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This paper examines the impact of fiscal constraints on education expenditure in Nigeria from 1981 to 2021, using annual time series data.

The study deployed cointegration techniques with structural breaks.

Cointegration was found between education expenditure, debt servicing (a proxy for fiscal constraint) and associated variables. In both the long and short run, debt servicing negatively and significantly impacts education expenditure. While government revenue has a positive and significant impact on education expenditure in the long and short run, political institution has a negative and significant impact in the long run. Political institution is thus critical to education financing in Nigeria. The impact of debt is positive and significant in the short run, but not significant in the long run. There is a unidirectional causality from debt servicing to education expenditure.

Political institutions are critical towards contracting only productive debts and checkmating the adverse political environment through political will that prioritizes education financing.

The study extends the empirical literature on the fiscal constraint-education expenditure first by investigating fiscal constraint-education expenditure nexus given the institutional environment, and second by extending the methodology using cointegration techniques in the midst of structural breaks.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2022-0682.

This paper aims to analyze the pattern of public debt in Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) in a comparative perspective. Besides, an attempt is made to verify the existence of debt overhang as suggested by Krugman (1988) among BRICS nations.

Annual panel data for BRICS for the period 1980-2016 has been used for the analysis. Percentage ratio method has been used to analyze the pattern of debt. Panel covariate augmented Dickey–Fuller (pCADF) test has been used to verify the time series properties of the variable, while panel cointegration test of Pedroni (1999) is used to check the existence of any co-integrating vector among the variables. Panel Granger causality test is used to check the causality between the variables.

Co-integration result suggests that there exists a strong long-run equilibrium relationship between debt service, domestic savings, capital formation and economic growth of BRICS nations. From Granger causality test, it is observed that domestic savings and capital formation are Granger caused by debt servicing. The coefficients from fully modified ordinary least squares measure a negative impact of debt service on gross capital formation and gross domestic saving. This suggests that the payment for debt service affects capital formation and gross domestic savings adversely. Thus, it gives primary signals for debt overhang effect in BRICS nations.

Allowing debt service to negatively affect the investment and potential investment will result in slowdown or stagnation in economic growth in the long run, so strategies need to be taken in BRICS nations to check the adverse effects of rising level of debt-service-payment-to-gross national income ratio on domestic savings and capital formation. BRICS nations need to reduce their debt service payment by undertaking appropriate strategy of debt overhaul and fiscal management so that domestic savings and capital formation in the country will not be adversely affected. Besides, BRICS nations need to take measures to augment its domestic savings and capital formations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no published works have analyzed the pattern of public debt for BRICS (major developing nations). Debt servicing is also not checked for BRICS in recent papers, considering overhang approach.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamics between real gross domestic product (GDP), foreign earnings, development assistance and debt servicing in Bangladesh, 1973‐2008, with the incorporation of a structural break after 1990.

A vector autoregression (VAR) framework using annual data from 1973‐2008 was used to examine the dynamics among the above mentioned variables, with the incorporation of a structural break after 1990. This was followed by innovation accounting and testing for Granger causality.

It was found that the structural break is significant and all the macro‐variables exhibit trend stationarity. Innovation accounting suggests that the debt servicing capacity of Bangladesh is enhanced by an improvement in foreign earnings, an outcome which is reinforced by Granger causality tests.

A bigger sample size, consisting of quarterly observations is desirable.

These results suggest that an increase in foreign earnings implies an improvement in the capacity to service overseas debt. Thus, from a policy perspective, it is recommended that steps be taken to diversify the sources of foreign earnings. The analysis affirms that there is a causal link between injections, represented by foreign earnings and overseas development assistance and leakages, represented by debt servicing. Such affirmation is certain to be an important input in macroeconomic policy formulation.

The dynamics between real GDP, foreign earnings, development assistance and debt servicing in Bangladesh have been empirically examined using recent developments in time‐series econometrics.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of huge external debt with its servicing requirements on economic growth of the Nigerian economy so as to make meaningful inference on the impact of the debt relief which was granted to the country in 2006.

The neoclassical growth model which incorporates external sector, debt indicators and some macroeconomic variables was employed in this study. The paper investigates the linear and nonlinear effect of debt on growth and investment utilizing the ordinary least squares and the generalized least squares.

