This article investigates the role of institutional quality in the oil wealth–economic growth nexus for 35 oil-exporting developing countries between 1984 and 2016. To achieve this objective, an empirical model was employed with linear interaction between oil wealth and institutional quality, and estimated by means of panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) with a dynamic fixed effect estimator. From the results, a contingent effect of oil wealth on economic growth, both in the long run and in the short run, was established. Specifically, institutional quality was found to mitigate the negative effect of oil wealth on economic growth in the long run, while in the short run, institutional quality was found to enhance the positive effect of oil wealth on economic growth. Furthermore, the results provide the threshold levels of institutional quality, beyond which oil wealth enhances economic growth, both in the long run and in the short run, for the sampled countries. These results suggest that in order for oil-exporting developing countries to benefit from an increase in oil wealth, they must adopt appropriate policy measures to improve their levels of institutional quality and embed their entire oil wealth-generating mechanism in a sound institutional framework. Also of importance is that governments must ensure sustainable development through the benefits of wealth from oil.

This study focuses on the effects of oil price changes on food prices in oilexporting developing countries between 2001 and 2014. These effects in net food-importing and oil-exporting, developing countries have not received adequate attention in literature. The methodology included the application of a non-linear panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The bound testing cointegration analysis of the non-linear panel ARDL specification suggests the presence of co-integration among the variables: food prices, oil price, inflation, and trade openness. The estimated non-linear panel ARDL model indicated the presence of asymmetry in the behavior of food prices solely in the long run. More specifically, in the long run, there is a significant and positive relationship between oil price increases and food prices. Meanwhile, no long-run relation is found between oil price reduction and food prices. Furthermore, the model suggests the absence of asymmetry in the behavior of food prices in the short run, as the relations between both increase and reduction in oil price and food prices are found to be insignificant. The study, therefore, recommends that oil-exporting developing countries should adjust their public policy schemes in such a way as to enable reductions in the oil price to trickle down to food prices. In addition, these countries should ensure the implementation of long-term agricultural policies aimed at insulating their economies from global food crises that may arise due to oil price increases.

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This study aimed to determine the channels through which external debt transmits its impact on economic growth in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. To this end, panel data comprising 30 SSA countries were investigated for the period 1985–2019, using the system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique. The study identified public investment, private investment and total factor productivity as channels transmitting the non-linear effect from external debt to economic growth. Furthermore, the interest rate was also confirmed as a channel but with a direct effect. Contrariwise, the estimates indicated that savings are not a channel of transmission from external debt to economic growth in SSA. These findings call for urgent action from SSA countries to reduce their external debt stocks and implement alternative macroeconomic non-debt strategies to improve the identified channels to counteract the negative effect of high external debt on them.