A Political Economy of Wellbeing/Wellness in Nigeria

Since the turn of the new millennium, which was the period of clear comparison and computation of the misery index, Nigeria had always record low in the index for the report. Within the last three years, the misery index that was published has shown that Nigeria is the sixth (6th) most miserable country that one can reside. This measure of misery index was also substantiated by the recent report from the World Bank on the issue of poverty, inequality, and wellness. However, it seems to be an intensified interest in how Nigeria will overcome such an unpleasant pattern. In this research, the study examined how macroeconomic indices in enhancing people’s wellbeing—utilising economic growth, monetary policy position, and governance efficiency as, unemployment, interest rate, and inflation rate for macroeconomic performance indicators. The conclusions drawn suggest that economic growth, resulting in the advancement of wellbeing via allocative as well as distributive productivity is possible. Second, there is a stiffening effect on the wellbeing of contractionary monetary policy which increases interest rates and unemployment rates. The outcome extracted also shows that unnecessary domestic lending characteristics of the Nigerian economic system invalidate the wellbeing of the Nigerian people. Therefore, it proposed that the monetary authority reevaluate its present position on sustaining a high level of rediscount rate. Received: 17 November 2021 / Accepted: 30 December 2021 / Published: 5 January 2022

Financial Development and Macroeconomic Performance: A Cointegration Approach

The paper tests the existence of long-term relations between all the IMF financial development indices and some macroeconomic performance indicators applying panel cointegration tests in a panel with 46 countries, and in a panel including only the sub-sample of the 27 EU countries over the interval 1990-2019. Overall, there are no significant differences between the results obtained for the whole sample and the panel including only the EU countries. The results obtained clearly point to the existence of cointegration between the financial development indices and the real Gross Domestic Product, as well as with the inflation, the unemployment rate, the current account, and the net international investment position. The results also show that there are no significant differences between the results obtained for the financial institutions and for the financial markets indices. Moreover, the results related to the specific aspects addressed by the IMF indices very well demonstrate that much more important than the simple access to or the depth of the financial institutions and markets is the efficiency of these institutions and markets.

Macroeconomic conditions are only an illusion, not the solution, to firm sustainability: unveiling the new dimension of stakeholder well-being

Purpose The purpose of the study is to explore the misconception that in developed countries, macroeconomic performance lead to sustainable firms or improves stakeholder well-being. The results may be the opposite or even worse. Design/methodology/approach This study examined this misconception using balanced panel data from 1,122 firms from different sectors of the US economy and data on macroeconomic performance from the World Bank. Findings The results of the one-step generalised method of moments indicate that most macroeconomic performance indicators had significant and negative impacts on firm sustainability and stakeholder well-being. Practical implications From a societal perspective, the results illustrate that the fruits of macroeconomic performance of the US economy do not reach stakeholders through firms’ sustainability. Thus, linking the economy’s macroeconomic performance with firm sustainability is vital for sustainably uplifting society and for stakeholder well-being. Originality/value From a policy perspective, this study reveals that the greater focus on macroeconomic performance in the USA over the past decades has resulted in lower firm sustainability because of the malfunctioning of social, economic, environmental and governance factors. This has negatively influenced stakeholder well-being in the country.

Public Debt in South Africa

After four decades of racial segregation, South Africa transitioned to a non-racial democracy in 1994. Inevitably for a country with segregationist labour market policies for so long, South Africa is also one of the most unequal countries in the world. In order to take an overview of government debt in South Africa, this chapter looks at macroeconomic performance but also at how the political regime characteristics and inequality have interplayed with government debt during the 1970–2016 period. The data suggest that economic growth correlates negatively with debt and that democracy correlates positively with debt. In addition, the data do not suggest that democratic maturity is already associated with lower debt nor that the outgoing apartheid-era National Party bequeathed the young democracy with high debt. Encouragingly, the data do suggest that inequality and public expenditure on education correlate positively with debt, which suggests that the democratic government has the median voter in mind when creating debt and also that part of the debt is being invested in human capital formation.

Ukraine tightens rules to boost COVID vaccine uptake

Significance This places two-thirds of Ukrainian regions under the most stringent COVID-19 restrictions. In its second pandemic autumn, Ukraine is performing poorly because this year's vaccination programme has been slow to pick up, until a recent acceleration prompted by tougher restrictions. Vaccine hesitancy has been compounded by a scandal involving fake certificates. Impacts The government will blame the COVID-19 surge for poor macroeconomic performance. President Zelensky's standing will be largely unaffected, as responsibility for restrictions is mostly devolved to regions. COVID-19 will not sideline the many challenges facing the government, currently reflected in an emerging cabinet reshuffle.

Does Nigeria Non-Renewable Resource Abundance Leads to Macroeconomic Performance? A Trend Analysis (1970-2014)

Theoretically, natural resource abundance is expected to create national wealth; however, the inconclusiveness in the literature and among the African rich resources motivated this study. Our paper investigated that does Nigeria's non-renewable resource abundance leads to sustainable macroeconomic performance? To achieve the objectives of this study, our paper employs descriptive trends analysis, using tables and charts to measure the relationship between the non-renewable resource abundance, proxied as oil and gas variables, and the selected macroeconomic variables to draw an inference within the study period of 1970 – 2014 in Nigeria. In summary, our study concludes that an inverse relationship exists between non-renewable resource abundance and macroeconomic performance in Nigeria for the covered period 1970 – 2014. Therefore, our study conforms to the existing studies of Sachs & Warner, 2001; Gylfasson, 2005, VanPloeg and Venables, 2013 that African rich-resources countries, including Nigeria, a non-renewable resource abundance retards macroeconomic performance within the period of study. Nonetheless, this study recommends that government should consistently endeavor to increase the proportion of education expenditure to total expenditure as well as same for capital expenditure to total expenditure, and finally, transform the economy from an oil-dependent economy to a non-oil driven economy, that is diversification of the economy, which would change the non-renewable resource-abundant nation from curse to blessing and thus, guarantee sustainable macroeconomic performance in Nigeria.

Effect of Exchange Rate Fluctuation and Foreign Reserves on Macroeconomic Performance in Nigeria

This study examines the effect of Exchange Rate Fluctuation and Foreign Reserves on Macroeconomics Performance in Nigeria from 1980-2019. The variables of interest include External Debt, Reserves, Exchange Rate, External Debt Servicing and Government Expenditure were analyzed using co-integration, auto-redistribution lag model (ARDL) and Granger Causality test to understand the long and short run relationship between the variables. Result revealed that there is a unidirectional relationship between foreign reserves and the exchange rate. Exchange rate Granger causes foreign reserves in Nigeria, while foreign reserves do not granger cause exchange rate Granger. This means that as the exchange rate depreciates or appreciates, it always has an impact on Nigeria's foreign reserves. The study recommends among other thing that the government should ensure that the country's foreign reserves are used and managed efficiently. This is because it has been established that foreign reserves have a beneficial impact on macroeconomic performance and stimulate economic growth both of which help to enhance the Nigerian economy.