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This study aims to provide the thresholds of inequality that should not be exceeded if gender inclusive education is to enhance gender inclusive formal economic participation in sub-Saharan Africa.

The empirical evidence is based on the generalised method of moments and data from 42 countries during the period 2004-2014.

The following findings are established. First, inclusive tertiary education unconditionally promotes gender economic inclusion, while the interaction between tertiary education and inequality is unfavourable to gender economic inclusion. Second, a Gini coefficient that nullifies the positive incidence of inclusive tertiary education on female labour force participation is 0.562. Second, the Gini coefficient and Palma ratio that crowd-out the negative unconditional effects of inclusive tertiary education on female unemployment are 0.547 and 6.118, respectively. Third, a 0.578 Gini coefficient, a 0.680 Atkinson index and a 6.557 Palma ratio are critical masses that wipe out the positive unconditional effects of inclusive tertiary education on female employment. The findings associated with lower levels of education are not significant.

As the main policy implication, income inequality should not be tolerated above the established thresholds for gender inclusive education to promote gender inclusive formal economic participation. Other implications are discussed in the light of sustainable development goals.

This study complements the existing literature by providing inequality thresholds that should not be exceeded for gender inclusive education to promote the involvement of women in the formal economic sector.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the importance of credit access in modulating governance for gender-inclusive education in 42 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with data spanning the period 2004–2014.

The generalized method of moments is used as empirical strategy.

The following findings are established: First, credit access modulates government effectiveness and the rule of law to induce positive net effects on inclusive “primary and secondary education.” Second, credit access also moderates political stability and the rule of law for overall net positive effects on inclusive secondary education. Third, credit access complements government effectiveness to engender an overall positive impact on inclusive tertiary education.

Policy implications are discussed with emphasis on sustainable development goals.

This study investigates how enhancing information and communication technology (ICT) affects female economic participation in sub-Saharan African nations.

Three female economic participation indicators are used, namely female labour force participation, female unemployment and female employment rates. The engaged ICT variables are fixed broadband subscriptions, mobile phone penetration and Internet penetration. The Generalized Method of Moments is used for the empirical analysis.

The following main findings are established: First, there is a (1) negative net effect in the relevance of fixed broadband subscriptions in female labour force participation and female unemployment and (2) positive net effects from the importance of fixed broadband subscriptions on the female employment rate. Secondly, an extended analysis is used to establish thresholds at which the undesirable net negative effect on female labour force participation can be avoided. From the corresponding findings, a fixed broadband subscription rate of 9.187 per 100 people is necessary to completely dampen the established net negative effect. Hence, the established threshold is the critical mass necessary for the enhancement of fixed broadband subscriptions to induce an overall positive net effect on the female labour force participation rate.

This study complements the extant literature by assessing how increasing penetration levels of ICT affect female economic inclusion and by extension, thresholds necessary for the promotion of ICT to increase female economic inclusion.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of inequality on female employment in 42 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for the period 2004–2014.

Three inequality indicators are used, namely, the: Gini coefficient, Atkinson index and Palma ratio. Two indicators of gender inclusion are also employed, namely: female employment and female unemployment rates. The empirical analysis is based on the generalised method of moments.

The following main findings are established. First, inequality increases female unemployment in regressions based on the Palma ratio. Second, from the robustness checks, inequality reduces female employment within the frameworks of the Gini coefficient and Palma ratio.

Studies on the relevance of income inequality on female economic participation in SSA are sparse.

This study examines the roles of cross-sectional dependence, asymmetric structure and country-to-country policy variations in the inflation-poverty reduction causal nexus in selected sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 1981 to 2019.

To account for cross-sectional dependence, heterogeneity and policy variations across countries in the inflation-poverty reduction causal nexus, this study uses robust Hatemi-J data decomposition procedures and a battery of second-generation techniques. These techniques include cross-sectional dependency tests, panel unit root tests, slope homogeneity tests and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel Granger non-causality approach.

Unlike existing studies, the panel and country-specific findings exhibit several dimensions of asymmetric causality in the inflation-poverty nexus. Positive inflationary shocks Granger-causes poverty reduction through investment and employment opportunities that benefit the impoverished in SSA. These findings align with country-specific analyses of Botswana, Cameroon, Gabon, Mauritania, South Africa and Togo. Also, a decline in poverty causes inflation to increase in the Congo Republic, Madagascar, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo. All panel and country-specific analyses reveal at least one dimension of asymmetric causality or another.

