has been used in hypotheses testing. The strength of the relationship between the constructs indicates that features of the suggested CO model including interdepartmental connectedness, interdepartmental conflict, job satisfaction, and empowerment are crucial to achieving business performance and CO. The results which emerged from our hypothesised model were found to support that ICO leads to ISQ and in turn CO. In particular, all variables show strong support for our hypothesised model, however, interdepartmental conflict was found to be a negative indicator. Findings suggest that the CO model can be deployed as a means of enhancing organisational behaviour to improve business performance.     

Bilateral Trade Performance in West Africa: A Gravity Model Estimation

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.     

Aid,Terrorism, and Foreign Direct Investment: Empirical Insight Conditioned on Corruption Control

ABSTRACT

This paper checks the effect of foreign aid on terrorism–foreign direct investment (FDI) nexus, while considering the extent of domestic corruption control (CC). The empirical evidence is based on a sample of 78 developing countries. The following findings were established: the negative effect of terrorism on FDI is apparent only in countries with higher levels of CC; foreign aid dampens the negative effect of terrorism on FDI only in countries with high level of CC. Also, the result is mixed when foreign aid is subdivided into its bilateral and multilateral components. While our findings are in accordance with the stance that bilateral aid is effective in reducing the adverse effect of terrorism on FDI, we find that multilateral aid also decreases the adverse effect of other forms of terrorism that can neither be classified as domestic or transnational. Policy implications are discussed in the paper.     

Workers’ Deviant Behavior in the Business Outfit of a Nigerian University: Situating Policies with Empirics

ABSTRACT

Using detailed micro data that measures the deviant behaviors of workers in the business outfit of a Nigerian university, the extent to which these behaviors were influenced by some specific instruments that informs the policy stance of the management of the business outfit, was examined in this paper. The logistic regression technique was applied in testing the empirical model that was informed by the Trevino (1986) “interactionist” model. The results present some policy-relevant outcomes and are robust when considering alternative approaches to the estimations.     

Female Access and Rights to Land,and Rural Non‐farm Entrepreneurship in Four African Countries

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.     

Regional Integration and Energy Sustainability in Africa: Exploring the Challenges and Prospects for ECOWAS

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.     

Innovation in Africa: Why Institutions Matter

Given the role that innovation plays as an engine for economic development, we examined the enabling factor of institutions in Africa. Particularly, attention was given to determining the equivalent effects of institutional development on innovation. A sample of 40 African countries over the period 1996‐2012 was employed, and our baseline equation was estimated using the system generalised method of moments (SGMM) estimation technique. The empirical result reveals that government effectiveness and regulatory quality are two institutional measures that have the most equivalent impact on innovation. The extent of impact is an indication that institutions matter, especially when considering innovation in Africa. Therefore, to advance the rate of innovation in Africa, improving frameworks to drive regulations and enhance government effectiveness is a necessary instrument. Having these in place, Africa will be able to catch up with advanced economies.