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This paper examines the nexus between shadow economy and income inequality in the West African region. The study applies second-generation panel estimation techniques to analyze the effect and the direction of causation between the variables. The results reveal that the shadow economy reduces income inequality in the region in both short-run and long-run estimations. A similar result is documented when alternative estimation techniques are employed. In addition, the panel causality results show a bidirectional relationship between shadow economy and income inequality in the West African economy. The implications of the study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research purpose: This study investigates the impact of financial inclusion on female labour force participation in Africa. It also complements the existing studies by evaluating how advancement in information and communication technology (ICT) and Trade openness (TO) modulate the relationship between financial inclusion and female economic participation in selected African countries.

This study contributes to the sustainable development literature by investigating the impact of the shadow economy on sustainable development in a panel of 30 African countries over a period of 2000–2017. The study employs parametric and nonparametric panel estimation techniques. The novel moment panel quantile regression method is also used to produce robust outcomes across the distribution of the explained variable in the presence of location shifters, scale variants, endogeneity, and outliers. The results reveal that the shadow economy reduces sustainable development in Africa. The study concludes that conscious efforts are needed to ensure that the shadow economy issue is addressed to enjoy the benefits of sustainable development in the African region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of the China‐African economic relationship has received much attention among the scholars. Africa and China have experienced cooperation in the areas of foreign direct investment, cross‐border trade, and foreign aids. While this economic relationship has been viewed to contribute to the development of African nations, some scholars are of the opinion that it is a new practice in imperialism. Surprisingly, none of these scholars has examined the environmental effect of Chinese foreign direct investment (CFDI) in African regions. On this note, this study investigates how Chinese foreign direct investment (CFDI) has altered environmental conditions in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). The study uses the pooled mean group panel estimation procedure to control for short‐run heterogeneity and long‐run homogeneity in the absence of cross‐sectional dependence for the period 2003–2020, focusing on 22 countries in the region that have seen a substantial increase in foreign investment from China. CFDI is shown to decrease CO2 emissions in the long term, lending credence to the pollution halo hypothesis. Furthermore, short‐term averages show that CFDI increases CO2 emissions, lending credence to the pollution haven hypothesis. However, the short‐term results showed substantial variation on how CFDI affects CO2 emissions. The research shows that short‐term CFDI is associated with reduction in CO2 emissions in Burundi and Rwanda but increases them in the Congo Republic, Gabon, and South Africa. Some policy suggestions based on the results are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, efforts have been put in place to address money laundering activities including financial crime and illicit funding controls. These efforts have been recognized to promote financial integrity and effective governance systems. They have been further adjudged by the United Nations' sustainable development (Goal‐16) with a major concern to achieve peaceful, just and inclusive development. Previous studies reveal that money laundering activities have major implications for economic growth. However, little is known about the main implications of anti‐money laundering (AML) regulations on sustainable development. On this note, this study contributes to the ongoing debate by investigating the relationship between AML regulations and sustainable development in 72 developing economies, consisting 29 upper middle income, 33 low middle income and 10 low income countries. Using instrumental variable generalized method of moment (IV‐GMM), panel quantile estimation technique and dynamic panel threshold analysis, the findings are as follows. First, AML regulations promote sustainable development. Second, the panel quantile regression reveals that countries with moderate AML regulations attain higher sustainable development than those with excessive regulations. Further results on regional analysis show that AML regulations are more effective in Latin America, South Asia, Europe & Central Asia and Middle East & North Africa than in Sub‐Saharan Africa and East Asia & Pacific. These results are robust and stable after conducting a number of robustness analyses. The study suggests that effective AML regulations should be moderate and well‐implemented to further improve economic, social and environmental sustainability in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social-distance policy of most governments and the pandemic impact of corona virus (COVID-19) on human health are expected to shutter international investment and business environment. However, there is little or no study to show the early empirical evidence on this relationship, most especially its impacts on FDI flows in the economies. This note provides a preliminary evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on FDI outflows. Our data cover cross-sectional first quarter, average data; between 1 January – 31 March, 2020 from 43 countries. Using Ordinary least square (OLS) and Quantile regressions, we document that there is a positive relationship between COVID-19 confirmed cases and FDI outflows. In addition, there is a positive impact of COVID-19 related confirmed deaths on FDI outflows across all quartiles estimations. This means that COVID-19 pandemic fuels the foreign direct investment outflows. The major causes could be the reduction in the ability of firms to invest due to a shortage in the number of skilled employees because they care for their health safety, a decline in corporate profits and increase in cost of finance. In addition, the propensities to invest have been widely affected negatively in most economies. These factors also become obvious when most economies experience a very high level of risk perception in financial market.

