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Copyright of Journal of International Relations / Medzinarodne Vztahy is the property of University of Economics in Bratislava, Faculty of International Relations and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to examine whether initial levels in GDP growth, GDP per capita growth and inequality adjusted human development matter in the impact of aid on development. In substance its object is to assess if threshold development conditions are necessary for the effectiveness of foreign aid in Africa. Design/methodology/approach -- The panel quantile regression technique enables us to investigate if the relationship between development dynamics and development assistance differs throughout the distributions of development dynamics. Findings -- Three main findings are established. First, with slight exceptions, the effectiveness of aid in economic prosperity (at the macro level) increases in positive magnitude across the distribution. This implies high-growth countries are more likely to benefit from development assistance (in terms of general economic growth) than their low-growth counterparts. Second, the positive nexus between aid and per capita economic growth displays nonlinear patterns across distributions and specifications, with the correlations broadly higher in top quantiles than in bottom quantiles after controlling for the unobserved heterogeneity. Third, the aid-human development nexus is negative and almost similar in magnitude across distributions and specifications. Practical implications -- As a policy implication, there is need to improve management of aid funds destined for health and education projects in the sampled countries. Moreover, given the magnitude of the nexuses, while blanket aid initiatives could be applied for policies targeting the human development index (due to the absence of significant differences in the magnitude of estimated coefficients), such are unlikely to succeed for aid targeting economic prosperity at macro and micro levels. From the weight of the findings, given a policy of balancing the impact of aid, it could be inferred that low-growth countries would need more aid than their high-growth counterparts because of the less positive effects in the former countries. Originality/value -- This paper contributes to existing literature on the effectiveness of foreign aid by focussing on the distribution of the dependent variables (development dynamics). It is likely that high- and low-growth countries respond differently to development assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the twin deficits hypothesis in a sample of twelve African countries for the period between 1980 and 2009. These countries have experienced both the current account and the fiscal deficits, among others, that prompted an introduction of structural reforms. The paper explores long-run relationship between the series and their short-run dynamics within the context of endogenously determined structural breaks. The identified dates are generally associated with external factors that include commodity price boom and burst cycles that the countries heavily depend on. The estimated results for eight of the countries indicate that there is a positive relationship between the current account and fiscal deficits and therefore, support the twin deficits hypothesis. Results for the remaining four countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, on the other hand, show that the relationship between the two is negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper examines the relationship between defence burden and real gross domestic products in Nigeria, using annual time series data. This study uses Johansen's Cointegration approach to investigate the relationship between government's military expenditure (defence burden) and real gross domestic products, among other variables. In light of the lingering controversy on military expenditure and growth nexus, this paper contributes to the existing literature using time-series data from Nigeria, a country with high military spending over the years to re-investigate the impact of military expenditures on economic growth and the direction of causality between military spending and economic growth. Specifically, this study discusses the long run relationship between military expenditure and economic growth using Johansen cointegration approach. The key variables used in the study include: military burden (military expenditure), real GDP, real education expenditure, real health expenditure. The nature of the relationship that exists between military expenditure and economic growth as well as the cointegrating vector, taking into cognizance all other variables is focus of this paper. The results of the study show that increased defence burden is harmful to the Nigerian economy, and there exists a negative long-run relationship between defence burden and increase in the growth of real gross domestic products, the impact of defence burden remains negative both in the short-run and long-run respectively. It is not sufficient to have cuts in military expenditure, but such reallocation from defence should be directed towards productive investment in other sectors of the economy in order to generate economic prosperity and enhance the welfare of the citizens. Implications of having a negative effect of defence burden on growth rate of real Gross Domestic Products result in crowding-out of private sector investment, retards economic progress or growth rate of real gross domestic products, and therefore, is an ineffective tool to stimulate the growth of the economy in Nigeria. Military expenditure cannot be an effective tool of fiscal policy (government revenue and expenditure to regulate the economy), from the results of the study both short-run and long-run impact are negative, hence, the role of military sector should be limited to the maintenance of internal law and order as well as the defence of the country against any form of external aggression. This study will be of immense significance towards shaping policies that relate to military spending in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the dynamic relationship between energy intensity and CO 2 emissions by incorporating economic growth in environment CO 2 emissions function using data of Sub Saharan African countries. For this purpose, we applied panel cointegration to examine the long run relationship between the series. We employed the VECM Granger causality to test the direction of causality amid the variables. At panel level, our results validate the existence of cointegration among the series. The long run panel results show that energy intensity has positive and statistically significant impact on CO 2 emissions. There is also positive and negative link of non-linear and linear terms of real GDP per capita with CO 2 emissions supporting the presence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). The causality analysis reveals the bidirectional causality between economic growth and CO 2 emissions while energy intensity Granger causes economic growth and hence CO 2 emissions, while across the individual countries, the results differ. This paper opens up new insights for policy makers to design comprehensive economic, energy and environmental policy for sustainable long run economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the aid-development nexus in 52 African countries using updated data (1996-2010) and a new indicator of human development (adjusted for inequality). The effects of Total Net Official Development Assistance (NODA), NODA from the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and NODA from Multilateral donors on economic prosperity (at national and per capita levels) are also examined. The findings broadly indicate that development assistance is detrimental to GDP growth, GDP per capita growth and inequality adjusted human development. The magnitude of negativity (which is consistent across specifications and development dynamics) is highest for NODA from Multilateral donors, followed by NODA from DAC countries. Given concerns on the achievement of the MDGs, the relevance of these results point to the deficiency of foreign aid as a sustainable cure to poverty in Africa. Though the stated intents or purposes of aid are socio-economic, the actual impact from the findings negates this. It is a momentous epoque to solve the second tragedy of foreign aid; it is high time economists and policy makers start rethinking the models and theories on which foreign aid is based. In the meantime, it is up to people who care about the poor to hold aid agencies accountable for piecemeal results. Policy implications and caveats are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is an emerging, frontier economy that is gradually becoming a gold miner of the fourth industrial revolution (industry 4.0) to achieve speedy economic growth and development. Through the transmission channel of technological drive that relies on the penetration of modern communication means (information and communication technology [I.C.T.]). It is on this basis that this study examines the performance of I.C.T., economic growth and development in Africa. In capturing I.C.T. performance; penetration of I.C.T. indicators – mobile telephone, fixed-line telephone and Internet access subscriptions are used as measurements and reduced to a single index through principal components analysis (P.C.A.). Economic growth and development is measured with the real gross domestic product and the human development index (H.D.I.), respectively. The data for this study were sourced from the international telecommunication union (I.T.U.) and world development indicators from the World Bank databases. The results show that mobile telecommunication is growing faster than other telecommunication indicators and I.C.T. penetration has positive impacts on economic growth and development in Africa. The study, therefore, recommends that simultaneous investments are required in the fixed-line and Internet access telecommunications in Africa in order to fully tap into the optimal impetus of I.C.T. penetration for economic growth and development in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]