All stakeholders and policymakers must pay adequate attention to issues of asymmetric structures, nonlinearities and country-to-country policy variations to address country-specific issues and the socioeconomic problems in the probable causal nexus between the high incidence of extreme poverty and double-digit inflation rates in most SSA countries.

Studies on the inflation-poverty nexus are not uncommon in economic literature. Most existing studies focus on inflation’s effect on poverty. Existing studies that examine the inflation-poverty causal relationship covertly assume no asymmetric structure and nonlinearity. Also, the issues of cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity are unexplored in the causal link in existing studies. All panel studies covertly impose homogeneous policies on countries in the causality. This study relaxes this supposition by allowing policies to vary across countries in the panel framework. Thus, this study makes three-dimensional contributions to increasing understanding of the inflation-poverty nexus.

This study aims to focus on assessing how improving openness influences carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

This study focusses on 49 countries in SSA for the period 2000–2018 divided into: 44 countries in SSA for the period 2000–2012; and 49 countries for the period 2006–2018. Openness is measured in terms of trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. The empirical evidence is based on the generalised method of moments.

The following main findings are established. First, enhancing trade openness has a net positive impact on CO₂ emissions, while increasing FDI has a net negative impact. Second, the relationship between CO₂ emissions and trade is a Kuznets shape, while the nexus between CO₂ emissions and FDI inflows is a U-shape. Third, a minimum trade openness (imports plus exports) threshold of 100 (% of gross domestic product (GDP)) and 200 (% of GDP) is beneficial in promoting a green economy for the first and second samples, respectively. Fourth, FDI is beneficial for the green economy below critical masses of 28.571 of net FDI inflows (% of GDP) and 33.333 of net FDI inflows (% of GDP) for first and second samples, respectively. It follows from findings that while FDI can be effectively managed to reduce CO₂ emissions, this may not be the case with trade openness because the corresponding thresholds for trade openness are closer to the maximum limit.

This study complements the extant literature by providing critical masses of trade and FDI that are relevant in promoting the green economy in SSA.

This study examines the causal relationship between exports and economic growth in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries during the period 1980 to 2017. The study also examines whether the causality between these two macroeconomic variables depends on the countries' stage of development as proxied by their per capita income.

The study uses a panel cointegration test and panel Granger-causality model to examine the link between exports and growth. The study also incorporates external debt as an intermittent variable in a bivariate setting between exports and economic growth, thereby creating a dynamic multivariate panel Granger-causality model.

Although the study found the existence of a long-run relationship between exports and economic growth, the study failed to find any export-led growth response in both low-income and middle-income countries. Instead, the study found evidence of a bidirectional causality and a neutrality response in middle-income and low-income countries, respectively. The study, therefore, concludes that the benefits of an export-led growth hypothesis may have been oversold, and that the strategy may not be desirable to some low-income developing countries.

These findings have important policy implications as they indicate that the causality between exports and economic growth in SSA countries varies with the countries' stage of development. Consistent with the contemporary literature, the study cautions low-income SSA countries against over-relying on an export-led growth strategy to achieve a sustained growth path as no causality between exports and economic growth has been found to exist in those countries. Instead, such countries should consider pursuing new growth strategies by building the domestic demand side of their economies alongside their export promotion strategies in order to expand the real sector of their economies. For middle-income countries, the study recommends that both export promotion strategies and pro-growth policies should be intensified as economic growth and exports have been found to reinforce each other in those countries.

Unlike the previous studies, the current study disaggregated the full sample of SSA countries into two subsets – one comprising of low-income countries and the other consisting of middle-income countries. In addition, the study uses a multivariate Granger-causality model in order to address the emission-of-variable bias. To our knowledge, this may be the first study of its kind in recent years to examine in detail the causal relationship between exports and economic growth in SSA countries using an ECM-based multivariate panel Granger-causality model.