That economic condition influences crime rate is a fundamental argument in economic theory. Specifically, a rational human being is expected to commit more crimes if and only if the expected gain outweigh the punishment. An individual potential offender may choose to commit a crime if the expected utility outweighs the benefits from legal engagements and risk perceptions. Furthermore, a decline or increase in macroeconomic indicators including unemployment, inflation is associated with social wellbeing. The conventional knowledge is that when economic conditions are unbearable, crime may increase. Contrarily, in the period of healthy economic condition, crime rates may decrease. This augment has motivated scholars to examine empirically the economic condition effect on crime rate in developed countries while little or nothing is known in developing countries, most importantly Nigeria. Based on this gap, this study examines the impact of economic condition on crime rate in Nigeria. To analyze this, it employs ARDL bound test approach to cointegration and causality test within the framework of VECM to examine directional relationship between crime rate and economic conditions for the period of 1985-2015.Our main finding confirms the existence of long run relationship among the variables. In addition, economic condition contributes positively and significantly to crime rate in Nigeria in short run and long run. A 1% increases in economic condition increases crime by 0.12%. The study reveals that in the long run; economic condition granger causes crime rate while crime does not granger cause economic condition. In conclusion, the study shows that real income per head could serve as a key weapon in fighting criminal activities in Nigerian economy. Furthermore, government should not only aim of economic growth, but also provide more employment opportunities, increase wage rate, and provide more basic necessities to every citizen. Enforcement of crime laws is very important to reduce the level of criminal activities in Nigeria. The Nigerian government should ensure that security matter is taken seriously. High attention should be given to security agencies especially the police and other law enforcement agencies. Their incentives and allowances need to be reviewed so that they would do their jobs diligently. JEL Classifications: K 14, J 64, J140, O11 Keywords: Economic Condition, Causality, ARDL, Crime, INTRODUCTION Criminal activities in a society can act even more than the harshness of tax in a country especially developing nations like Nigeria. This is because it can discourage both [...]

This study examines the effect of institutional quality and misery index on crime rate in Nigeria. Data sourced for the period of 1986–2016 from the Nigerian Police Force, National Bureau of Statistics, International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) and World Bank Development Indicators are employed. The study applies the ARDL approach to co-integration in estimating the model built for the study. The results show that there is a long-run relationship among the variables. It further reveals that institutional quality reduces crime rate significantly in the short run while economic misery increases the level of crime in Nigeria. These results imply that gradual improvements in institutional arrangements within democratic administrations would further provide a more effective and efficient peaceful means for settling disputes and re-alignments of socio-economic inequalities, which seem to be the main causes of criminal activities in Nigeria.

In relation to actual digital usage, empirical research is limited on whether digital technology promotes entrepreneurial development in African economies. This study, therefore, investigates the impact of digital technology usage on entrepreneurship in selected African countries. This study contributes to the literature by using 20 selected African countries over the period of 2012–2016. Unlike existing studies, this paper differentiates between the impact of business, government and individual usage of digital technology by employing the 6th, 7th and 8th pillars of the Network Readiness Index. The study employs panel least square and instrumental variable (IV) estimating techniques and panel corrected standard errors (PCSEs) to analyze the data. The results show that digital technology usage has a positive and significant impact on entrepreneurship in Africa. Further analysis shows that individual usage and business usage have a positive and significant impact on business creation. Social media network usage has a positive and significant impact on entrepreneurial development. The study suggests that the growth of entrepreneurship can be enhanced through an ICT usage enabling environment. Individual usage and business usage including social media usage of digitalization are the main drivers of entrepreneurial development in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]