This paper introduces preliminary evidence from a cross-country database of policy characteristics and potential uses of that database. While most databases have emphasized either the content of policies (e.g., size of government deficits) or countries' formal institutions (e.g., political...

Purpose - The paper assesses how entrepreneurship affects knowledge economy (KE) in Africa. Design/methodology/approach - Entrepreneurship is measured by indicators of starting, doing and ending business. The four dimensions of the World Bank's index of KE are employed. Instrumental variable...

Purpose - This study assesses the effect of time-dynamic financial globalisation uncertainty on financial development in 53 African countries for the period 2000-2011. Design/methodology/approach - Financial globalisation uncertainty is estimated as time-dynamic to capture business cycle...

This paper assesses the role knowledge economy (KE) in African business in 53 countries for the period 1996-2010. The four KE components of the World Bank are employed, notably: education, innovation, economic incentives & institutional regime and information & communication technology. The...

Compared to other regions of the world, Africa is lagging in its drive toward knowledgebased economies. This study systematically reviews the literature in order to highlight the policies and strategies with which African countries can accelerate their current drive towards building...

Knowledge has emerged as a fundamental driver of economic growth and development by inter alia improving the effectiveness and efficiency of economic projects and boosting the process of finding new avenues of addressing developmental policy syndromes. Recent evidence suggests that Africa is on...

Recent evidence from citation analysis [Mitra, S., Palmer, M, Vuon, V. (2020). Development and interdisciplinarity: A citation analysis. World Development, 135, 105076; hereafter MPV] shows that development as a field of study hardly interacts with other disciplines - except mainstream economics....

We estimate the effect of democracy on economic growth for the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in comparison with other countries. We find that in contrast to other countries, democracy in Africa benefits neither GDP per capita nor total GDP. We explain the former by changes in the size of the...

This paper reconsiders the classic relationship between trade and economic development. We examine the short-term and long-run dynamics between trade and income for 167 countries over the period 1970–2011 and assume that the effect is not homogenous for all countries but rather varies...

Low growth equilibria with low investment in human capital generally tend to persist till an external shock affects the economy. In this paper we use data on Christian missions to proxy a long-lasting educational shock in Africa. We estimate the effect of this shock on the quality of children...