本研究旨在探討在1980年至2017年期間撒哈拉以南非洲國家的出口、與其經濟增長之間的因果關係，亦探討這兩個宏觀經濟變量之間的因果關係、會否取決於有關國家所處以人均收入來衡量的發展階段。

本研究雖然發現出口與經濟增長存有一個長期性關係，唯未能於低收入國家或中等收入國家、找到任何出口帶動的增長反應。研究反而找到證據，證實中等收入國家為一雙向性因果關係反應，而低收入國家則為一中立性反應。因此，研究的結論是：出口必能帶動經濟增長這假設被過度吹噓，而且，對部份低收入發展中國家而言，實施以出口帶動經濟增長的策略或許是沒有用的。

本研究的結果在政策方面有其重要意義。這是因為研究結果顯示、於撒哈拉以南非洲國家、出口與經濟增長之間的因果關係，會因有關國家所處的發展階段而有所變更。與當代文獻一樣，本研究提醒低收入的撒哈拉以南非洲國家，不要過度依賴以出口帶動增長的策略來謀求踏上持續增長之路，這是因為在這些國家，出口與經濟增長之間的因果關係仍未確立。他們反而應考慮推行新增長經濟策略，方法是在實施推動出口的策略的同時，也要建立其經濟的國內需求面，以擴大其經濟實業部門。就中等收入國家而言，本研究建議他們應增強推動出口的策略及強化促進增長的政策，這是因為在這些國家裏，經濟增長及出口已被證實會互為增強。

有別於過去的研究，本研究把撒哈拉以南非洲國家的整體樣本分解為兩個子集：一個包括低收入國家，另一個則包括中等收入國家。而且、研究使用了多變量面板格蘭傑因果關係模型、以處理遺漏變數偏差的問題。據我們了解，這大概是近年首個同類研究、以基於歐洲共同市場多變量面板格蘭傑因果關係模型、來詳細探討於撒哈拉以南非洲國家、出口與經濟增長之間的因果關係。

This study assesses the relevance of foreign aid to the incidence of capital flight and unemployment in 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The study is for the period 1996–2018, and the empirical evidence is based on interactive quantile regressions in order to assess the nexuses throughout the conditional distribution of the unemployment outcome variable.

From the findings, capital flight has a positive unconditional incidence on unemployment, while foreign aid dampens the underlying positive unconditional nexus. Moreover, in order for the positive incidence of capital flight to be completely dampened, foreign aid thresholds of 2.230 and 3.964 (% of GDP) are needed at the 10th and 25th quantiles, respectively, of the conditional distribution of unemployment. It follows that the relevance of foreign aid in crowding out the unfavourable incidence of capital flight on unemployment is significantly apparent only in the lowest quantiles or countries with below-median levels of unemployment. The policy implications are discussed.

The study complements the extant literature by assessing the importance of development assistance in how capital flight affects unemployment in sub-Saharan Africa.

This study aims to contribute to the extant literature by assessing how microfinance institutions (MFIs) affect female entrepreneurship, contingent on female unemployment levels.

The study focuses on 44 countries in sub-Saharan Africa for the period 2004–2018. The empirical evidence is based on interactive quantile regressions, which put emphasis on nations with high, low and intermediate levels of business constraints. The analysis is tailored to provide avoidable female unemployment levels in the implementation of policies designed for MFIs to promote female business ownership.

The hypotheses that MFIs are favorable for female business owners and some critical rates of female unemployment should be avoided in order for the favorable incidence to be maintained is exclusively valid in the 10th quantiles of the cost of business by females and time to start-up a business by females. Policy implications are discussed.

This study has complemented the extant literature by providing actionable female unemployment critical masses that governments can act upon in tailoring the relevance of MFIs in the doing of business by females.

The purpose of this study is to assess the nexus between governance and renewable energy consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

The focus is on 44 countries in SSA with data from 1996 to 2016. The empirical evidence is based on Tobit regressions.

It is apparent from the findings that political and institutional governance are negatively related to the consumption of renewable energy in the sampled countries. The unexpected findings are clarified and policy implications are discussed in the light of sustainable development goals.

This study extends the extant literature by assessing how political governance (consisting of political stability and “voice and accountability”) and institutional governance (entailing the rule of law and corruption-control) affect the consumption of renewable energy in SSA.