There is a growing body of evidence that interest rate spreads in Africa are higher for big ba nks compared to small banks. One concern is that big banks might be using their market power to charge higher lending rates as they become larger, more efficient, and unchallenged. In contra st,...

This paper provides a systematic review of challenges to doing business in Africa. It complements the extant literature by answering two critical questions: what are the linkages between the ease of doing business and economic development; and what are the challeng es to doing business in...

The study investigates the relevance of information and communication technology (ICT) in modulating the effect of financial access on female economic participation. Female economic participation is proxied by female labor force participation, financial access is measured with deposit and credit...

This study examines if enhancing ICT reduces inequality in 48 countries in Africa for the period 2004-2014. Three inequality indictors are used, namely, the: Gini coefficient, Atkinson index and Palma ratio. The adopted ICT indicators include: mobile phone penetration, internet penetration and...

The study examines the relationship between tourism and social media from a cross section of 138 countries with data for the year 2012.The empirical evidence is based on Ordinary Least Squares, Negative Binomial and Quantile regressions. Two main findings are established. First, there is a...

This study examines the stability of money demand in the proposed West African Monetary Union (WAMU). The study uses annual data for the period 1981 to 2015 from thirteen of the fifteen countries making-up the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). A standard money demand function...

This special section aims to advance scholarship on well-being and happiness in Africa. The section covers theoretical, conceptual and empirical contributions which address relevant areas that enhance extant knowledge on linkages between poverty, happiness and well-being in Africa.

This study assesses the relevance of basic formal education in information technology for inclusive human development in 49 countries in sub-Saharan Africa for the period 2000-2012. The question it aims to answer is the following: what is the relevance of basic formal education in the effect of...

Motivated by evidence that extreme poverty has been decreasing in all regions of the world with the exception of Africa, the study contributes to the literature on reinventing foreign aid by assessing if development assistance can sustain inclusive human development. The empirical evidence is...

This study examines the effect of terrorism and peace on tourist destination arrivals using a panel of 163 countries with data for the period 2010 to 2015. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments and Negative Binomial (NB) regressions. Our best estimators are from NB...