scholarly journals Economic Performance and Competitiveness Indicators: The Case of African Economies

Author(s):  
Vít Pošta ◽  
Marta Nečadová

This paper presents a statistical analysis of the relationship between economic performance and competitiveness indicators to address the question of the extent to which competitiveness indicators provideuseful information when assessing economic performance. The analysis was performed on various examples of African economies. The possible relationships between economic performance and competitiveness indicators were examined by extending a basic relationship between economic performance per capita and investment by competitiveness indicators. The models were estimated by means of an Arellano-Bond estimator. The authors detected many statistically significant relationships between economic performance and competitiveness indicators in the cases of both the whole sample and specifically middle-income economies. However, in the case of low-income economies there are no discernible relationships between economic performance and the information included in the competitiveness indicators. The paper contributes to the analysis of the economic performance of African economies, for which the empirical evaluation of possible links between economic performance and competitiveness indicators is altogether missing.

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 45-66
Author(s):  
R. Mohan ◽  
N. Ramalingam

The article examines the revenue and expenditure trends of 15 states of India during the period 2005–2006 to 2013–2014, by grouping them into high, middle and low income based on per capita Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). The analysis reveals that the middle-income states have performed better than the high- and low-income states in own tax effort, whereas low-income states are ahead of all states average in proportion of development expenditure to GSDP. The quality of fiscal deficit has improved, as a major part of it is capital outlay for 12 out of 15 states. Central grants and taxes have shown progressive trends with the degree of progressivity more in the latter. In devolution of resources to local self governments (LSGs), only 5 states are ahead of all states average. The association between development expenditure, own tax revenue effort, devolution of Central taxes and Central grants is positive and statistically significant.


Author(s):  
Jeffrey P. Thompson ◽  
Elias Leight

Abstract This paper uses US state panel data to explore the relationship between the share of income received by affluent households and the level of income and earnings received by low and middle-income families. A rising top share of income can potentially lead to increases in the incomes of low and middle-income families if economic growth is sufficiently responsive to increases in inequality. A substantial literature on the impacts of inequality on economic growth exists, but has failed to achieve consensus, with various studies finding positive impacts, negative impacts, and no impacts on growth from increased levels of income inequality. This paper departs from that literature by exploring the effect of inequality on the standard of living of middle-income and low-income families. In the context of rising inequality, increased overall growth is not necessarily a suitable proxy for overall standard of living, since growth patterns are not uniform for the entire income distribution. The results of this study indicate that increases in the top share of income (particularly the top one percent) are associated with declines in the actual incomes (and earnings) of middle income families, but have no clear impact on families at the bottom of the income distribution.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7525
Author(s):  
Ahmad Salman ◽  
Ali Al-Hemoud ◽  
Saja A. Fakhraldeen ◽  
Maha Al-Nashmi ◽  
Suad M. AlFadhli ◽  
...  

The research and development (R&D) expenditure in Kuwait is insufficient to lead to innovation and a knowledge economy. Investment in R&D has been shown to sustain elevated economic performance. The objective of this study is to explore the association between three competing dimensions of R&D indicators that lead to sustainable economic performance within any given country, namely, R&D expenditure, the number of researchers, and the number of patent rights, using time-series data collected over a 20-year period (1996–2016) by the World Bank Group. R&D indicators were compared between high- and middle-income countries including models from Asian (South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia) and European (Finland and Ireland) countries as well as the State of Kuwait. Moreover, a case study describing R&D investments in Kuwait is presented. Overall, the results reveal higher R&D spending, number of researchers, and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for the Asian and European models. Current R&D expenditure in Kuwait is estimated at 0.08% of GDP (2016), which is significantly lower than the mean of the middle-income countries (1.58%). Furthermore, the number of researchers (per million) in Kuwait (386) is less than half of the mean number of researchers in middle-income countries (775) (2015). Low R&D investments in the State of Kuwait has gradually led to a decreased GDP per capita. Regression analysis shows that GDP per capita can be predicted solely based on the number of researchers (beta = 0.780, R2 = 0.608). The number of researchers is the most crucial variable to predict GDP per capita, and the R&D expenditure is a good indicator of the number of researchers. These findings offer invaluable insight into the sustainable development goals (SDG 9). To our knowledge, this paper presents the first application of the effect of R&D on sustainable economic performance with reference to the SDG target 9.5 “Research & Development”. Thus, in order to enhance scientific research (both academic, professional, and industrial), countries need to increase the number of researchers, and these actions are necessary to introduce sustainable growth to GDP.


Sociology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 003803852093939
Author(s):  
Kerris Cooper

Low-income parents have long been demonised in both political discourses and mainstream media, portrayed as lacking in parenting skills not just financial resources. Using the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) this article examines to what extent there are differences in the parenting of low-income mothers by examining parenting behaviours of low-, middle- and high-income mothers. The findings show that where there are negative differences in the parenting of low-income mothers these are often part of a broader income gradient that extends all the way up the distribution, rather than unique to low-income mothers. Furthermore, there are some positive differences in parenting among low-income mothers compared to middle-income mothers. These findings have important implications: low-income parents are not an unusual or deviant group parenting differently to everyone else. The findings suggest more attention ought to be given to parenting differences higher up the income distribution. In focusing on low-income parents only, existing evidence exaggerates differences and wrongly identifies low-income parents as problematic.


