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This paper examines correlations of the underlying structural shocks and the degree of synchronization in the impulse responses of output, inflation and trade to a one standard deviation shock to non-oil commodities price index and exchange rates within the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) countries from 1990q1 to 2020q1.

This paper uses the structural vector autoregressive model to isolate the underlying structural shocks and compares them with the West African Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries.

Findings from the study suggest that correlations of underlying structural shocks are more profound in the WAEMU than in the WAMZ. Impulse responses of output to price and exchange rate shocks are more symmetric in the WAEMU than in the WAMZ. However, impulse responses of inflation to price and exchange rate shocks are symmetric in the WAMZ than in the WAEMU and responses of trade in both sub-groups are not uniform.

The paper concludes that the WAMZ does not constitute an Optimum Currency Area concerning the correlations of the structural shocks and output. However, it has achieved convergence in inflation and there are adequate adjustment mechanisms to shocks in the WAMZ than in the WAEMU. Therefore, the WAMZ may not suffer from joining the monetary union. Thus, economic Community of West African States may take steps to roll out the monetary union.

The paper examines correlations of the underlying structural shocks, impulse responses of output and inflation to shocks to commodities price and exchange rates in the WAMZ and compares them with the WAEMU.

This paper aims to assess the short- and long-run effects of the interaction between institutional quality and financial development (FD) on the competitiveness of the WAEMU economy over the period 2007–2018.

The methodology consisted of cross-referencing a synthetic indicator of FD with indicators of institutional quality and then estimating an auto regressive distributed lag model.

The results of the pooled mean group and dynamic fixed effect estimation show a positive and significant impact of this interaction on the competitiveness of the economy in the long run. In the short run, the results are quite similar to those in the long run for the direct effects but different for the crosses. Also, the analysis of country specificity shows that the results are similar to those in the short run since the interaction between FD and institutional quality (political stability and government effectiveness) negatively affects the competitiveness of Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Mali, and positively affects the competitiveness of Benin and Senegal.

These results suggest the need for effective policies to improve the quality of institutions to enhance the mobilization of financial resources through FD to ensure the competitiveness of economies. Improving the quality of the political and institutional environment is a prerequisite for economic competitiveness.

The paper is in line with the New Institutional Economics that developed in the 1970s. This referential framework is a heterogeneous body of work that encompasses works whose common point is the determination of the role of institutions in economic coordination. Unlike previous studies, which have focused on the contribution of the interaction between institutional quality variables and FD on economic growth, this paper analyzes the effects of this interaction on economic competitiveness. It, therefore, constitutes a contribution to this literature and aims primarily to fill this gap.

This article examines if the national productions of West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries can be substituted for the imports by testing MLRC in these countries.

The Mundell–Fleming model (MMF) is the analytical framework adopted in this paper with import demand and export supply functions estimation borrowed to Thirlwall (1979). This study covers four countries in West Africa from 1990 to 2021. The estimation procedure used is an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration.

The findings reveal that there is a strong marginal propensity to import in the WAEMU countries. The hypothesis of a non-significant price effect on imports in the short-term is confirmed for several countries while only Togo satisfies the MLRC in the short and long run.

This study presents several originalities: (1) it evaluates MLRC with a clear analytical framework; (2) unlike other studies, this article quantifies the MLRC from a theoretical, econometric and empirical point of view; (3) this article presents the results country by country in order to reveal heterogeneity between countries; (4) this study adds to the Marshall–Lerner condition for the derivation of Robinson by considering a situation where initially the trade balance is not in equilibrium.

This paper aims to examine the response of monetary policy to financial instability in the West African Economic and Monetary Union.

Through annual aggregated data from 1970 to 2019, the empirical strategy is based on the Markov regime-switching model with fixed probabilities.

The results revealed that the monetary policy of the central bank of the West African Economic and Monetary Union is characterized by two regimes (calm and distress) with respect to the trend of financial stability. The authors also found that the occurrence of the calm regime was likely greater than that of the distress regime. In addition, the calm regime is longer than the distress regime. The authors finally revealed that the central bank reacts to financial instability risk by increasing its short-term interest rate when financial instability reaches a threshold.

The limitation of this study is the unavailability of monthly or quarterly data that are more suitable for the methodological approach adopted.

This study is the one to estimate the response of the Central Bank of West African Countries to financial stress using a novel approach based on the Markov-Switching regression.

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.

