This paper uses a unique dataset to investigate the effect of the cognitive ability of leading politicians on state capacity. Given the evidence that cognitive ability of leading politicians’ affects state capacity positively, except Africa. For the continent, this relationship between state...

This study complements the inclusive growth literature by examining the determinants and consequences of the middle class in a continent where economic growth has been relatively high. The empirical evidence is based on a sample of 33 African countries for a 2010 cross-sectional study. OLS,...

This article re-examines the relationship alcohol and VIH/Aids, while resorting to another methodological approach that utilized by Fisher et al., (2007) and Kalichman et al. (2007). We confirm a direct relation of alcohol to the AIDS.

This study aims at testing the relation between intelligence and governance. It is based on African data. This study finds that countries with high-IQ populations enjoy good governance.

This paper investigates the effects of religion on a broad set of development outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa. We regroup these outcomes into three broad categories, namely, development process outcomes (growth, investment, conflict, and government quality), institutional outcomes (property...

The paper explores the effects of shadow economy on tax revenues, in the case of several African countries, based on a panel-model approach. The data-set covers the period 1999-2007. The main results reveal that the shadow economy has a significant and negative impact on tax revenues. In other...