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The present study investigates the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) and governance quality on carbon emissions in the Economics Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

To achieve the objective of this research, panel data for dependent and explanatory variables over the period 2005–2016, collected in the World Development Indicators (WDI) database and World Governance Indicators (WGI), are analyzed using the generalized method of moments (GMM). Also, the panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE) method is applied to the four segments of the overall sample to analyze the stability of the results.

The findings of this study are: (1) FDI inflows have a negative effect on carbon emissions in ECOWAS and (2) The interaction between FDI inflows and governance quality have a negative effect on carbon emissions. These results show the decreasing of environmental damage by increasing institutional quality. However, the estimation results on the country subsamples show similar and non-similar aspects.

This study suggests that policymakers in the ECOWAS countries should strengthen their environmental policies while encouraging FDI flows to be environmentally friendly.

The subject has rarely been explored in West Africa, with gaps such as the lack of use of institutional variables. This study contributes to the literature by drawing on previous work to examine the role of good governance on FDI and the CO2 emission relationship in the ECOWAS, which have received little attention. However, this research differs from previous work by subdividing the overall sample into four groups to test the stability of the results.

After a long observation of the high rate of rice importation and low productivity in Côte d’Ivoire, the certified rice seed was introduced and encouraged to be used by the local farmers. This study evaluates the profitability of rice production and the impact of certified seed usage on the yield and income of farmers in Côte d’Ivoire.

Data were collected from 265 rice farmers. Descriptive statistics were used to identify the challenges faced in using certified seeds. Profitability analysis was used to examine the profitability of rice production. To eliminate bias due to the counterfactuals, the endogenous switching regression was employed to investigate the impact of the certified seeds on income and yield.

The difficulties faced by the rice farmers in the procurement of certified seeds were the unavailability of seeds, the high cost of seeds and poor credit access. Furthermore, rice farmers using certified seeds get a higher net income (USD 263.74/ha) than those using farmers' seeds (USD 212.31/ha). The average treatment on the treated was 1.61 for the yield and 574.75 for the income. The average treatment on the untreated was 1.20 for the yield and 422.59 for the income. These indicate a higher yield and income among adopters of certified rice seed.

Certified rice seed usage is profitable and enhances the output and income of rice farmers. The study advocates the creation of a stronger relationship between the farmers and the extension agents to encourage the use of certified seeds and increase the profit of the farmers.

There is scant information on the profitability of certified rice seed usage and how it affect yield and income. Therefore, this study serves as empirical evidence for policymakers to develop strategies that are required to enhance certified seed usage, boost rice productivity and achieve food security.

This paper analyzes the effect of institutional quality and economic freedom on investment and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Focusing on a panel of 27 countries, the study employed the panel fixed and random effect models to analyze data spanning from 2005 to 2018. The study also employed the Wu–Hausman test to determine if the endogeneity problem exists in the model.

The findings of the study show that individually, an improvement in economic freedom stimulates economic growth while the improvement in institutional quality is effective in spurring investment. However, the interaction effect of improvement in institutional quality and economic freedom is the stimulation of both investment and economic growth. The findings are robust to alternative model specifications.

The study implies that for SSA countries to effectively achieve higher investment and economic growth outcomes, there is the need to simultaneously strengthen institutional quality and improve economic freedom. Focusing on either of the factors without the other leads to less desirable growth and investment outcomes.

The study examined the combined influence of institutional quality and economic freedom on investment and growth in SSA. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has investigated this in the context of SSA.