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We investigated the mediating role of financial inclusion in the relationship between financial literacy and financial well-being in Ghana. Using PLS-SEM, we found that financial inclusion indeed mediates financial literacy and financial well-being in Ghana. We also documented a positive and significant relationship between Ghanaians' financial literacy and financial well-being. Again, financial literacy has a direct positive effect on financial inclusion. Hence, to enhance the impact of financial literacy on financial well-being in Ghana, policymakers should grant financial institutions enough freedom to offer a variety of financial services; financial institutions that have lost credibility in Ghana (such as insurance companies) should be put in check to build the trust of Ghanaians in them; and the cost of using a mobile phone and internet services to access financial services in Ghana should be reduced. The management of financial institutions can utilize the freedom offered to them by policymakers to offer various financial services to the public, build trust in customers, and offer lower-cost services to help improve the financial well-being of Ghanaians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates the conditioning effect of institutions in the relationship between trade openness and poverty reduction in Sub-Saharan African economies. Employing generalized method of moments, it was revealed that institutions influence the relationship between trade openness and poverty reduction in SSA. Thus, to reduce poverty in the region, SSA economies must first start by opening their economies to international trade. This could be achieved by reducing import and export taxes, focusing more on exporting value-added products and providing relevant training and information for importers and exporters. However, such attempts will be more fruitful in the presence of sound institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the nexus between global energy commodity and its constituent across market conditions using the quantile regression approaches. We found that the positive effect of global energy commodity on its constituents was stronger relative to the feedback effect from the constituents. It is pertinent to hedge against fluctuations in the energy commodities using the global energy commodity as an appropriate hedged asset with the required hedging instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although credit availability is essential for economic growth, the information asymmetry problem inhibits the credit creation function of financial institutions. Among other means, information‐sharing offices (ISOs) have been established, including private credit bureaus and public credit registries to provide information on the financial characteristics of citizens to reduce information asymmetry. From this background, this study used an explanatory research design with a longitudinal (panel) data approach to assess whether the coverage of information by ISOs affects sectorial and overall economic growth among sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries using the system generalized method of moments technique on data from 2005 to 2019. The results highlight that information coverage by ISOs enhances sectorial and overall economic growth by solving the information asymmetry problem. From the findings, governments in SSA countries are encouraged to support public credit registries to effectively perform their mandate while providing incentives to attract investments in private credit bureaus since they contribute to economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a time-frequency biwavelet framework, we analysed the short-, medium-, and long-term impacts of COVID-19-related shocks on ten energy commodities (i.e., Brent, crude oil, coal, heating oil, natural gas, gasoline, ethanol, naphtha, propane, and uranium) from January 2020 to April 2022. We document intervals of high and low coherence between COVID-19 cases and the returns on energy commodities across the short-, medium-, and long-term horizons. Low coherence at high frequencies indicated weak correlation and signified diversification, hedging, and safe-haven potentials in the short term of the pandemic. Our findings suggest that energy markets' dynamics were highly driven by the pandemic, causing significant changes in market returns, particularly across the medium- and low-frequency bands. Furthermore, the empirical results indicate dynamic lead-lag relationships between COVID-19 cases and energy returns between the medium- and long-term horizons, signifying that diversification could be sought through crossinvestment in different energy commodities. The results have significant implications for market participants, regulators, and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The GIIPS economies are noted to suffer the most consequences of systemic crises. Regardless of their bad performance in crisis periods, their role(s) in asset allocation and portfolio management cannot go unnoticed. For effective portfolio management across divergent timescales, cross-market interdependencies cannot be side-lined. This study examines the conditional and unconditional co-movements of stock market returns of GIIPS economies incorporating investor fear in their time-frequency connectedness. As a result, the bi-, partial, and multiple wavelet approaches are employed. Our findings explicate that the high interdependencies between the stock market returns of GIIPS across all time scales are partly driven by investor fear, implying that extreme investor sentiment could influence stock market prices in GIIPS. The lagging role of Spanish stock market returns manifests at zero lags at high (lower) and medium frequencies (scales). At lower frequencies (higher scales), particularly quarterly-to-biannual and biannual-to-annual, Spanish and Irish stock markets, respectively, lag all other markets. Although portfolio diversification and safe haven benefits are minimal with GIIPS stocks, their volatilities could be hedged against by investing in the US VIX. Intriguing inferences for international portfolio and risk management are offered by our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market