2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (12) ◽  
pp. 3619-3625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessia Savoldi ◽  
Elena Carrara ◽  
Beryl Primrose Gladstone ◽  
Anna Maria Azzini ◽  
Siri Göpel ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives To assess the association between country income status and national prevalence of invasive infections caused by the top-ranked bacteria on the WHO priority list: carbapenem-resistant (CR) Acinetobacter spp., Klebsiella spp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa; third-generation cephalosporin-resistant (3GCR) Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp.; and MRSA and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VR E. faecium). Methods Active surveillance systems providing yearly prevalence data from 2012 onwards for the selected bacteria were included. The gross national income (GNI) per capita was used as the indicator for income status of each country and was log transformed to account for non-linearity. The association between antibiotic prevalence data and GNI per capita was investigated individually for each bacterium through linear regression. Results Surveillance data were available from 67 countries: 38 (57%) were high income, 16 (24%) upper-middle income, 11 (16%) lower-middle income and two (3%) low income countries. The regression showed significant inverse association (P<0.0001) between resistance prevalence of invasive infections and GNI per capita. The highest rate of increase per unit decrease in log GNI per capita was observed in 3GCR Klebsiella spp. (22.5%, 95% CI 18.2%–26.7%), CR Acinetobacter spp. (19.2% 95% CI 11.3%–27.1%) and 3GCR E. coli (15.3%, 95% CI 11.6%–19.1%). The rate of increase per unit decrease in log GNI per capita was lower in MRSA (9.5%, 95% CI 5.2%–13.7%). Conclusions The prevalence of invasive infections caused by the WHO top-ranked antibiotic-resistant bacteria is inversely associated with GNI per capita at the global level. Public health interventions designed to limit the burden of antimicrobial resistance should also consider determinants of poverty and inequality, especially in lower-middle income and low income countries.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (03) ◽  
pp. 1950016
Author(s):  
FUMITAKA FURUOKA

This study proposes a novel statistical procedure to test the export-led growth hypothesis. The procedure integrates a Fisher-type causality method in the statistical analysis. In order to demonstrate the application of this procedure, this study examined the exports–growth nexus in low-income and lower middle-income countries in Africa. The findings obtained from the newly-proposed integrated statistical procedure were more conclusive compared to the results obtained from the individual causality tests; the findings also highlighted a complex nature of the exports–growth nexus in Africa.


2017 ◽  
Vol 237 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-273
Author(s):  
Sibylle Stossberg ◽  
Hansjörg Blöchliger

Abstract Fiscal decentralisation might be partially responsible for rising income inequality by exacerbating competition between sub-national governments and compromising national government’s ability to redistribute. This paper investigates the relationship between fiscal decentralisation and economy-wide disposable income inequality. Drawing on a dataset of up to 20 OECD countries and covering the period 1996 to 2011, the analysis links a set of income inequality indicators and a wide array of fiscal decentralisation indicators. Results indicate that decentralisation might actually reduce income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, but the effect is rather small and unstable across specifications. Fine-graining the analysis by using income percentile ratios, in turn, produces more significant and stable results. As such, the effects of fiscal decentralisation are not the same along the income distribution. While decentralisation tends to be associated with a reduction in income inequality between high incomes and the median, it is linked to a divergence of low income groups from the median, notably via sub-central tax autonomy. Transfers between levels of government also tend to be associated with an increase in the gap between lower and middle incomes. Interpreting these effects jointly, it seems that mainly middle income earners benefit from fiscal decentralisation.


2007 ◽  
Vol 191 (6) ◽  
pp. 528-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Chisholm ◽  
Crick Lund ◽  
Shekhar Saxena

BackgroundNo systematic attempt has been made to calculate the costs of scaling up mental health services in low-and middle-income countries.AimsTo estimate the expenditures needed to scale up the delivery of an essential mental healthcare package over a 10-year period (2006–2015).MethodA core package was defined, comprising pharmacological and/or psychosocial treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and hazardous alcohol use. Current service levels in 12 selected low-and middle-income countries were established using the WHO–AIMS assessment tool. Target-level resource needs were derived from published need assessments and economic evaluations.ResultsThe cost per capita of providing the core package attarget coverage levels (in US dollars) ranged from $1.85 to $2.60 per year in low-income countries and $3.20 to $6.25 per year in lower-middle-income countries, an additional annual investment of $0.18–0.55 per capita.ConclusionsAlthough significant new resources need to be invested, the absolute amount is not large when considered at the population level and against other health investment strategies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Forster Kwame Boateng

This paper examines the effects of per capita gross domestic product (GDP), trade openness, and urbanization on the total carbon dioxide emissions of Ghana using time-series annual data from 1960 to 2014. The 55-year period, from 1960 to 2014, covered economic transformation of Ghana from a low-income agrarian country to a lower-middle income country. The analysis used the autoregressive distributed lag method of co-integration. The results showed that per capita GDP, trade openness, and urbanization all significantly influenced both long-run and short-run levels of carbon dioxide emissions in Ghana. However, increased trade openness led to reduced total emissions, while rising per capita GDP and increased urbanization both increased total emissions albeit at different intensity levels.


Author(s):  
Edgar J. Saucedo-Acosta ◽  

Purpose:The paper aims to estimate the effect of inequality on the economic growth of Balkan countries for the period 2001-2017. In addition, the effect of capital stock on GDP per capita (GDPpc) for the Balkan countries was estimated. The low level of financial inclusion on the Balkan region produces an underinvestment of human capital and affects the low-income households, leading to an increase in inequality. Low levels of equality and capital stock negatively impact economic growth.


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