PUBLICATIONS

@workingpaper{Asongu2015b_28,
title = {Trade, Aid and Terror},
author = {Oasis Kodila-Tedika Simplice A. Asongu},
editor = {African 2015 Governance and Development Institute WP/15/028},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Trade-Aid-and-Terror.pdf},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-06-01},
abstract = {This study assesses the role of foreign aid in reducing the hypothetically negative
impact of terrorism on trade using a panel of 78 developing countries with data for the period
1984-2008. The empirical evidence is based on interactive GMM estimations with forward
orthogonal deviations. Bilateral, multilateral and total aid dynamics are employed whereas
terrorism entails: domestic, transnational, unclear and total terrorism dynamics. The
following findings have been established. First, while bilateral aid has no significant effect on
trade, multilateral and total aids have positive impacts. Second total terrorism, domestic
terrorism and transnational terrorism increase trade with increasing order of magnitude. Third,
corresponding negative marginal effects on the interaction between foreign aid (bilateral and
total) and terrorism display thresholds that are within range. Unexpected signs are clarified
and policy implications discussed.},
keywords = {Foreign Aid; Terrorism; Development, Trade Openness},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Asongu2015b_29,
title = {A Literature Survey on Proposed African Monetary Unions},
author = {Jacinta Nwachukwu & Vanessa Tchamyou C S Simplice A. Asongu},
editor = {African 2015 Governance and Development Institute WP/15/042},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/A-Literature-Survey-on-Proposed-African-Monetary-Unions.pdf},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-06-01},
abstract = {This study provides a survey of recent advances in the literature on proposed African
monetary unions. The survey comprises about 60 empirical papers published during the past
fifteen years. Four main strands are discussed individually and collectively, notably, the
proposed: West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), East African Monetary Union (EAMU),
Southern African Monetary Union (SAMU) and African Monetary Union (AMU). We
observe a number of issues with establishing the feasibility and/or desirability of potential
monetary unions, inter alia, variations in: choice of variables, empirical strategies, sampled
countries and considered periodicities. We address this ambiguity by reviewing studies with
scenarios that are consistent with Hegelian dialectics and establish selective expansion as the
predominant mode of monetary integration. Some proponents make cases for strong pegs and
institutions as viable alternatives to currency unions. Using cluster analysis, disaggregating
panels into sub-samples and distinguishing shocks from responses in the examination of
business cycle synchronisation provide more subtle policy implications. We caution that for
inquiries using the same theoretical underpinnings, variables and methods just by modifying
the scope/context and periodicity may only contribute to increasing the number of conflicting
findings. Authors should place more emphasis on new perspectives and approaches based on
caveats of, and lessons from the European Monetary Union (EMU) and CFA zones.},
keywords = {Currency Area; Policy Coordination; Africa},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Tchamyou2015,
title = {The Role of Knowledge Economy in African Business},
author = {Vanessa S Tchamyou},
editor = {African 2015 Governance and Development Institute WP/15/049},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/The-role-of-knowledge-economy-in-African-Business.pdf},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-06-01},
abstract = {This paper assesses the role knowledge economy (KE) in African business in 53 countries for the
period 1996-2010. The four KE components of the World Bank are employed, notably:
education, innovation, economic incentives & institutional regime and information &
communication technology. The business indicators are classified into: starting, doing and ending
business. Principal components analysis and panel instrumental variable fixed effects approaches
are employed as empirical strategies. The findings which are broadly consistent with intuition
and the predictions of economic theory suggest that KE policies will substantially boost the
starting and doing of business in Africa. This is relevant in fighting unemployment and
improving African competitiveness in global value chains. Policy implications for the relevance
of each specific KE dimension in African business are discussed with particular emphasis on the
theoretical underpinnings of the study. The investigation is original in its contribution at the same
time to the scarce literature on African KE and the growing challenges of improving the business
climate of the continent by means of KE.},
keywords = {Knowledge economy; Doing business; Development; Africa},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Uchenna2015,
title = {How Does Foreign Aid Affect the Relationship between IFRS Adoption and Foreign Direct Investment?},
author = {NNADI Matthias EFOBI Uchenna},
editor = {African 2015 Governance and Development Institute WP/15/014},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Foreign_Aid_IFRS_FDI_Efobi_Nnadi_TIJA_revised.pdf},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-05-01},