participants, regulators, and practitioners might have disregarded the prospective integration of African markets and the integration of commodity markets with traditional markets. We examine the nonhomogeneous return spillovers and contagion between 12 commodity sectors and African equities under the time-varying parameter vector autoregressions connectedness method. With daily datasets from February 2010 to February 2022, the average connectedness analysis suggests a low spillover transmission between commodities and respective African equity markets. We reveal that the return connectedness between commodities and African equities is largely driven by idiosyncratic spillovers. The results from the dynamic connectedness analysis reveal significant spillovers between the studied markets. Our findings underscore financial market contagion during stressed trading periods, suggesting that global commodity and African equity markets are not entirely immune to global market shocks. Therefore, prompt management of commodity price volatility and the integration between economies could result in controlled impacts of financial market contagion. Portfolio managers should deploy effective risk management strategies that capitalise on the nonhomogeneous roles of some assets as diversifiers, hedges, and safe havens across time horizons. Additional implications of our findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the asymmetric effects of major uncertainty and volatility indices (economic policy uncertainty, Chicago Board Options Exchange crude oil volatility, CBOE volatility index, CBOE VIX volatility, and NASDAQ 100 volatility target) on the returns of global energy and its constituents (global energy index, Brent, heating oil, natural gas, and petroleum). The causalityin-quantiles test and the quantile-on-quantile regression technique were employed on daily data covering the period between April 2012 and March 2022. The findings evidenced asymmetries and heterogeneity in the causal effects of global uncertainty and market volatilities on energy markets. For all uncertainty and volatility measures, we found strong negative relationships with energy commodities at stressed conditions, signalling some hedging benefits for market participants. The current research is among the first investigations to explore the asymmetric relationships between major uncertainty and volatility indices, as well as global energy and its constituents. Essential portfolio implications of our findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the susceptibility of assets to the dynamism in financial markets, the emergence of new asset classes induces empirical assessments of their risk-reduction abilities. This issue is envisaged from the perspective of new investment combinations that emerge from the new market alliance between Ghana and Jamaica. This study investigates the heterogeneous and asymmetric co-movements between stock market returns from Ghana and Jamaica with data from 04 April 2011 to 17 March 2022. The wavelet analysis is carried out, followed by causality in quantiles and quantile-on-quantile regression (QQR) analysis with decomposed return series using the variational mode decomposition (VMD) approach. The findings from the bi-wavelet analysis divulge low connectedness between stock returns from Ghana and Jamaica. The cone of influence from the coherence plot does not cover the entire spectrum, particularly beyond the annual scale. Hence, co-movements between GSECI and JSEIND beyond a year may be less significant for portfolio management. Findings from the causality test evidenced bi-directional asymmetric causality between the two markets. From the VMD-based QQR analysis, it is revealed that stock returns from Ghana and Jamaica are safe-havens, hedges, and diversifiers for each other. The significant diversification prospects between the two markets signal that the two stock markets could facilitate the inflow of capital assets for extended growth and development of their overall economies. Policymakers and regulators could attract international investors and promote the flow of funds between the two economies through effective regulation of stock markets. Specific implications for market participants and policymakers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the co-movement between exchange rate (EXR) returns and stock (STK) returns in Africa amid COVID-19 in a time and frequency domain. Therefore, we employ the bi- and partial wavelet and the wavelet multiple correlation techniques using daily data from 13 February 2013 to 6 May 2021. Our findings divulge that COVID-19's effect does not increase the intensity of the relationship between EXR and STK returns in Africa but causes a significant difference in the lead-lag relationship between the two assets. We find a strong likelihood for a high market integration between African markets in the long run, regardless of market conditions. Under general market conditions, South African (Namibian) equities have the lead/lag potential in the short and long run (intermediate term). Namibian stocks are the first to respond to shocks before all other remaining variables in the intermediate term, while in the long term, the South African EXR market is the last variable to experience shocks. Owing to the recently intensified alliances between African markets, investors should be wary of the specific African equities they include in their portfolios in the periods ahead. Policymakers are required to have an in-depth understanding of the nature of the co-movement between the variables to ensure timely and operative policy responses are rolled out to minimise adverse fluctuations in stocks and the local currencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the time-frequency spillovers, contagion, and pairwise interrelations between the BRIC index and its constituents, and between BRIC and G7 economies. The extent of interdependencies between market blocs and their constituents needs to be ascertained in the time-frequency domain for efficient asset allocation and portfolio management. Accordingly, the Baruník and Křehlík spillover index is employed with daily data between 11th December 2015 and 28th May 2021. We find the overall and net spillovers between BRIC and G7 to be significant