Among other things, the negative impact of debt (and its servicing requirements) on growth is confirmed in Nigeria. In addition, external debt contributes positively to growth up to a point after which its contributions become negative reflecting the presence of nonlinearity in effects.

Nigeria's external debt is analyzed in a new context utilizing a different but innovative model and econometric techniques. It is of tremendous value to researchers on related topic and an effective policy guide to policymakers in Nigeria and other countries with similar characteristics.

This chapter explores why a better alternative to current practises in addressing sovereign debt repayment problems has not emerged. It examines the discussions on financing and debt repayment difficulties from the first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in 1964 to the eve of the 1980s debt crisis. Drawing from recent work that highlights the ways with which the power of economics and economists operates in the public realm, the chapter examines the role of economic analysis within the political debate on debt. The chapter details the repeated refusals by creditor groups to any suggestion for improvements to the international debt architecture.

This study is a pre-COVID-19 exposition of the existing situation about external debt-GDP relationship, incorporating corruption into the hypothesis, making South Africa the object of the study. The aim is to examine the causal relationship between corruption, economic growth and external debt, and in the end proffer solutions to the problems arising therefrom.

The study employed ARDL technique on time series data running from 1990 to 2019 with real gross domestic product as the dependent variable and external debt, external debt servicing, corruption, inflation and capital formation as regressors. Necessary tests that include unit root, cointegration, CUSUM and CUSUMSq, normality, serial correlation and heteroscedasticity were performed on the model.

The study shows that corruption, inflation and external debt servicing exert negative influences on economic growth while the effect of investment on growth was positive. External debt's effect in the short run was positive while its long-run effect on growth was negative. Among other things, the need to improve and strengthen public institutions in addition to targeting tax evaders and avoiders for increased government revenue were emphasized.

The study incorporates corruption into the country specific debt-GDP debate as against earlier studies that excluded corruption in their time series analysis or that were cross-country based. The authors also exposit the existing knowledge of the debt-GDP hypothesis before the outbreak of COVID 19 pandemic. This is expected to serve as a precursor to subsequent studies on the rising debt of South Africa during and after the pandemic.

Over the years most of the developing countries have failed to collect enough revenues to finance their budgets. As a result, they have to face the problem of twin deficits and to rely on external and domestic debt to finance their developmental activities. The positive effects of public debt relate to the fact that in resource-starved economies debt financing (if done properly) leads to higher growth and adds to their capacity to service and repay external and internal debt. The negative effects work through two main channels – i.e., “Debt Overhang” and “Crowding Out” effects. The purpose of this paper is to examine the consequences of public debt for economic growth and investment for the Philippines.

The present study examines the consequences of public debt for economic growth and investment for the Philippines during the period 1975-2010, by using autoregressive distributed lag technique.

The results reveal that in the Philippines, public external debt has negative and significant relationship with economic growth and investment confirming the existence of “Debt Overhang effect”. But due to insignificant relationships of debt servicing with investment and economic growth, the existence of the crowding out hypothesis could not be confirmed. The domestic debt has a negative relationship with investment and positive relationship with economic growth.

First and foremost implication of the study is that heavy reliance on external debt must be discouraged. Therefore, in order to accelerate economic growth, developing countries must adopt those policies that are likely to result in reducing their debt burden, and it must not be allowed to reach unsustainable level. In the case of domestic debt, the present study finds that investment is negatively affected by domestic debt due to the crowding out effect; yet real GDP has a positive relationship with domestic debt. Thus, if policy makers want to use domestic debt as a tool to stimulate real GDP then it must keep an eye on the consequences of domestic debt on the investment.

First and foremost implication of the study is that heavy reliance on external debt must be discouraged. Therefore, in order to accelerate economic growth, the Philippines must adopt those policies that are likely to result in reducing their debt burden, and external debt it must not be allowed to reach unsustainable level. In the case of domestic debt, the present study finds that investment is negatively affected by domestic debt due to the crowding out effect; yet real GDP has a positive relationship with domestic debt. Thus, if policy makers want to use domestic debt as a tool to stimulate real GDP then it must keep an eye on the consequences of domestic debt for on the investment.

It also follows from the estimation results that population growth rate is harmful for the economic growth. So in order to stimulate the growth performance, it must adopt effective population control policies. Similarly, since openness and investment are growth enhancing so there is need for the trade and investment supportive policies.

