This Focus Note explores innovative financing strategies for reaching inclusive credit fintechs in Africa, particularly those targeting underserved micro and small enterprises (MSEs). These fintechs have the potential to address the estimated US$ 4.9 trillion global credit gap for MSEs. However,...

This paper, based on the Mattei Lecture that the author delivered at the 2025 Africa Growth and Opportunity–Research in Action Conference, argues that Africa can anchor a new model of growth—and bolster global resilience—by shifting from commodity dependence to value-added production and...

By constructing a unique international database on generalized trust covering 142 countries worldwide for 41 years from 1980 to 2020, this paper finds a pronounced intertemporal variation of generalized trust over time in a majority of countries across the globe. When analyzing the time series...

This paper investigates the causal impact of free primary education (FPE) on fertility decisions among parents in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the interplay between the policy, intra-household bargaining, and cultural norms. Using Demographic and Health Survey data and exploiting the...

In this paper, we examine the transplantation of British company law into the Cape Colony in the late nineteenth century. The Cape Colony Companies Act of 1892 was like its British counterpart in that it provided minimal investor protection. This meant that promoters were free to choose the...

In the 1960s and 1970s elite studies formed an integral part of the research agenda on newly independent African states. Commentators sought to predict the likely political and economic paths of independent African states based on the social backgrounds and political orientations of existing...

Differentiated (dis)integration processes of regional and international organizations seem to have grown over the past years. As a continent in which regional integration efforts and institutions mushroomed in the last decades and created a "spaghetti bowl" of regionalism, Africa is highly...

Europa: • Deutschland muss sich wieder als wichtiger Teil und als eine der Führungsnationen der EU verstehen. Die neue Bundesregierung sollte in außenwirtschaftlichen Fragen konsequent europäisch denken und handeln. • Nur ein starker EU-Binnenmarkt schafft Augenhöhe mit den USA und...

Europe: • Germany must once again see itself as an important part of and a leading nation within the EU. The new German government should consistently think and act in a European way on foreign trade issues. • Only a strong EU single market can compete on equal terms with the USA and China....

This study emphasizes three solid questions: (i) the extent to which African banking systems are globalized; (ii) the role of regulation and technology in this process; and (iii) whether economic globalization reinforces banking stability. We conceptualize financial globalization through two...

This paper introduces the African Debt Database (ADD) - a new, comprehensive dataset that traces both domestic and external debt instruments at a granular level. The main innovation is a detailed mapping of Africa's domestic debt markets, drawing on rich, new data extracted from government...

This paper estimates a nonlinear asymmetric dynamics model in the threshold panel data framework to study the extent to which the quality of governance, investment, and financial stability affect the impact of external debt on economic growth in 47 African countries from 2002 to 2022. As a...

The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed the global focus on the role of public health spending, particularly in developing regions where fiscal space is mostly limited. Many African countries have started reassessing the health sector as a core economic resilience component. This study examines how...

Meningococcal meningitis is a deadly acute bacterial infection caused by the Neisseria meningitidis bacterium that affects the membrane covering the brain and spinal cord. The World Health Organization launched the "Defeating bacterial meningitis by 2030" initiative in 2018, which relies on...

In this study we seek to understand the relationship between a trucker's level of human capital, their ease of use of new technology innovations and how this translates into overall port efficiency at the Port of Tema.To perform this inquiry, we develop a five-construct framework with trucker's...