in the short-term, with France, Germany, and the UK transmitting the greatest shocks to BRIC markets. We find no significant evidence of any sporadic volatilities for the studied markets in the COVID-19 period across all frequencies. However, we reveal contagious spillovers between the BRIC and G7 economies across all time scales in 2017 and 2019, which respectively reflect the persistent effect of Brexit and the US-China trade tension. Our findings divulge that in the short-term (mid-to-long-term), France and the UK (Canada and the US), are the sources of contagion between the BRIC and G7 markets. From the net-pairwise spillovers, we report high connectedness between the BRIC index and its members. BRIC countries are found to be transmitters of net-pairwise spillovers to the G7 markets excluding Japan. We recommend portfolio diversification using BRIC and G7 stocks in the intermediate-to-long-term horizon, where spillovers are less concentrated. Additionally, since individual markets are impacted by their unique shocks, investors should pay close attention to these shocks when distributing assets. In the interim, policy-makers and governments across the globe should ensure effective liberalisation of their economies to encourage international trade flows to boost portfolio diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the information transfer dynamics between global commodity and African equity markets to test their efficiency levels in a denoised transfer entropy approach. Our findings in the short- and medium-term scales lend support to the alternative hypothesis of market efficiency, whereas the transfer entropies at the long-term scale lend support to the efficient market hypothesis and the long-term market efficiency. Investing in a single commodity results in high uncertainty when the return pattern (history) of African equities is acknowledged. Similarly, investing in any single African equity results in high return uncertainty whilst accounting for the history of commodity markets' returns. Short-term traders could monitor the loopholes in the market efficiency levels between global commodities and African equities to take advantage of arbitrage when needed, whilst long-term investors are assured of efficient market dynamics between global commodity markets and African equities. Regulation of markets may need to strategically incorporate news items as they fall due to either market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the robustness of the conventional mean-variance (MV) optimization model by making two adjustments within the MV formulation. First, the portfolio selection based on a behavioral decision-making theory that encapsulates the MV statistics and investors psychology. The second aspect involves capturing the portfolio asset dependence structure through copula. Using the behavioral MV (BMV) and the copula behavioral MV (CBMV), the results show that stocks with lower behavioral scores outperform counterpart portfolios with higher behavioral scores. On the other hand, in the Forex market, the reverse is observed for the BMV approach, while the CBMV remains consistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intrinsic information shared by financial assets provides a means of assessing their mutual linkages. In times of crisis, spillovers and information flow between markets increase, and this drives empirical investigations into the degree of connectedness between financial assets. In the context of commodity markets, empirical evidence about the mutual information shared and its influence on portfolio management is largely unknown. This study examines the situated information between the food commodities (cereals, dairy, food, meat, vegetable oil, and sugar) of the FAO and regional stock markets' returns. From the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD)-based Rényian transfer entropy analysis employed, we find significant bidirectional information flow between the food commodities and regional equity markets. Our findings divulge that the diversification potentials of food commodities rest in the long term, with sugar being a consistent diversifier across all investment horizons. The investment and policy implications of our findings are further discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses the moderating role of institutions in the trade openness and inclusive growth nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Based on the System General Method of Moment estimation technique applied to data from 39 SSA countries from 1996 to 2017, the results offer support for the assertion that institutions strengthen the positive relationship between trade openness and inclusive growth in SSA. Economies in SSA should put in policies to strengthen their institutions to improve the positive link between trade openness and inclusive growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We revisit the flight-to-quality (FTQ) and flight-from-quality (FFQ) occurrences vis-à-vis the stock-bond nexus across differing investment time scales in the COVID-19 era, using a novel technique hinged on a denoised frequency-domain transfer entropy. Our findings divulge that flights, both FTQ and FFQ, could be attained during stress periods. Generally, in the intermediate term of the COVID-19 pandemic, both Islamic and conventional bonds could act as safe havens, diversifiers, and hedges for international equities, and the same could be observed for international equities. We reiterate empirically that flights may improve the financial system's stability and robustness by allowing diversity to be effective when it is most required. The findings have financial and portfolio implications for investors considering how to deploy their investments in the COVID-19 era. Our findings may impact policymakers' responses to changes in various asset classes, allowing them to better monitor financial markets and adjust macroeconomic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study surveys and synthesizes the literature on foreign and domestic private investment over the period 1980–2022 with evidence from developing and emerging economies. The documentary sources method was used to examine one hundred and forty (140) peer-reviewed articles (selected based on source, journal