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According to the economic literature, for a country to benefit from the demographic dividend, it must first undergo a demographic transition, which describes the shift of a population from a stage of high fertility and mortality to one of low fertility and mortality. This transition, which results in a temporary increase in the share of the working age population, opens up a huge window of opportunity if the sound policies are implemented. Indeed, the literature indicates that local conditions can limit the expected effects of the change in age structure on economic growth. In this study, we focus on the role of economic freedom institutions in ECOWAS region by analysing the consequences of the interaction between economic freedom indicators and the growth rate in the share of the working age population on economic growth over the period 1996–2018. To do so, the study uses a robust technique, namely the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) method, which takes into account both the dependence and the heterogeneity of the individuals in the panel. The estimation shows that an increase in the share of the working age population only has a positive effect on economic growth when countries have better economic freedom institutions. This contribution is made in particular through improvements in indicators of investment freedom, financial freedom and government integrity. These results call on policy makers in the region to improve these dimensions in particular to enable their economies to benefit from the demographic transition dividend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper studies the role played by the quality of property rights in the linkages of international capital flows into sub‐Saharan African (SSA) economies. Using panel data of 36 SSA countries over the period 1996–2015 and the ARDL procedure with the Pooled Mean Group regression method appropriate for non‐stationary panel data estimation, we account for the joint effects of property rights quality and openness to foreign capital flows on economic growth. We uncover the existence of a property rights quality threshold beyond which property rights either amplifies the spillovers effects or attenuates the negative effect of capital flows on economic growth. For instance, it takes a level of property rights of at least 60 to have a positive long‐term impact of capital flows on economic growth in natural resource‐poor African countries. The quality of property rights matters more to obtain spillover effects of capital flows on growth in natural resource‐poor countries than in their peer natural resource‐rich countries. Finally, with regard to the countries' income levels, capital flows have significant long‐term spillovers effects on economic growth in advanced African economies than in their low‐income peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé: Ce papier analyse le rôle que pourrait jouer des reformes institutionnelles dans l'attractivité des Investissements Directs Etrangers dans les pays d'Afrique subsaharienne post conflit d'une part et d'autre part, cherche à expliciter le lien entre ces investissements directs étrangers et la croissance économique, au cours de la période 1996–2014. Nos résultats sont obtenus à partir de la méthode Pool Mean Group qui est plus efficace que les méthodes traditionnelles de panel et qui renforce donc notre analyse. Il ressort des résultats que la qualité de certaines institutions telles que les droits de propriété et les droits politiques conditionne l'attrait des IDE dans cette catégorie de pays. Il est donc clair qu'une action rigoureuse et vigoureuse, notamment des reformes institutionnelles sont nécessaires à ce niveau pour permettre à ces pays de tirer pleinement parti des avantages des flux d'IDE. A cela s'ajoutent la stabilité macroéconomique (mesurée par le taux d'inflation) et le degré d'ouverture dans la zone qui constituent des déterminants importants des IDE. Dans un second temps, en analysant l'impact des IDE sur la croissance économique, nous concluons quant à la nature bénéfique des entrées d'IDE sur l'économie de la plupart de cette catégorie de pays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]