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Economic growth and poverty reduction now take the centre stage in most global policy discourse. This is coming at a time that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are fast gaining global relevance. Africa has witnessed the highest but non-inclusive level of growth in the last decade because the continent still grapples with high unemployment rate especially among the youths. This paper therefore examines some drivers of and constraints to growth and poverty reduction in Africa. The paper focused on Africa by using secondary data sourced from different such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Transparency International (TI), Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reports and Annual Abstract of Statistics. Analytical methods employed were mainly descriptive statistics and comparative statistics. Findings showed that economic growth recorded in the continent is a 'jobless' one advancing inequality and poverty. More so, 75 percent of countries with low human development are in Africa with the continent's consistent economic growth imparting insignificantly on the livelihoods of the people. In fact, 27 out of 54 African countries were reported to have GDP of less than $USD 2000 per capita. GDP growth in sub-Saharan Africa was estimated at 4.9 percent in 2013 and this increased to 5.3 percent in 2014 and further estimated to rise to 5.5 percent in 2015. The fight against inequality, poverty and unemployment is tantamount to aiming a moving target. Youth unemployment remains a component of Africa's growth owing to persistent low productivity and underemployment in the informal sector. The resultant implication of this is manifested through persistent inequality, poverty, armed conflict and unchecked migration of young people to industrialised nations in search of the non-existing livelihood opportunities. This paper therefore recommends increased and monitored investments in critical infrastructural facilities. There is a need for multilevel and multinational partnership in the fight against corruption and social conflict to attract foreign direct investment. Investment in social security programmes will also assist the poor and vulnerable people in the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quest to continuously attain economic development without surpassing the cycle of global warming limit of 1.5°C has necessitated the need to explore more sustainable ways of living on the human planet. This has equally placed the sustainable development agenda high on the priority list of many international, regional and national governments. Sustainable development (SD) has been viewed as a pattern of development that avails an economy the basic economic, social and environmental needs without endangering the natural, built and social systems. Therefore, the calls to resolve the developmental and environmental conflicts have received global attention. In this paper, the authors examine the nexus between renewable energy and sustainable development in Africa over the period, 1990-2015. The number of countries considered are 51 African countries. The coverage period is constrained by data availability. All the data employed were sourced from the World Development Indicators, 2017 except the data on human development index (HDI) which was sourced from the HDI report of the United Nations Development Program, 2018. Analysis are predicated on fixed effects panel model based on the Hausman test and the system generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM). The SYS-GMM is considered in order to control for shortcomings associated with OLS estimation technique which include among others, endogeneity, simultaneity bias, and measurement error. Prior to these approaches, the panel cross-section dependence test was used to test if a shock in a country in the panel can have effect on other countries in the panel. The analysis shows that renewable energy positively impacts on both the economic dimension and aggregate SD index. It also reduces carbon (iv) oxide emission thereby promoting environmental quality. However, it impedes the HDI which represents the social dimensions of SD. The impact of renewable energy on environmental quality or environmental dimension of SD is further corroborated through the conduit of hydro and natural gas sources. Regarding other control variables, nonrenewable energy negates SD but financial deepening, gross fixed capital and population serve as propellants while FDI exerts univariate impact. The findings support a shift from a monolithic fossil-fuel economy to one driven by a growing share of renewable in the energy mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the long-run relationship between venture capital investment and per capita economic growth in the 19 European Economic Area (EEA) countries for the period 1989-2014. We use three different indicators of venture capital (VC) investment, namely VC at early stage investment, VC at later stage investment, and VC total investment. Using cointegration technique, the study warrants the support of long-run relationship between VC investment and per capita economic growth in a few cases, typically with reference to a particular VC indicator and per capita economic growth we use. Using vector auto-regressive (VAR) model for testing the Granger causalities, the study acknowledges mixed evidence of the relationship between the venture capital investment and per capita economic growth in the selected EEA countries, both by individual country and at the panel setting. In some instances, venture capital investment leads to per capita economic growth, lending support to supply-leading hypothesis (SLH) of VC investment-growth nexus. In other instances, it is the per capita economic growth that regulates the level of venture capital investment, lending support to demand-following hypothesis (DFH) of VC investmentgrowth nexus. There are also circumstances, where venture capital investment and per capita economic growth are mutually interdependent. That is the situation where both are self-reinforcing and offer support to feedback hypothesis (FBH) of VC investment-growth nexus. In addition, there are also instances, where the venture capital investment and per capita economic growth are independent of each other. This is the situation where both are neutral and offer support to neutrality hypothesis (NLH) of VC investment-growth nexus. To summarize, Granger causality results vary from country to country within the EEA countries, depending upon the type of venture capital investment and per capita economic growth that we use in a particular empirical exploration process. The policy implication of this study is that the economic policies should recognize the differences in the venture capital investment and per capita economic growth in order to maintain sustainable development in these EEA countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the association between inequality in energy intensity and social inequality in Indian cities, as these are the two predominant constituents of inequality in Indian socio-economic scenario. This study uses a bivariate cointegration based error correction model for assessing the causal association between the two inequality parameters, which are derived by using Theil's second measure. Given the sustainable development objective set by the government of India, interaction between these two parameters may prove out to be significant for achievement of this objective. It has been hypothesized that nature of this interaction varies largely based on the nature of the cities, i.e. semi-urban, urban, and metropolitan. The analysis has been done on the full and segregated dataset to visualize how the interaction changes with the nature of the cities. For analysis purpose, data for 139 Indian cities for the period of 2001-2013 have been selected. From the data of income, population, and energy consumption, two parameters of this study have been designed by using Theil's second measure. The analysis starts with checking the cross sectional dependence for both of the parameters. Subsequently, the stationarity of the data has been checked by using first generation unit root tests. Then, by employing the cointegration and error correction framework, the long run causal association has been assessed. For checking the short run causal association, Granger causality method has been applied. The data for this study have been collected form Ministry of Power, Govt. of India, Central Statistical Organization, India, and Census, India. Major findings of this study are, (a) for both the parameters and three segments, cross sections are independent, (b) the parameters are stationary at first difference, (c) there is long run cointegration relationship between them, and (d) the causal link between inequality in energy intensity and social inequality is unidirectional for the case of semi-urban cities, and it is bidirectional for the case of metropolitan and urban cities. For full dataset, causal link between inequality in energy intensity and social inequality is unidirectional. The Theil indices calculated for both the parameters show the trends of rising inequality for all the cities taken together. However, no significant trend was visualized for the individual strata of cities, for both of the parameters under consideration. This study summarizes that the economic growth achieved by India is not sustainable in nature. It can be achieved only by considering an inclusive growth framework, where social development will complement the growth objectives. Therefore, the fossil-fuel based economic growth agenda needs reconsideration, viewing the social dimensions of the cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theory of strongly endogenous interactive relationship in participatory development is expounded through the use of a class of models of complementarities between selected variables representing their underlying agencies. Such a model is referred to as circular causation approach and resembles the social causation theory propounded by Gunnar Myrdal. The paper sets up the theoretical groundwork of circular causation in the context of development sustainability by virtue of estimating and simulating quantitative policy-theoretic approach that is applied to the exemplary problem of population and economic growth contra the neoclassical stand on their marginal substitution in population versus growth paradigm. Thus out of studying the theoretical and quantitative policy-theoretic perspective of the learning type endogenous model of development participation between variables and their agencies the ethical index is established. The participatory process of inter-variable complementarities between the selected variables conveys the substantive idea of development sustainability. The resulting functional objective criterion then represents the human wellbeing index. Several of the neoclassical theories as of the immserization theory of economic growth principally are critically examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]