of publication, database, time frame, relevance language, geographical restrictions, and search descriptions) published in a broad range of internationally recognized journals, with special analytical focus placed on forty (40) recent articles. It provides fresh evidence that literature on overall private investment and that of foreign direct investment have been given paramount interest and attention, but domestic private investment has received relatively diminutive attention to date. This review will serve as a roadmap, indicating the current state, contributions made, and unsolved issues in the extant studies as well as situating works to enrich the literature. It, therefore, offers specific directions for researchers, academics, and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the dividend policy and financial performance nexus among listed firms in Ghana, having controlled for firm age, size, capital structure, governance, and financial sector clean-up. We employed the system dynamic general method of moments (GMM) estimation technique with data from 2015 to 2019. In addition to dividend payout, new proxies of dividend policy (dividend capacity and free cash flow savings) were employed to ascertain their impact on firm performance in a period filled with financial sector reforms and clean-ups. We found a significant effect of dividend capacity on Return on Assets and Return on Equity. Free cash flow savings was found to have a direct and significant effect on Return on Assets and Return on Equity but an indirect relationship with both Tobin's Q and stock price. Our findings indicate that while dividend capacity and free cash flow savings are positively connected with firm performance, dividend payout detrimentally affects owners' wealth during crisis periods. The findings divulged a detrimental effect of financial sector clean-ups on the performance of non-financial firms only. It is recommended that corporations maintain a balance between dividend payout and free cash flow savings to attract all classes of investors. Governments and market regulators alike must take practical steps to roll out policies on financial sector reforms and/or clean-ups to mitigate the detrimental impacts of inadvertent reforms and/or clean-ups on other sectors of the economy. Investors, market regulators, and governments seek to benefit from the findings of our study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the declining volumes of Foreign Portfolio Investments (FPI) in Africa, the study sought to examine the moderating role institutional quality (INST) plays in the relationship between country-level corporate governance (CG) and FPI in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is motivated by arguments from the hierarchy of institutions hypothesis, which posits that the quality of political institutions (INST) determine the strength of economic institutions (CG) and how they affect economic activities. Data was collected on 33 SSA countries from 2009 to 2017 and analysed using the systems GMM approach. The results revealed that economies characterised by strict adherence to international auditing and reporting standards, ethically behaved firms, effective corporate boards, and well-regulated security markets tend to attract more FPI inflows, even though weak shareholder protection regimes are likely to deter FPI. We also confirmed the positive impact of robust institutions in luring FPI into SSA. Finally, we found the FPI-CG nexus to be significantly moderated by the quality of institutions prevalent in a country. This implies that the effectiveness of country-level corporate governance mechanisms can be affected by the existing institutions, thereby impacting the level of FPI an economy receives. We recommend that SSA firms take pragmatic steps to develop and practice sound CG mechanisms while the institutional setting in SSA is strengthened to harness more FPI inflows to support their economic growth agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a multi-scale and time-frequency analysis of the degree of integration and the lead-lag relationship between six cryptocurrencies (i.e., Bitcoin, Bitcoincash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, and Tether) and the cryptocurrency-implied volatility index (VCRIX). As a result, the wavelet techniques—bi-wavelet, partial wavelet, bivariate contemporary correlations (BCC), wavelet multiple correlations (WMC) and wavelet multiple cross-correlations (WMCC) are applied. Findings from the study provide that the interdependencies between the cryptocurrencies and VCRIX are high and mostly positive across investment horizons. Furthermore, the comovements between the cryptocurrencies designate long memory dynamics. The high comovements between cryptocurrencies are highly influenced by idiosyncratic shocks they possess rather than the VCRIX. In addition, the BCC and the WMC indicate that there is a high integration among all the cryptocurrencies. Categorically, the VCRIX could not lead or lag the interdependencies among the cryptocurrencies in the WMCC analysis. Findings from the study, therefore, divulge that investing in a single or few cryptocurrencies is highly risky due to the adverse impact of the VCRIX on individual cryptocurrencies. In general, investors should effectively hedge against volatilities in the cryptocurrency markets due to the significant predictive ability of VCRIX as an effective proxy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the impact of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) outbreak on prices of maize, sorghum, imported rice and local rice in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). We estimated dynamic panel data models with controls for macroeconomic setting using general method of moments estimation. The study found that the COVID‐19 outbreak led to increases in food prices of the sampled countries. Restrictions on movements or lockdowns in the wake of COVID‐19 was associated with an increase in the price of maize only. We also found that exchange rate, inflation and crude oil prices exerted a detrimental effect on food prices. We recommend that governments of SSA countries invest in infrastructure that improves efficiencies in the food supply chain during pandemics. Providing adequate support