This chapter aims to demonstrate how the colonial legacy in general, and in its monetary area in particular, has been one of the major obstacles to African countries' ability to mobilize financial resources for their development. In fact, the monetary systems inherited from colonialism serve as an instrument to plunder African resources and extract surplus for capital accumulation in former colonial powers. One of the best examples is found in the relationships between France and its former colonies in West and Central Africa. The monetary system imposed on those countries is essentially perpetuating the Colonial Pact, under which the role of the colonies is to serve the political, economic, and strategic interests of the colonial power. For African countries, the monetary arrangement, illustrated by the use of CFA franc as their currency, has been a major obstacle to capital accumulation, productive capacity building and effective structural transformation of their economies. Unless African countries break free from the CFA monetary system and reclaim their sovereignty, there will be no development. The struggle for monetary sovereignty in former French colonies is now part of a broader continental struggle to reclaim Africa's sovereignty over its resources and the formulation of its development policies.

This study aims to provide an empirical investigation into rising capital flight and the role of institutional quality to mitigate its effect on the real sector in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

The study uses the system generalized method of moments and uses data spanning from 1989 to 2020 from 26 SSA countries.

The findings show that capital flight has no direct impact on the real sector while institutional quality adversely impacted the agricultural and industrial sectors. The study also found that institutional quality is unable to mitigate the effect of capital flight on the industrial sector.

This study investigates if institutional quality mitigates the impact of capital flight on the real sector proxied by industrial value-added and agriculture value-added.

Expansion of the consumption of renewable energy is a significant issue for reducing global warming, to cope with climate change and achieve sustainable development. This study aims to examine how research and development expenditure (R&D) affects renewable energy development in developed G-7 countries over the period from 2000 to 2019. Variables of trade liberalization and CO₂ emissions are considered control variables.

This study has adopted a panel quantile regression. The impact of the variables on renewable development has been examined in quantiles of 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 0.9. Also, a robust examination is accomplished by applying generalized quantile regression (GQR).

The empirical findings reveal a positive and significant relationship between R&D and the consumption of renewable energy in 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 quantiles. Also, the findings describe that the expansion of trade liberalization and CO₂ emissions can significantly increase the development of renewable energy in G-7 countries. Furthermore, GQR verifies the main outcomes.

These results have very momentous policy consequences for the governments of G-7 countries. Therefore, investment and support for the R&D section to promote the development of renewable energy are recommended.

This paper, in comparison to other research, used panel quantile regression to investigate the impact of factors affecting renewable energy consumption. Also, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has perused the effect of R&D along with trade liberalization and carbon emissions on renewable energy consumption in G-7 countries. Also, in this paper, as a robustness check for panel quantile regression, the GQR has been used.

For close to two decades, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) has been preparing to launch a second monetary union within the ECOWAS region. This study aims to determine the impact such a unionised monetary regime will have on financial stability as represented by the nonperforming loan ratios of Ghana in a counterfactual framework.

This study models nonperforming loan ratios as dependent on the monetary policy rate and the business cycle. The study then used historical data to estimate the parameters of the nonperforming loan ratio response function using an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach. The estimated parameters are further used to estimate the impact of several counterfactual unionised monetary policy rates on the nonperforming loan ratios and its volatility of Ghana. As robustness check, the Least Absolute Shrinkage Selection Operator (LASSO) regression is also used to estimate the nonperforming loan ratios response function and to predict nonperforming loans under the counterfactual unionised monetary policy rates.

The results of the counterfactual study reveals that the apparent cost of monetary unification is much less than supposed with a monetary union likely to dampen volatility in non-performing loans in Ghana. As such, the WAMZ members should increase the pace towards monetary unification.

The paper contributes to the existing literature by explicitly modelling nonperforming loan ratios as dependent on monetary policy and the business cycle. The study also settles the debate on the financial stability cost of a monetary union due to the nonalignment of business cycles and economic structures.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of information and communications technology (ICT) on the provision of social services, as well as the moderating effect of institutional quality on the relationship between ICT and the provision of social services for 31 low-income countries.

This study is based on panel data from World Development Indicators and Worldwide Governance Indicators spanning 1996 to 2020 for 31 low-income countries. To analyze the data, the study uses cross-sectional dependence tests, slope heterogeneity tests, panel unit root tests, panel cointegration tests and cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) analysis.

The results overwhelmingly show that ICT has a significant positive effect on the provision of social services in both the short- and long-run. Also, the study reveals that institutional quality has a significant positive impact on the provision of social services in the short- and long-run. The results further provide empirical evidence of the positive and significant moderating effect of institutional quality on the relationship between ICT and the provision of social services.

This study points out the significant potential of identifying appropriate scales of ICT infrastructure and institutional quality needed to support the various governments in low-income countries to improve social services delivery mechanisms and outreach efficacy and impact. The study can be invaluable for ICT innovators and policymakers in promoting the provision of social services.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to determine the effect of ICT on the provision of social services, as well as the moderating effect of institutional quality on the relationship between ICT and the provision of social services, especially for low-income countries using CS-ARDL.