From the review of literature on the issue, it can be broadly summarized that most of the studies are on the relationship of external debt and economic growth, neglecting domestic debt entirely or mentioning it in the passing. Second, most of these studies have been conducted by using panel data. However, as the different countries vary in socio-economic conditions so it is better to conduct the country specific study. The present study is an attempt to fill these gaps in the existing literature.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the redistributive effect of domestic public debt: lenders to the government lie on the higher end of the income distribution, but the burden of debt financing falls on the entire tax base, to the extent that taxes are used to service debt. Because domestic debt is typically held by domestic lenders, this involves a redistribution of resources.

The author uses cross-country panel data on debt composition, and run regressions of income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, using various specifications, controlling for a variety of macroeconomic, fiscal and political variables.

The author finds that the composition of public debt is consistently a significant determinant of income inequality: the domestic share of public debt is regressive and significant across all specifications, even controlling for total and external debt servicing, political conflict, corruption and a variety of government spending variables.

The data span 18 years (1990-2007) which means that long-run effects are hard to track. While the author has a good mix in the sample of observations from low-, middle- and high-income countries, the author is constrained in the choice of countries by the availability of data on inequality and on the composition of public debt.

This is the first paper to examine the composition of public debt in terms of domestic and external debt, and any bearing it may have on income inequality. The finding is also new for both the public debt and income inequality literatures: cross-country panel data are consistent with the belief that domestic debt redistributes resources from the entire tax base to wealthy holders of government debt in a way that external debt does not.

The purpose of this paper is to present a dynamic macroeconomic framework that identifies the fundamental structure of public debt accumulation process in developing countries and its two way linkages with economic growth and public finances. Within this framework, the objective of this study is to identify leverage points that may be utilized to slow down debt accumulation process without slowing down economic growth.

The paper uses the system dynamics (SD) method to model and analyze the debt accumulation process. This method allows us to analyze the relationship between structure and behaviour of complex dynamic systems. This paper considers fiscal policy as the strategic element of the debt accumulation process and hence it considers seignorage and consequent inflation to be outside the model boundary. In other words the paper assumes that there exists an effective monetary policy that satisfies the objectives of the fiscal policy.

Capping debt servicing (debt relief) increases the debtor country's capacity to invest and the higher investment will raise capacity to pay debt in the future, with some of the rewards going to the creditor. Financing public investment through borrowing produces the highest Debt-GDP ratio compared to all other polices considered. Widening of the tax base to include this informal sector without increasing the tax rate and reducing the extravagant non-debt current expenditure are effective endogenous policy options that help reduce considerably the Debt-GDP ratio. The best composite policy demonstrates that a reduction in the Debt-GDP ratio does not only require exogenous assistance (debt relief) but endogenous government and private sector responsibility to maintain fiscal discipline and generate growth.

The unique characteristic of this model is the transparent way in which it represents the two-way feedback relationship between the debt, public finance and economic development taking into consideration the delays and non-linearities involved in this process.

This study aims to assess financial development and debt status impact on energy efficiency in Nigeria as a developing economy.

This study combined the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), fully modified ordinary least squares and canonical cointegration regression analytical methods to estimate the parameters for energy efficiency policy recommendations. Secondary data between 1990 and 2020 were used for the analysis.

The result confirms the long-run nexus between energy efficiency, financial development and total debt stock. Furthermore, the ARDL estimates for this study’s key variables show that financial development promotes energy efficiency in the short run but hinders long-run energy efficiency. Total debt stock limits energy efficiency in Nigeria in short- and long-run periods.

The limitation of this study is that the scope is limited to Nigeria as a developing economy. The need to support energy efficiency projects is a global call requiring cross-country analysis. Despite this study’s focus on Nigeria, it provides useful insights that can guide energy efficiency policy through the financial sector and debt management.

The financial sector must ensure the availability of long-term credit facilities to clean energy investors. The government must maintain a sustainable debt profile to pave the way for capital expenditure on clean energy projects that promote energy efficiency.

The environmental consequences of energy intensity are being felt globally, with the developing countries most vulnerable. The cheapest way to curb these consequences is to promote energy efficiency to reduce the disastrous effect. Driving energy efficiency requires investment in energy-efficient technology but the challenge for developing economies, i.e. Nigeria’s funding, remains challenging amid a blotted debt profile. This becomes crucial to investigate how financial sector development and debt management can accelerate energy-efficient investments in Nigeria.