A previous analysis of the impact of formal institutions on the knowledge economy of 22 Middle-Eastern and Sub-Sahara African countries during the 1996-2010 time period concluded that formal institutions were necessary, but inadequate, determinants of the knowledge economy. To extend that study,...

The Okada & Samreth (2012, EL) and Asongu (2012, EB; 2013, EEL) debate on ‘the effect of foreign aid on corruption' has had an important influence in policy and academic circles. This paper provides a unifying framework by using investment and fiscal behavior transmission channels in 53 African...

Purpose – In a meta-study on the finance-growth nexus, we have bridged the gap between Schumpeterian authors and sympathizers of a questionable finance-growth nexus.Design/methodology/approach – Over 20 fundamental characteristics that have influenced the debate over the last decades have...

Purpose – The issue of which financial initial conditions are necessary to materialize the benefits of financial globalization remains open to debate in the literature. In this paper, we try to put some empirical structure on the concept of financial threshold conditions in order to give...

This paper examines the big questions of African comparative politics. It assesses the interaction of three crucial components in the development of the continent: law, democracy and quality of government. Political regimes of democracy, polity and autocracy are instrumented with income-levels,...

This paper explores the determinants of intelligence by focusing on the role played by barriers to the diffusion of competence and human capital. The results based on cross-sectional data from 167 countries consisting of 1996-2009 averages suggest that, genetic distance to global frontiers has a...

This study checks the effect of foreign aid on terrorism and FDI, conditioned on domestic levels of corruption-control (CC). The empirical evidence is based on a sample of 78 countries for the period 1984-2008. The following findings are established: the negative effect of terrorism on FDI is...

This paper examines interconnections between law, politics and the quality of government in Africa. We investigate whether African democracies enjoy relatively better government quality compared to their counterparts with more autocratic inclinations. The empirical evidence is based on...

Using cross-country differences in the degree of isolation before the advent of technologies in sea and air transportation, we assess the relationship between geographic isolation and financial development across the globe. We find that pre-historic geographical isolation has been beneficial to...

This chapter examines how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected financial development and financial inclusion in African countries. The study provides both broad perspectives and country-specific frameworks based on selected country cases studies. Some emphasis is placed on the achievement of...