@workingpaper{Asongu2013bh,
title = {Mobile banking and mobile phone penetration: which is more pro-poor in Africa?},
author = {Simplice A Asongu},
editor = {African 2013 Governance and Development Institute WP/13/033},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Mobile-and-the-poor.pdf},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-09-01},
abstract = {The contribution of this paper to complement theoretical and qualitative mobile
penetration literature with empirical evidence is twofold: firstly, we assess the incomeredistributive
effect of mobile phone penetration and; secondly, the instrumentality of financial
development dynamics in this nexus. Main findings suggest an equalizing incomeredistributive
effect of ‘mobile phone penetration’ and ‘mobile banking’, with a higher incomeequalizing
effect in the latter than in the former. Poverty alleviation channels explaining this
difference in inequality mitigating propensity are discussed. The empirical evidence is based on
52 African countries and deviates from mainstream country-specific and microeconomic
survey-based approaches.},
keywords = {Banking; Mobile Phones; Shadow Economy; Financial Development; Africa},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Asongu2013bi,
title = {Determinants of Health Professionals’ Migration in Africa: a WHO based Assessment},
author = {Simplice A Asongu},
editor = {African 2013 Governance and Development Institute WP/13/034},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/WHO-determinants-of-health-professional-migration.pdf},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-09-01},
abstract = {Purpose – How do economic prosperity, health expenditure, savings, price-stability,
demographic change, democracy, corruption-control, press-freedom, government effectiveness,
human development, foreign-aid, physical security, trade openness and financial liberalization
play-out in the fight against health-worker crisis when existing emigration levels matter? Despite
the acute concern of health-worker crisis in Africa owing to emigration, lack of relevant data has
made the subject matter empirically void over the last decades.
Design/methodology/approach – A quantile regression approach is used to assess the
determinants of health-worker emigration throughout the conditional distributions of healthworker
emigration. This provides an assessment of the determinants when existing emigrations
levels matter.
Findings – Findings provide a broad range of tools for the fight against health-worker braindrain.
As a policy implication, blanket emigration-control policies are unlikely to succeed
equally across countries with different levels of emigration. Thus to be effective, immigration
policies should be contingent on the prevailing levels of the crisis and tailored differently across
countries with the best and worst records on fighting health worker emigration.
Originality/value – This paper has examined the theoretical postulations of a WHO report on
determinants of health-worker migration.},
keywords = {Welfare; Health; Human Capital; Migration; Africa},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Asongu2013bj,
title = {Globalization and Financial Market Contagion: Evidence from Financial Crisis and Natural Disasters},
author = {Simplice A Asongu},
editor = {African 2013 Governance and Development Institute WP/13/035},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Globalisation-and-financial-market-contagion.pdf},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-09-01},
abstract = {With financial globalization, investors can gain from diversification if returns from financial
markets are stable and not correlated. However with volatility spillovers, increase in crossmarket
correlations exist as a real-effect and are not taken into account for asset allocation and
portfolio composition. This chapter assesses financial contagion from two recent trends in the
world economy: the global financial crisis and the 2011 Japanese natural disasters (tsunami,
earthquake and nuclear crises).},
keywords = {Contagion, Financial Crisis, Globalization},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Asongu2013bk,
title = {New financial development indicators: with a critical contribution to inequality empirics},
author = {Simplice A Asongu},
editor = {African 2013 Governance and Development Institute WP/13/036},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/New-financial-indicators-and-inequality-empirics.pdf},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-09-01},
abstract = {The employment of financial development indicators without due consideration to
country/regional specific financial development realities remains an issue of substantial policy
relevance. Financial depth in the perspective of money supply is not equal to liquid liabilities
in every development context. This paper introduces complementary indicators to the
existing Financial Development and Structure Database (FDSD). Dynamic panel system
GMM estimations are applied. Different specifications, non-overlapping intervals and control
variables are used to check the consistency of estimated coefficients. Our results suggest that
from an absolute standpoint (GDP base measures), all financial sectors are pro-poor.
