@unpublished{Asongu_448,
author = {Jacinta Nwachukwu C Simplice A. Asongu},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Building-Knowledge-Economies-in-Africa.A-Survey-of-Policies-and-Strategies.pdf},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-06-18},
abstract = {Compared to other regions of the world, Africa is lagging in its drive toward knowledge-based economies. This study surveys the literature in order to highlight the policies and strategies with which African countries can accelerate their current drive towards knowledge economies. These are discussed in terms of the four pillars of the World Bank’s knowledge economy framework. They are the indices for: (i) education and skilled population, (ii) information and communication technology, (iii) economic incentives and institutional regime and (iv) innovation systems.},
keywords = {Knowledge economy; Development; Africa},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {unpublished}
}

@unpublished{Asongu_451,
author = {Paul Acha-Anyi N Simplice A. Asongu},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/The-Murder-Epidemic.A-Global-Comparative-Study.pdf},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-06-13},
abstract = {We build on literature from policy and academic circles to assess if Latin America is leading when it comes to persistence in homicides. The focus is on a global sample of 163 countries for the period 2010 to 2015. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments. The following main finding is established. The region with the highest evidence of persistence in homicides is sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), followed by Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and then by Europe & Central Asia (ECA). In order to increase room for policy implications, the dataset is decomposed into income levels, religious domination, landlockedness and legal origins. From the conditioning information set, the following factors account for persistence in global homicides: crime, political instability and weapons import positively affect homicides whereas the number of “security and police officers” has the opposite effect.},
keywords = {Homicides; Global evidence; Persistence; Latin America},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {unpublished}
}

@unpublished{Asongu_452,
author = {Simplice Asongu},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/The-Comparative-Sustainable-Development-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa.pdf},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-06-13},
abstract = {Motivated by sustainable development challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa, this study assesses the comparative persistence of environmental unsustainability in a sample of 44 countries in the sub-region for the period 2000 to 2012. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments. Of the six hypotheses tested, it is not feasible to assess the hypothesis on resource-wealth because of issues in degrees of freedom. As for the remaining hypotheses, the following findings are established. (i) Hypothesis 1 postulating that middle income countries have a lower level of persistence in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is valid for CO2 per capita emissions, CO2 emissions from electricity and heat production and CO2 emissions from liquid fuel consumption. (ii) Hypothesis 2 on the edge of French civil law countries is valid for CO2 emissions from liquid fuel consumption and CO2 intensity, but not for CO2 per capita emissions. (iii) Hypothesis 3 on the postulation that politically-unstable countries reflect more persistence is valid for CO2 per capita emissions. (iv) Hypothesis 5 on the propensity for landlocked countries to be associated with more persistence in CO2 emissions is valid for CO2 per capita emissions but not for CO2 emissions from liquid fuel consumption. (v) Hypothesis 6 maintaining that Christianity-dominated countries are more environmentally friendly with regard to CO2 emissions is valid for CO2 per capita emissions but not for CO2 emissions from liquid fuel consumption and CO2 intensity. Implications for policy and theory are discussed.},
keywords = {CO2 emissions; Sustainable development; Environment; Africa},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {unpublished}
}

@unpublished{Asongu_455,
author = {Jacinta Nwachukwu C Simplice A. Asongu},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Increasing-foreign-aid-for-inclusive-human-development.pdf},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-06-07},
abstract = {In the light of evidence that poverty has been decreasing in all regions of the World with the exception of Africa, where about 45 percent of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa did not achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) extreme poverty target. Therefore, this study assesses whether increasing foreign aid improves inclusive human development. The investigation is on 53 African countries for the period 2005-2012. The empirical analysis is based on (i) the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) to control for persistence in inclusive human development, simultaneity and time-invariant omitted variables and (ii) Instrumental Variable Tobit Regressions to control for simultaneity and the limited range in the dependent variable. The adopted foreign aid variables are: ‘humanitarian assistance’, ‘action on debt’ ‘aid for social infrastructure’, ‘aid to the productive sector’, ‘aid to the multi sector’, ‘aid for economic infrastructure’ and ‘programme assistance’. The following findings are established. From the GMM specifications, there are (i) synergy effects from ‘aid to the productive sector’ and a positive net effect from ‘programme assistance’ and (ii) negative net impacts from ‘aid to social infrastructure’ and human assistance, albeit with positive marginal effects. From Instrumental Variable Tobit regressions (i) there is a synergy effect from ‘aid for economic infrastructure’ and (ii) there are negative net impacts from ‘aid for social infrastructure’, ‘aid to the productive sector’ and human assistance, albeit with positive marginal effects. Policy implications are discussed.},
keywords = {Foreign Aid; Sustainable Development; Africa},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {unpublished}
}

@unpublished{Asongu_457,
author = {Jacinta Nwachukwu C Simplice A. Asongu},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/The-Arab-Spring-was-predictable-in-2007.Empirics-of-ProofR.pdf},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-06-04},
abstract = {We model core demands for better governance (political, economic and institutional), more employment and less consumer price inflation using a methodological innovation on the complete elimination of cross-country differences in signals susceptible of sparking social revolts. The empirical evidence based on 14 MENA countries show that the Arab Spring was predictable in 2007 to occur between January 2011 and April 2012. While the findings predict the wave of cross-country revolutions with almost mathematical precision, caveats and cautions are discussed for the scholar to understand the expositional dimensions of the empirics.},
keywords = {Arab Spring; Political Instability; Timing; Economic Growth},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {unpublished}
}