to industries in the value chain will also improve food availability and food price stability post‐COVID‐19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how global economic policy uncertainty (EPU) shocks comove with stock returns (SR) of eight African countries—Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zambia. The study employed daily data from December 2010 to December 2019 using wavelet coherence analysis. The results showed that global EPU comoves with most of the SR of African markets and was concentrated in the longer term, especially during the period between 2011 and 2019, although not substantially. The findings indicate that short-term investments in African stocks are less susceptible to global economic policy uncertainty. It is recommended that foreign investors could hedge agaist policy uncertainties by investing in stock listed in African Stock exchanges while appropriate country-level policies are deployed to manage long-term effect of EPU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study built on the tax avoidance literature in at least two main strands: 1) applying the tax avoidance theories and hypothesis to financial institutions which have been neglected in the empirical literature; and 2) assessing the possibility of tax avoidance persistence among banks, from a developing country perspective. Data from 18 commercial banks in Ghana from 2010 to 2014 were analyzed using systems generalized method of moments estimation technique. The study concluded that while the presence of non-executive directors on boards, aging banks, and liquidity condition motivate banks to engage in tax avoidance schemes, big banks and banks at their latter stages in their lifecycle are discouraged from undertaking tax avoidance activities. Thus, tax avoidance activities exist in financial institutions just like non-financial firms but no evidence exists to support the assertion that tax avoidance schemes persist among banks. Managers of financial institutions must take advantage of existing tax avoidance opportunities by designing appropriate policies that factor in relevant firm-level characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extends the literature on financial literacy and cultural (Catholicism or Protestantism) beliefs to SME performance in a developing economy setting. Two basic questions motivated the study: (1) does culture influence financial literacy?; and (2) does culture mediate the relationship between financial literacy and firm performance in Ghana? The results, from 300 randomly sampled SME-Owners and based on Ordinary Least Squares and Logit regressions, suggest that cultural values militate against financial knowledge acquisition. Furthermore, Protestant beliefs strengthen the probability that SMEs would take advantage of growth opportunities due to financial literacy. Thus, the study concludes that the relationship between financial literacy and SME growth is cultural-context dependent. The study recommends that (1) religious bodies should inculcate financial education in their teachings; (2) financial literacy training programmes for SME-Owners should be tailored to meet their needs; and (3) cultural beliefs of SME-Owners should be of prime consideration in designing financial literacy programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the contribution of country governance structures to resolving the unsettled crowding-in–crowding-out hypothesis of public and private investments and arresting the recent fall of public investment in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Within an Arellano-Bond Dynamic Panel Framework, we estimate a derived accelerator model that allows for inclusion of country governance structures (control of corruption, political stability, rule of law, governance effectiveness, voice and accountability and regulatory quality) in a public investment model. The results, based on data from SSA, suggest that country governance structures that control corruption, ensure political stability, regulatory quality and rule of law enhance public investment in SSA. But the presence of these governance structures does not curtail the crowding out effect of private investment on public investment. Thus, policies directed at improving public investment in SSA should target governance structures in addition to the conventional factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aside from statutory requirements, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) hardly take into consideration reliable accounting systems. Therefore, poor and ineffective bookkeeping has contributed to the collapse of some SMEs. This paper examines the intervening role of owners' accounting skills in the relationship between bookkeeping practices and the performance of SMEs in the Ho Municipal Assembly of Ghana using a sample of 296 SMEs. In a structural equation modelling (SEM) framework, the Smart Partial Least Squares (Smart-PLS) software is employed to analyse the relationships between owners' accounting skills, bookkeeping practices, and the performance of SMEs. We find that bookkeeping practices and owners' accounting skills have significant positive effects on the performance of SMEs. Most importantly, we show the existence of a significant indirect relationship between bookkeeping practices and SME performance such that owners' accounting skills positively intervenes the relationship between bookkeeping practices and SME performance. Thus, in the presence of higher owners' accounting skills, the relationship between bookkeeping and the performance of SMEs is strengthened further. In a typical emerging economy context, while appropriate regulatory bodies, such as the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), in the Ghanaian context, and local revenue collection authorities could put forth measures like periodic compliance audits to ensure that registered SMEs are managed by skilled personnel, fostering them to meet basic requirements for keeping records and managing their accounts to improve their performance, it is worth acknowledging that the onus lies on SME managers to recognise the relevance of good recordkeeping and account management practices to ensure sustained business performance., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)