abstract = {This paper constructs a theoretical model to explain the relationship between IFRS adoption, FDI and foreign aid. Using the SGMM estimation technique to check the issue of endogeneity and reverse causality, this relationship was examined on 92 countries for the period 2003-2012. Overall, IFRS adoption attracts more aid when conditioned on foreign aid; however, when disaggregating foreign aid, the effect of foreign aid on the nexus was contradictory, while multilateral aid flow was positive. This result remained consistent despite the battery of checks.},
keywords = {Accounting Standards; Foreign Aid; Foreign Direct Investment; Globalisation; IFRS Adoption},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Asongu2015b_30,
title = {Foreign aid volatility and lifelong learning: demand-side empirics to a textual literature},
author = {Jacinta Nwachukwu C Simplice A. Asongu},
editor = {African 2015 Governance and Development Institute WP/15/016},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Foreign-aid-volatility-and-lifelong-learning.pdf},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-05-01},
abstract = {Purpose- This paper has put a demand-side empirical structure to the hypothesis that foreign aid volatility adversely affects choices to lifelong learning in recipient countries
Design/methodology/approach- Lifelong learning is measured as the combined knowledge acquired during primary, secondary and tertiary educational enrolments. Three types of aggregate foreign aid volatilities are computed in a twofold manner: baseline standard deviations and standard errors (standard deviations of residuals after first-order autoregressive processes). An endogeneity robust dynamic system GMM empirical strategy is employed.
Findings- The findings broadly show that foreign aid volatility does not adversely affect the demand-side choices of lifelong learning in Africa.
Practical implications- As a policy implication, when faced with aid uncertainty, the demand for education would increase. This may be explained by the need for more self-reliance in order to mitigate income risks or/and the use of education as means of copping with uncertainty. Moreover, the findings indirectly confirm a stream of the literature sustaining that when faced with uncertainty in external financial flows, countries may recourse to promoting human resource development through lifelong learning and knowledge economy as a competitive advantage. This may also explain why countries which have acknowledged scarcity in external financial flows from natural resources have done relatively better compared to their natural resource-rich counterparts.
Originality/value- This paper has provided demand-side empirics to a hypothesis that could substantial influence policy making.},
keywords = {Lifelong learning; Foreign aid; Development; Africa},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Asongu2015b_31,
title = {Rational Asymmetric Development: Transfer Pricing and Sub-Saharan Africa’s Extreme Poverty Tragedy},
author = {Simplice A Asongu},
editor = {African 2015 Governance and Development Institute WP/15/017},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Rational-Asymmetric-Development-Transfer-Pricing-and-Poverty-Tragedy-of-Africa.pdf},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-05-01},
abstract = {A recent publication by the World Bank on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has established that extreme poverty has been decreasing in all regions of the world with the exception of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), in spite of over two decades of growth resurgence. This chapter explores the role of transfer pricing in SSA’s extreme poverty tragedy. The analytical structure entails: (i) emphasis of rational asymmetric development as the dark side of transfer pricing, (ii) evidence that the recent growth resurgence in African countries has been driven substantially by resource-rich countries which are experiencing high levels of exclusive growth and extreme poverty, (iii) the practice of transfer pricing by multinationals operating in resource-rich countries of SSA and (iv) a Zambian case study of extreme poverty and transfer pricing schemes by Glencore in the copper industry. While transfer pricing is contributing to diminishing African growth, available evidence shows that the component growth that is not captured by transfer pricing does not trickle down to the poor because the African elite is also captured by practices of rational asymmetric development. Policy implications for the fight against extreme poverty are discussed.},
keywords = {Asymmetric development; Extreme poverty: SSA, Transfer pricing},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Kodila-Tedika2015bf,
title = {Tribalism and Financial Development},
author = {Simplice Asongu A Oasis Kodila-Tedika},
editor = {African 2015 Governance and Development Institute WP/15/018},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Tribalism-and-financial-development.pdf},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-05-01},
abstract = {We assess the correlations between tribalism and financial development in 123 countries using data averages from 2000-2010. The tribalism index is used to measure tribalism whereas financial development is measured from perspectives of financial intermediary and stock market developments. The long-term variable is stock market capitalisation while short-run indicators include: private and domestic credits. We find that tribalism is negatively correlated with financial development and the magnitude of negativity is higher for financial intermediary development relative to stock market development. The findings are particularly relevant to African and Middle Eastern countries where the scourge is most pronounced.},
