scholarly journals Government Expenditure and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. p14
Author(s):  
Dickson Wandeda ◽  
Wafula Masai ◽  
Samuel M. Nyandemo

The paper sought to investigate the effect government expenditure on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa using a panel data for 35 Sub-Saharan African countries for the period 2006-2018. The paper adopted dynamic panel data and estimates were achieved by using two-step system GMM while taking into account the problem of instrument proliferation. The paper provided evidence that education and health expenditure are key determinants of income growth for SSA. The impact of education spending on cross-country income variation is more effective in low income SSA countries than the middle income SSA countries. However, military expenditure on output growth is more effective in improving income level of middle income SSA countries than low income SSA countries. SSA countries should allocate more funding towards education sector and should also avail compulsory and free primary and secondary education. SSA should carry out health reforms which improve primary health and universal health insurance coverage.

Author(s):  
Ladifatou GACHILI NDI GBAMBIE ◽  
Ousseni MONGBET

<p>Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries have benefited for more than fifty years from international aid in the form of loans and/or donations. Nevertheless, they seem not to benefit from these massive financial resources (ODA) they receive because their economic and social situation is not very good. This study aims to assess the impact of ODA on economic growth in SSA and to see if its effect on growth is conditioned by the quality of the economic policy. The estimates are conducted on a dynamic panel of twenty-three SSA countries running from 1985 to 2014. With macroeconomic data from the World Bank's CD-ROM (World Development Indicators, 2015), the Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) system from Blundel and Bond (1998) was used. The results show that the impact of ODA on growth is not significant. Subsequently, when squared aid (ODA2) is included in the estimate, ODA becomes significant, meaning that a substantial amount of assistance is required to be effective in raising the economic growth rate of the SSA countries. In addition, the effectiveness of ODA is conditioned by the quality of the economic policy. This seems to be bad in SSA, hence the negative impact of the aid on economic growth.</p>


SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824402110648
Author(s):  
Emma Serwaa Obobisa ◽  
Haibo Chen ◽  
Emmanuel Caesar Ayamba ◽  
Claudia Nyarko Mensah

Recently, China has emerged as the largest trading partner and a significant source of investment in the African continent. Although there is consent on the increasing importance of China and Africa’s economic partnership, there are many controversies on how it affects African countries. Debates on China in Africa have, however, relied on grandiloquence rather than empirical studies. This study explores the causal link between China-Africa trade, China’s outward foreign direct (OFDI), and economic growth of 24 Sub-Saharan Africa countries from 1999 to 2018. The aggregated panel is classified into upper-middle-income, low-middle income, and low-income Sub-Saharan African countries. In the long run, key findings from the feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) estimator unveiled that; (i) China-Africa trade negatively contributes to economic growth among all panels. (ii) China’s OFDI improves economic growth in the low middle and low-income African countries whereas a significant negative liaison is evidenced in the upper-middle-income African countries. (iii) Labor force have a negative impact on economic growth whiles gross capital formation is evidenced to positively impact economic growth at all the panels. The Dumitrescu and Hurlin Granger causality unveiled a one-sided causal link from China-Africa trade to economic growth at all panels. The study proposes policy recommendations based on the results.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-60
Author(s):  
Lamia Jamel ◽  
Monia Ben Ltaifa ◽  
Ahmed K Elnagar ◽  
Abdelkader Derbali ◽  
Ali Lamouchi

The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the nexus between education accumulation and economic growth for a sample of middle-income countries through panel data regressions. The sample consists of 28 middle-income countries from various continents: North Africa and the Middle East (6 countries), sub-Saharan Africa (7 countries), Latin America and the Caribbean (8 countries), East Asia and the Pacific (3 countries), and Europe and Central Asia (4 countries). Education is measured by quantitative (average years of labour force study) and qualitative indicators (student scores on international assessments of educational achievements). To test the impact of education accumulation on GDP per capita growth, a static panel is used during the period of study from 1970 to 2014. A dynamic panel is also being developed to estimate the effect of the education stock on the growth rate of GDP per capita. The results confirm the positive and significant impact of the education quantity and quality on economic growth, both in level and variation. The stock of education and its increase are positively affecting the growth. Moreover, this paper’s original findings suggest that the quality of education is more significant than its quantity.


