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We examine how the degree of regional financial integration in African stock markets has evolved over the last eleven years. Despite increasing regional economic cooperation, the process of stock market integration has been slow. To facilitate growth via developed financial markets but keep financial stability risk at a minimum, further regional integration should be promoted, and mild capital controls on non-African investors may be necessary. A Diebold-Yilmaz spillover analysis is applied to ten African stock markets for the period between August 2004 and January 2015. We examine spillovers among four regions and among individual countries. Regional integration, as measured by total spillovers in Africa, is increasing but remains very low. These spillovers were temporarily heightened during the global financial crisis. Cross-regional spillovers are high between Northern and Southern Africa. Asymmetric capital controls on African and non-African investors must be considered to foster further regional integration and to mitigate financial stability risk. This is one of the few studies to address the construction of the future architecture of regionally integrated stock markets in emerging countries.

Purpose – The main aim of this chapter is to analyze Spanish internal and external territorial conflicts, mostly associated with the border effect between two continents with different economic and cultural systems. We assess the impact that the emergence of the new economy, represented by new technologies, R&D, privatizations, and foreign direct investment, has had in South-Spain, particularly in Andalusia, throughout the period 1995–2010. Special attention has been paid to the dynamics of convergence–divergence processes in terms of per capita income with respect to its neighboring different economic and cultural areas: Europe and the Maghreb.

Methodology – For the aforementioned purposes, we suggest applying the game theory approach to solve domestic secessionist conflicts, and the method followed by Mankiw, Romer, and Weil (1992) to address economic conflicts by means of promoting convergence with Europe. We propose economic competition between cities as a way to deal with external territorial conflicts concerning neighboring countries.

Findings – The main results obtained from econometric applications indicate that privatization processes, foreign direct investment, research and investment, and investment in new technologies allow for the real convergence of Spain and Southern Spain with European economies.

Research limitations – This chapter does not address smaller conflicts.

Social implications – Conflicts resolutions promote peace in both continental borders.

Originality – This chapter analyzes the most relevant domestic and external Spanish conflicts. The most important domestic conflicts are the linguistic and cultural conflicts in bilingual regions. The major external Spanish conflicts analyzed herein are both territorial conflicts between Spain and Morocco and Muslim immigration.

French Republican Model and ‘laïcité, the French version of secularism’, are supposed to protect the citizens, at work or elsewhere, against any form of discrimination and France has a long history of immigration. Ethnical and racial discriminations at work are nevertheless observable towards visible minorities today. People from North African ascendance as well as those from French overseas territories ¹ ’ origins are heavily penalized in the job market. Neither direct and indirect laws nor the ‘voluntary initiatives’ introduced by companies seem able to solve this problem at a time when massive unemployment and terrorist Islamic attacks on the French soil are creating a situation of crisis.

Since the end of the 1990s, the Algerian public authorities have implemented research and innovation policies in order to build a solid National Innovation System (NIS) and improve industrial and economic performance. Today, the NIS remains immature, which hinders the learning and innovation processes. Our objective here is to analyze under a broad vision the Algerian NIS by examining its various components, to evaluate the capacities of training and innovation, and to measure the production of the innovation and the economic performances. Our research question is the following: How could the Algerian public authorities build a solid NIS in order to improve economic performance? To answer this question, we use a research methodology that mobilizes three types of complementary indicators in order to analyze the processes of learning and innovation from a systemic and interactive perspective. We also use economic performance indicators in order to put the analysis into a broader perspective. At the end, we propose action policies in favor of the construction of a complete Algerian NIS to improve economic performance.

The development of banking in Africa followed the demand of exchange networks from traditional indigenous economies to colonial exchange with the European world. The establishment of European banking institutions reflected the needs of the capitalist economy introduced by colonialism. The banking management of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century European banks adhered to the interests of shareholders. This chapter shows the emergence of well-managed banks in Africa, but after decolonization the political economy of African independence resulted in state capturing of financial institutions in most African countries. The South African banking system developed in close adherence to the British model. State-owned post-independence banks in Africa failed to deliver the development envisaged. The chapter shows the adverse impact of global economic developments on Africa, resulting in high debt levels. Structural adjustment of African economies and new market-oriented policies allowed the development of locally owned private banking institutions. The high-cost structure of the formal banking system from the dominant South African banks incentivised the mobile money innovation, an arena where African entrepreneurs lead global markets. Financial inclusion remains low in Africa.

Propensity to dollarize in Latin America in the demand-side of some economies of the region has a strong political risk component which, in the past, was mainly carried out by inflationary pressures. Coping with risk meant holding FCDs. A recursive multilevel model is developed and empirically tested with Colombia’s data to stress a country-specific tendency to dollarize due to political risk. The chapter’s conclusions suggest that consideration of issues, policies and implications inherent to the decision to dollarize cannot ignore that, the solution to any government-enforced dilemma in the supply-side of these economies, is also politically motivated. Results of a survey are also provided.

Purpose – This study's purpose is twofold. First, we assess the extent of corporate social responsibility disclosure. Second, we investigate the determinants of the decision to disclose social responsibility information.

Methodology/approach – This research focuses on analyzing corporate social responsibility disclosure through the annual reports of 23 Tunisian listed firms over a four-year period from 2001 to 2004. A multivariate analysis of social responsibility disclosure is employed to test the factors influencing this type of disclosure.

Findings – The findings in this study suggest that corporate social responsibility disclosure did increase from 2001 to 2004 and disclosure was primarily literal and regarding products. Results also suggest that a firm's internationalization degree, their debt level, and the degree of their political visibility are the significant factors influencing the decision of corporate social responsibility disclosure.

Research limitations and implications – This study is subject to the usual limits of the content analysis method use. The small size of the sample, its composition, and its choice in a nonrandom way may make it suffer from selectivity bias.

Originality/value – This study contributes to the analysis of corporate social responsibility disclosure practices in an emerging country context by analyzing the nature of the trends in social responsibility disclosure practices and examining the impact of certain firm characteristics on such practices.