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For developing economies, adequate rates of capital formation are required for sustained economic growth, and policy makers have to consider the ratio of savings to invest in capital formation while still being supportive of other economic needs (e.g., servicing of current loans and payment of salaries and administrative overheads). We evaluated the expenditure-savings nexus of four emerging economies (i.e., Ghana, Botswana, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago) to investigate, in accordance with the seminal research of Sir Arthur Lewis, how the growth rates of savings and expenditure impact the accumulation of capital and, thus, spur economic development. Based on Lewis' research, we developed the Lewis Growth Rule (LGR) for developing economies - that is, emerging economies can best sustain economic development by maintaining a growth in savings that exceeds that of expenditure and by investing the surplus in the accumulation of capital. As a takeoff strategy for economic development, emerging economies' expenditure should grow by 5%-7%, whereas savings should grow by 7%-12%. We assessed the performance of the LGR by examining the two African and two Caribbean economies using data from the Penn World Tables. Our examination results of long-term trends in these economies demonstrate intermittent periods where the surplus gap as required by the LGR is observed with a downward trend for Barbados and Ghana, while upward for Botswana and Trinidad and Tobago. The impact of Ghana's significant continuous savings gaps on per capita GDP growth is significant over the analysis period. Barbados demonstrated a much lower marginal savings gap, but its positive impact on per capita GDP growth was much higher than that of Ghana. The findings have important implications for policy makers. While a savings gap is important for developing economies, political conflicts depress its impact on the real economy. Hence, the most important is the suggestion that, although critical to capital accumulation, the size of a positive savings gap does not have to be as large as Lewis' rule suggests for economic growth to be sustained. Coordinated government policies, growth supportive institutional arrangements, and investments in technology are also critical in unlocking high productivity that boosts and sustains real economic growth. JEL Classifications: O1, O4, O5, and C5 Keywords: African economies, Caribbean economies, development economics, growth rules Contact author's email address: aandrews@govst.edu, INTRODUCTION In his seminal 1954 paper, for which he was awarded the 1979 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Sir Arthur Lewis (1938) wrote that for developing economies, the key [...]

Biomass and biowaste resources can be used to create self‐doped carbon with a distinctive microstructure. Using an economical and environmentally friendly method to create heteroatom‐doped carbon electrode materials with excellent electrochemical performance has attracted much attention in the energy storage industry. A novel facile two‐step, low‐cost, and eco‐friendly synthesis method for Colocasia esculenta peels has been developed to manufacture activated carbon (CEPAC) and used as an electrode material for supercapacitor application. The CEPAC 1:1 displayed a high specific surface area of 910 m2/g with oxygen‐heteroatom polar sites in the carbon network. A specific capacitance of 525.3 F/g was recorded in the three‐electrode system using a 3 M KOH solution. The assembled symmetric cell delivered an impressive specific capacitance of 98.7 F/g at 1 A/g while maintaining 98.4% of the initially recorded capacitance after 10 000 charge–discharge cycles. These results present a promising low‐cost and simple processing route for synthesizing electrode materials with superior surface properties for high‐performance supercapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large quantity of water treatment sludge (WTS) is generated yearly from Ghana's Weija water treatment plant. The sludge contains some heavy metals and other toxic chemicals, which must be managed to minimize environmental impact. In the current work, WTS was mixed with varying quantities of kaolinitic‐based clays (kaolin and lithomargic clays) to produce porous mullite‐based bricks. The bricks were fired at 1200°C for 1 h, and their properties were determined. Lithomargic clay‐based mixtures had less dimensional variation and were suitable to produce near‐net shape bricks compared to WTS‐based bricks. The addition of WTS increased the linear firing shrinkage and apparent porosity whilst decreasing bulk density and compressive strength. Porous mullite‐based bricks fabricated from lithomargic clay exhibited high compressive strength (6.3 MPa) at 10 wt.% WTS addition. The highest apparent porosity of 27% was attained at 40 wt.% WTS addition with compressive strength of 5.1 MPa and thermal conductivity of.5 W/m K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]