However, three interesting findings are drawn from measures of sector importance. (1) The
expansion of the formal financial sector to the detriment of other financial sectors has a
disequalizing income effect. (2) Growth of informal and semi-formal financial sectors at the
expense of the formal financial sector has an income equalizing effect. (3) The positive
income redistributive effect of semi-formal finance in financial sector competition is higher
than the corresponding impact of informal finance. It unites two streams of research by
contributing at the same time to the macroeconomic literature on measuring financial
development and responding to the growing field of economic development by means of
informal financial sector promotion and microfinance. The paper suggests a practicable way
to disentangle the effects of the various financial sectors on economic development. The
equation of financial depth in the perspective of money supply to liquid liabilities has put on
the margin the burgeoning informal financial sector in developing countries. The phenomenon
of mobile banking is such an example.},
keywords = {Financial Development; Shadow Economy; Poverty; Inequality; Africa},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Asongu2013bl,
title = {On the effectiveness of foreign aid in institutional quality},
author = {Simplice A Asongu},
editor = {African 2013 Governance and Development Institute WP/13/017},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/On-the-effectiveness-of-foreign-aid-in-institutional-quality.pdf},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-08-01},
abstract = {We extend the Okada & Samreth (2012, EL) and Asongu (2012, EB) debate on ‘the effect
of foreign aid on corruption’ by: not partially negating the former’s methodological underpinning
(as in the latter’s approach) with a unifying empirical framework and; broadening the horizon of
inquiry from corruption to eight institutional quality dynamics (rule of law, regulation quality,
government effectiveness, democracy, corruption, voice & accountability, control of corruption
and political stability). Core to this extension is a hypothetical contingency of the ‘institutional
perils of foreign aid’ on existing institutional quality such that, the institutional downside of
development assistance maybe questionable when greater domestic institutional development has
taken place. Based on the hypothesis of institutional thresholds for foreign aid effectiveness, the
perilous character of development assistance to institutional quality is broadly confirmed in 53
African countries for the period 1996-2010.},
keywords = {Foreign Aid; Political Economy; Development; Africa},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Asongu2013bm,
title = {Consult your gods: the questionable economics of development assistance in Africa},
author = {Simplice A Asongu},
editor = {African 2013 Governance and Development Institute WP/13/002},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Consult-your-gods.-The-questionable-economics-of-development-assistance-in-Africa.pdf},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-07-01},
abstract = {This paper assesses the aid-development nexus in 52 African countries using updated
data (1996-2010) and a new indicator of human development (adjusted for inequality). The
effects of Total Net Official Development Assistance (NODA), NODA from the Development
Assistance Committee (DAC) and NODA from Multilateral donors on economic prosperity (at
national and per capita levels) are also examined. The findings broadly indicate that development
assistance is detrimental to GDP growth, GDP per capita growth and inequality adjusted human
development. The magnitude of negativity (which is consistent across specifications and
development dynamics) is highest for NODA from Multilateral donors, followed by NODA from
DAC countries. Given concerns on the achievement of the MDGs, the relevance of these results
point to the deficiency of foreign aid as a sustainable cure to poverty in Africa. Though the stated
intents or purposes of aid are socio-economic, the actual impact from the findings negates this. It
is a momentous epoque to solve the second tragedy of foreign aid; it is high time economists and
policy makers start rethinking the models and theories on which foreign aid is based. In the
meantime, it is up to people who care about the poor to hold aid agencies accountable for
piecemeal results. Policy implications and caveats are discussed.},
keywords = {Foreign Aid; Political Economy; Development; Africa},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Asongu2013bn,
title = {Fighting African Capital Flight: Empirics on Benchmarking Policy Harmonization},
author = {Simplice A Asongu},
editor = {African 2013 Governance and Development Institute WP/13/006},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Fighting-African-Capital-Flight.-Empirics-on-Benchmarking-Policy-Harmonization.pdf},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-07-01},
abstract = {With earthshaking and heartbreaking trends in African capital flight provided by a new
database, this paper complements existing literature by answering some key policy questions on
the feasibility of and timeframe for policy harmonization in the battle against the economic
scourge. The goal of the paper is to study beta-convergence of capital flight across a set of 37
African countries in the period 1980-2010 and to discuss the policy implications. Three main
findings are established. (1) African countries with low capital flight rates are catching-up their
counterparts with higher rates, implying the feasibility of policy harmonization towards fighting
capital flight. (2) Petroleum-exporting and conflict-affected countries significantly play out in
absolute and conditional convergences respectively. (3) Regardless of fundamental
characteristics, a genuine timeframe for harmonizing policies is within a horizon of 6 to 13 years.
In other words, full (100%) convergence within the specified horizon is an indication that
policies and regulations can be enforced without distinction of nationality or locality.},
keywords = {Econometric modeling; Big push; Capital flight; Debt relief; Africa},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Asongu2013bo,
title = {The Economic Consequences of China-Africa Relations: Debunking Myths in the Debate},
author = {Gilbert Aminkeng A A Simplice A. Asongu},
editor = {African 2013 Governance and Development Institute WP/13/020},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/The-Economic-Consequences-of-China-Africa-relations.-Debunking-myths-in-the-debate.pdf},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-07-01},
abstract = {This study dissects with great acuteness some of the big questions on China-Africa
relations in order to debunk burgeoning myths surrounding the nexus. It reviews a wealth of
recent literature and presents the debate in three schools of thought. No substantial empirical
evidence is found to back-up sinister prophesies of coming catastrophe from critics of the
direction of China-Africa relations. In the mean, the relationship from an economic standpoint
is promising and encouraging but more needs to be done regarding multilateral relations,
improvement of institutions and sustainability of resources management. A number of positive
signs suggest that China is heading toward the direction which would provide openings for a
multipolar dialogue. While benefiting in the short-run, African governments have the capacity
to tailor this relationship and address some socio-economic matters arising that may negatively
affect the nexus in the long-term. Policy implications are discussed.},
keywords = {Foreign direct investment; direct trade impacts; China; Africa},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}