The article focuses on the conditional relationship between various human capital proxies and the size of potential “O-Ring” or “Cobb-Douglas” sectors. We find that that years of schooling are a robust negative predictor of the size of the informal sector, conditioned on national average...

Drawing from the literature on the determinants of corruption, this article examines the relationship between corruption and the nature of state of fragility. Robust empirical evidence shows a correlation between the level of corruption and state fragility. In a further assessment with the...

This paper assesses the determinants of state fragility in sub-Saharan Africa using hitherto unexplored variables in the literature. The previously missing dimension of nation building is integrated and the hypothesis of state fragility being a function of rent seeking and/or lobbying by de...

This paper extends the growing literature on knowledge economy by investigating the effect of intelligence on economic diversification. Using a battery of estimation techniques that are robust to endogeneity, we find that human capital has positive effects on export diversification, manufactured...

Crimes and conflicts are seriously undermining African development. This article assesses the best governance tools in the fight against the scourges. The following findings are established. (1) Democracy, autocracy and voice & accountability have no significant negative correlations with crime....

With earthshaking and jaw-breaking levels of corruption in the African continent, the question on the extent to which corruption influences crime still remains unanswered. This paper assesses the effect of corruption (corruption-control) in 38 African countries using updated data. We find that,...

This study revisits the conclusion of Lynn and Vanhanen (2006) which suggests that countries with a high IQ on average are those with low poverty rates. We go beyond the simple bivariate correlation by controlling for other variables and using alternative econometric techniques. Our findings...