School of Economics

This paper investigates the impact of investment climate on FDI in Africa using a dataset that spans 2000 to 2018. It also hypothesised that the relationship between investment climate and FDI could vary by country classification as a landlocked, least developed (LDC), natural resource-abundant or has a developed financial market system (DFM). The generalised system's GMM and the fixed-effect model with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors results show that investment climate is critical for FDI in Africa, resource-rich countries and those with DFM. Conversely, the role of the investment climate is less significant in landlocked countries, which underscores the need to consider the possibility of heterogeneity to avoid falsepositive conclusions. We also find that the moderating role of the investment climate and GDP is nontrivial in the relationship. These results suggest that the LDCs and landlocked countries need to strengthen their investment climates by adopting policies that enhance the rule of law, fight corruption and build robust institutions to attract FDI. It also shows how researchers can navigate the considerable encumbrance of dealing with several constructs of the investment climate by employing principal components analysis, which gives the optimal granularity required for further investigation. This more specific definition is critical when the intent is to make generalities about the role of the investment climate.

This paper investigates the impact of investment climate on FDI in Africa using a dataset that spans 2000 to 2018. It also hypothesised that the relationship between investment climate and FDI could vary by country classification as a landlocked, least developed (LDC), natural resource-abundant or has a developed financial market system (DFM). The generalised system's GMM and the fixed-effect model with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors results show that investment climate is critical for FDI in Africa, resource-rich countries and those with DFM. Conversely, the role of the investment climate is less significant in landlocked countries, which underscores the need to consider the possibility of heterogeneity to avoid false-positive conclusions. We also find that the moderating role of the investment climate and GDP is nontrivial in the relationship. These results suggest that the LDCs and landlocked countries need to strengthen their investment climates by adopting policies that enhance the rule of law, fight corruption and build robust institutions to attract FDI. It also shows how researchers can navigate the considerable encumbrance of dealing with several constructs of the investment climate by employing principal components analysis, which gives the optimal granularity required for further investigation. This more specific definition is critical when the intent is to make generalities about the role of the investment climate.

Background: In the last two decades, the world experienced two overlapping global shocks – that is, the 2008–2009 financial crisis and the COVID-19 lockdowns – with severe social and economic consequences on African economies that have, once again, brought to the fore the intricate role that globalisation plays in economic growth because of grave risks that often accompany it.
Aim: We consider three research questions about globalisation: (i) does globalisation heighten economic growth? (ii) is there a statistically significant threshold level of globalisation above which globalisation affects growth differently than at lower levels? (iii) what factors moderate
the globalisation-economic growth nexus?
Setting: A panel of 47 selected countries from Africa from 2001 to 2018 is under scrutiny.
Method: To begin, it applies an overlapping five-year moving average (MA) to smoothen the data. In addition, we employ the revised globalisation index and the two-step systems generalised method of the moment (GMM) in its empirical strategy.
Results: We find a largely insignificant relationship between globalisation and economic growth. We attribute these results to Africa’s infinitesimal share – less than 5% – in foreign direct investment (FDI) and global trade, acute infrastructure deficit and the lack of relevant skills that lead to productivity losses and weak performance within the international business ecosystem. We also find, among others, that globalisation is more effective in countries with more gross capital formation, higher population and urban growth rates.
Conclusion: For Africa to maximise its growth potential from globalisation, sound policies should be put in place to promote trade, FDI, domestic capital formation and urbanisation. We
suggest that future studies investigate the long-run equilibrium relationship between globalisation and economic growth.

Background: In the last two decades, the world experienced two overlapping global shocks – that is, the 2008–2009 financial crisis and the COVID-19 lockdowns – with severe social and economic consequences on African economies that have, once again, brought to the fore the intricate role that globalisation plays in economic growth because of grave risks that often accompany it.Aim: We consider three research questions about globalisation: (i) does globalisation heighten economic growth? (ii) is there a statistically significant threshold level of globalisation above which globalisation affects growth differently than at lower levels? (iii) what factors moderate the globalisation-economic growth nexus?Setting: A panel of 47 selected countries from Africa from 2001 to 2018 is under scrutiny.Method: To begin, it applies an overlapping five-year moving average (MA) to smoothen the data. In addition, we employ the revised globalisation index and the two-step systems generalised method of ...