Author(s):  
Giampaolo Garzarelli ◽  
Yasmina Rim Limam

Background: A major question that received the attention of numerous theoretical and empirical studies during the past few decades relates to the issue of output growth decomposition and the sources of economic growth. The literature focuses on two sources of growth: factor accumulation (mainly physical capital) and total factor productivity (TFP) growth, presenting inconclusive results as to the relative importance of each.Aim: This article investigates the relative importance of physical capital accumulation and TFP in explaining output growth in 36 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over 1996–2014. The possibility of TFP-induced input effects is tested in order to better assess the role of TFP in total output growth.Setting: 36 SSA countries over the period 1996–2014.Method: The article uses a stochastic frontier analysis, an empirical methodology that decomposes total output growth into input growth, technological change and technical efficiency change.Results: The contribution of physical capital to total growth exceeds that of TFP in 22 out of the 36 countries. The result withstands issues of TFP-induced effects on inputs.Conclusion: A large share of growth in SSA is explained by factor inputs and not by TFP. There is therefore room for TFP to further increase growth in SSA. In order to create more opportunities for growth, SSA countries ought to invest in productivity-enhancing factors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (02) ◽  
pp. 2039-2150
Author(s):  
Funsho Kolapo ◽  
Azeez Bolanle ◽  
Joseph Mokuolu ◽  
Taiwo Oluwaleye ◽  
Kehinde Alabi

The study investigated the impact of government expenditure on economic growth with special inclination to testing the Wagner’s law in Sub Saharan Africa between 1986 and 2018. Adopting the Panel first generation tests as well as the Panel Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Pairwise Causality techniques, it was revealed that government expenditure causes economic growth rendering the Wagner’s law is invalid in the Sub-Saharan region. Also, it was further discovered that capital and recurrent expenditure exert negative effect on economic growth while total expenditure has positive effect on economic growth in the region. Therefore, based on the negativity of capital and recurrent expenditure, it is recommended that capital and recurrent expenditure must be monitored effectively to ensure that its increase will not exert any negative effect on economic growth while stringent measures as well as checks and balances must be adopted to curb corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa to ensure that funds are used exclusively for their intended purposes especially those pertaining to capital projects.


2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 683-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olusegun Ayodele Akanbi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of migration on economic growth and human development in selected Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Design/methodology/approach The estimations were carried out in a panel of 19 selected SSA countries over the period 1990-2013, using the two-stage least squares estimation techniques. Two measures of migration, namely stock of international migrants and the ratio of personal remittances received to personal remittances paid were used in the study to carry out this investigation. Findings The results conform to the findings of existing literature, namely that social expenditure, domestic investment, financial inclusion, income inequality, income and human poverty are significant determinants of either human development or per capita GDP in Sub-Saharan Africa. The distinctive feature of the study is the significant but negative role played by migration in explaining human development and economic growth in the region. The results from the panel estimations reveal that an increase in the measures of migration deteriorates the level of human development and growth of the region. Research limitations/implications The major limitation of this study is the unavailability of quality data on migration flows. Therefore, it would be imperative to reinvestigate the specifications adopted in this study in follow-up studies. Practical implications The study includes implications for policy makers, especially in SSA countries, that the pattern and flow of migration does not circulate within the region and has tended to drain out human capital to other regions of the world. In the same event, the stock of migrants residing in the region may be low-skilled migrants that do not contribute directly to the level of human development. Originality/value To assess the impact of migration on economic growth and development such as the SSA region, it is imperative to follow the growth-based, capacity-based and asset-based approaches to development. This study has made this distinction.


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