Using new data from 42 African countries, we investigate the effects of public and private credit registries on firms’ access to finance as well as the effect of public credit registries’ design on the severity of the financing constraint. Our results show that access to finance is on...

This study applies the fixed effects vector decomposition procedure on a panel of 38 African countries to analyze factors that determine China’s trade engagement with African countries. Results show that China's trade engagement with Africa is driven mainly by African countries’ market size,...

African countries have achieved impressive growth performance during the recent years despite the multiple crises the western world is experiencing. However, this growth has not been inclusive for several reasons. It has been driven mainly by the extractive industry at the detriment of the...

This study aims at testing the relationship between intelligence and governance. It is based on African data. This study find s that countries with high-IQ populations generally enjoy good governance. Governance and Intelligence are found to mutually reinforce each other in a robust relationship...

Over the past few years, Completion Point countries under the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative across Sub-Saharan Africa have enjoyed significantly higher investments and growth rates, primarily fueled by the expanding fiscal space of the post-HIP C era. Despite these post-HIPC...

Firm-level data from Kenya indicates that establishments rely on technologies such as computers, generators and cell-phones to conduct operations when regulations and security pose significant hurdles in the business environment. While all firms rely on technology in the face of obstacles, those...

There is growing emphasis on the role of institutions and governance on explaining Africa’s economic growth. However, it is not clear which of the institutions matter most. Therefore ,the objective of this paper is to answer two separate questions: (i) Do institutions rea lly matter in...