keywords = {Tribalism; Financial Development},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{ASONGU2015b_32,
title = {FDI, Aid, Terrorism: Conditional Threshold Evidence from Developing Countries},
author = {Uchenna EFOBI & Ibukun BEECROFT Simplice ASONGU},
editor = {African 2015 Governance and Development Institute WP/15/019},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/FDI-Aid-Terrorism.Threshold-evidence-from-developing-countries.pdf},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-05-01},
abstract = {We investigate how foreign aid dampens the effects of terrorism on FDI using interactive quantile regressions. The empirical evidence is based on 78 developing countries for the period 1984-2008. Bilateral and multilateral aid variables are used, while terrorism dynamics entail: domestic, unclear, transnational and total number of terrorist attacks. The following findings are established. First, while the effects of multilateral aid are consistently significant with positive threshold evidence, bilateral aid is only positively significant in bottom quantiles. Second, with the slight exception of transnational terrorism in bilateral aid regressions, the impacts of terrorism dynamics are unexpectedly positive, in: (i) bottoms quantiles with domestic terrorism and the 0.25th quantile with total terrorism, for bilateral aid regressions, and (ii) the 0.25th quantile with domestic terrorism and bottom quantiles of transnational terrorism, for multilateral aid regressions. Third, interactions between terrorism and foreign aid dynamics unexpectedly yield negative effects in: (i) bilateral aid and domestic terrorism in bottom quantiles and (ii) multilateral aid and domestic (transnational) terrorism in the 0.25th(bottom) quantile(s). The modifying threshold value of bilateral aid is higher than that of multilateral aid. Fourth, there is positive threshold evidence from GDP growth, infrastructural development and trade openness. Policy implications are discussed.},
keywords = {FDI; Foreign aid; Terrorism; Quantile regression},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Asongu2015b_33,
title = {Is Poverty in the African DNA (Gene)?},
author = {Oasis Kodila-Tedika Simplice A. Asongu},
editor = {African 2015 Governance and Development Institute WP/15/011},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Is-Poverty-in-the-African-DNA(Gene).pdf},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-04-01},
abstract = {A 2015 World Bank report on attainment of Millennium Development Goals concludes that the number of extremely poor has dropped substantially in all regions with the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa. We assess if poverty is in the African gene by revisiting the findings of Ashraf and Galor (2013, AER) and reformulating the ‘Out of Africa Hypothesis’ into a ‘Genetic Diversity Hypothesis’ for a ‘Within Africa Analysis’. We motivate this reformulation with five shortcomings arising for the most part from the 2015 findings of the African Gerome Variation Project, notably: limitations in the concept of space, African dummy in genetic diversity, linearity in migratory patterns, migratory origins and underpinnings of genetic diversity in Africa. Ashraf and Galor have concluded that cross-country differences in development can be explained by genetic diversity in a Kuznets pattern. Our results from an exclusive African perspective confirm the underlying hypothesis in a contemporary context, but not in the historical analysis. From a historical context, the nexus is U-shaped for migratory distance, mobility index and predicted diversity while for the contemporary analysis; it is hump-shaped for ancestry-adjusted predicted diversity. Hence, poverty is not in the African gene from a within-Africa comparative standpoint. Policy implications are discussed.},
keywords = {Africa; Genetic diversity; Comparative economic development},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Kodila-Tedika2015bg,
title = {Genetic Distance and Cognitive Human Capital: A Cross-National Investigation},
author = {Simplice ASONGU A Oasis Kodila-Tedika},
editor = {African 2015 Governance and Development Institute WP/15/012},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Genetic-Distance-and-Cognitive-Human-Capital.A-Cross-National-Investigation.pdf},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-04-01},
abstract = {This paper explores the determinants of intelligence by focusing on the role played by barriers to the diffusion of competence and human capital. The results based on cross-sectional data from 167 countries consisting of 1996-2009 averages suggest that, genetic distance to global frontiers has a negative relationship with human capital. Countries that are genetically far from leading nations tend to have lower levels of human capital with the negative correlation from the USA frontier higher relative to the UK frontier. The sign is consistent with the relationship of genetic diversity and robust to the control of macroeconomic, geographical, institutional and influential variables. Policy implications are discussed.},
keywords = {Genetic distance, Human Capital, Intelligence},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}