The article investigates technological innovations, service quality and Customer Satisfaction in Cameroons' Mobile Telecommunication Industry. A survey research design was employed and the data set used in the study was collected through a self administered questionnaire during the period of April to June 2017. The theoretical framework of the study is rooted in the concept of utility maximisation by consumers which is described by the logit model. Our findings show that signal quality and network coverage, customer service and service innovation exhibit significant effects on customers' satisfaction and loyalty. Service innovation is the most important determinant of customers' loyalty. Consequently, maintaining high quality to ensure customers' satisfaction and loyalty in this spectre of fierce competition is a boundless derivative of technological innovations. Therefore, innovation is critical to the success of mobile telecommunication firms in this rapidly changing business environment if quality services have to be rendered sustainably. Since acquiring new customers is considerably more expensive than retaining existing ones, telecommunications firms should drive more attention to improving customers' loyalty and satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper was to assess the determinants of the inefficiency of public hospitals in Cameroon. The methods employed in the study involved a two-stage analysis technique whereby Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was applied using the traditional inputs and outputs with data from the National Institute of Statistics (NIS) of Cameroon. The efficiency scores from the first stage were then transformed into inefficiency scores and regressed on the environmental variables using the censored regression model (Tobit Model). We found that corruption and location of health facility were signficant determinants of inefficiency; hospitals became more efficient when exposed to competition and when bed occupancy increased. The number of supervisions and size of health facility did not have a signficant effect on inefficiency while age of health facility, distance covered by patients to hospitals, distance separating public hospital from closest private hospital were negative but insignficant determinants of inefficiency. It was then concluded that Identifying the determinants of inefficiency helps hospitals to restructure how they manage their operations since improved performance helps better resource utilisation, control cost and increase accesss to healthcare.

The purpose of this paper was to assess the determinants of the inefficiency of public hospitals in Cameroon. The methods employed in the study involved a two-stage analysis technique whereby Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was applied using the traditional inputs and outputs with data from the National Institute of Statistics (NIS) of Cameroon. The efficiency scores from the first stage were then transformed into inefficiency scores and regressed on the environmental variables using the censored regression model (Tobit Model). We found that corruption and location of health facility were signficant determinants of inefficiency; hospitals became more efficient when exposed to competition and when bed occupancy increased. The number of supervisions and size of health facility did not have a signficant effect on inefficiency while age of health facility, distance covered by patients to hospitals, distance separating public hospital from closest private hospital were negative but insignficant determinants of inefficiency. It was then concluded that Identifying the determinants of inefficiency helps hospitals to restructure how they manage their operations since improved performance helps better resource utilisation, control cost and increase accesss to healthcare.

Decoupling the causal impact of globalisation on labour market outcomes is critical for economic policy and sustainable development. Previous studies have uncovered a positive, but sometimes conflicting results on the relationship between globalisation and the labour market in different countries and periods. I investigate how labour market outcomes respond to economic globalisation using data from 41 African countries from 1991 to 2019 and estimation techniques that correct for autocorrelation, heteroscedasticity, heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. Results show that the effect of economic globalisation on all labour market outcomes is bounded to an interval of zero, allowing me to rule out the possibility of any causal effect. These results challenge literature on the putative benefits of economic globalisation. Nonetheless, the findings are consistent with the observed pattern of jobless growth in most African countries over the past three decades. Moving forward, Africa's development strategy should not only rely on economic liberalisation, but on consolidating domestic macroeconomic policies and institutions.

© University of Pretoria vi A casual look at Europe’s and Africa’s experiences of integration suggests that they share certain similarities. Their respective institutional frameworks (Commissions, Parliaments and Councils) bear certain similarities and they share a similar policy objective of developing economic communities through the pursuit of market integration (the European Economic Community (EEC) following the 1957 Rome Treaty, and the African Economic Community (AEC) according to the 1991 Abuja Treaty). These noted similarities have generated a debate on whether or not the European experience of integration has diffused to and informed Africa’s practice of regional integration by its continental body the African Union (AU). This study brings a contribution to this debate by investigating a number of channels through which the EU experience of integration could have flowed to the AU, drawing from the policy transfer and diffusion literature. It investigates the process leadin...

Background: In the last two decades, the world experienced two overlapping global shocks – that is, the 2008–2009 financial crisis and the COVID-19 lockdowns – with severe social and economic consequences on African economies that have, once again, brought to the fore the intricate role that globalisation plays in economic growth because of grave risks that often accompany it.Aim: We consider three research questions about globalisation: (i) does globalisation heighten economic growth? (ii) is there a statistically significant threshold level of globalisation above which globalisation affects growth differently than at lower levels? (iii) what factors moderate the globalisation-economic growth nexus?Setting: A panel of 47 selected countries from Africa from 2001 to 2018 is under scrutiny.Method: To begin, it applies an overlapping five-year moving average (MA) to smoothen the data. In addition, we employ the revised globalisation index and the two-step systems generalised method of ...

The European and African experiences of integration have followed different historical trajectories. However, Africa’s approach to regionalism seems to be dominated by European conceptions in two areas: political and institutional. From an institutional perspective, a number of European Union and African Union institutions bare certain similarities. Do these institutional similarities represent traceable evidence of the diffusion
of regional integration from the European Union to the African Union? This article answers this question using a process tracing methodology within a policy transfer and diffusion framework. It tests for evidence of diffusion haven occurred through conditionalities  (incentives) offered from EU support for Africa’s continental integration as well as for lesson drawing and emulation by the AU. It finds no traceable evidence of diffusion from
the EU to the OAU/AU between 1963 to 2003 and concludes that normative emulation is the most probable cause of the institutional similarities between the EU and AU.