Causes of Current Account Fluctuations in West African Monetary Union

This study analyzes the sources of current account fluctuations in the West African Monetary Union (WAEMU) economies over the period from 1980 to 2017. It is part of the inter-temporal approach which considers that the dynamics of the current account of a country is influenced by global shocks and transient or permanent domestic shocks. Thus, we developed a three-variable structural autoregressive vector model. This is the international real interest rate that represents the aggregate shock, the ratio of current account to gross domestic product which is the proxy for transient domestic shocks, and the ratio of net output to gross domestic product to measure impact of permanent shocks to the current account. From the theoretical model, structural shocks are identified by applying the long-term restrictions imposed by the inter-temporal approach in the analysis of current account dynamics. The study leads to three major results: 1) current account fluctuations within WAEMU are explained by transient domestic shocks, 2) net product fluctuations are due to permanent domestic shocks, 3) Global or exogenous shocks have a modest contribution to current account fluctuations, but their effects on net income are still significant, especially in the long run.

Corporate Governance and Firms’Financial Performance of Listed Company in the West African Monetary Union (Wamu) Regional Financial Exchange

This study examines empirically the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on firm financial performance using listed firms in the West African Monetary Union (WAMU).Based on the review of existing literature, four corporate governance variables were selected namely: composition of board member, board size, CEO status and ownership concentration which served as the independent variables. The ordinary least square regression was used to estimate the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance. A total of 39 firms were selected for the study cutting across all sectors of Regional Financial Exchange. Findings from the study show that there is positive and significant relationship between composition of board member and board size as independent variables and firm performance. CEO status also has positive relationship with firm performance but insignificant at P<0.05.However, ownership concentration has negative relationships with return on asset (ROA) but positive relationship with profit margin (PM). The relationships are not significant at 5%.A high concentration of shares tends to create more pressure on managers to behave in ways that are value-maximizing.