The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations has become one of the world’s major environmental concerns nowadays. It has prompted many scholars to investigate the factors that influence CO2 emissions. Many researchers, but overlook the role of economic freedom and income inequality in analyzing the EKC in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Taking 16 countries based on data availability, this study examines the effect of economic freedom and income disparity on CO2 emissions under the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis, using balanced quarterly data straddling from 2000 to 2015. To undertake pre-estimation tests, we applied the second-generation panel cross-sectional dependence, slope homogeneity, and unit root tests. By applying cointegration and Granger tests that take heterogeneity into account, the study examined the cointegration status and direction of causality between the variables under scrutiny. PMG/ARDL estimation technique was applied to estimate the long-run coefficients. Results from the PMG/ARDL reveal that economic freedom has no statistically significant effect on CO2 emissions. The result supports the EKC hypothesis. Income inequality, industrialization, and non-renewable energy consumption have statistically significant positive effects on CO2 emissions in the long run. Economic freedom does not affect the environmental quality in the panel of countries studied. The results from the Granger causality analysis indicate that economic freedom, income inequality, renewable energy consumption, non-renewable energy consumption, industrialization, urbanization, and economic growth Granger cause CO2 emissions with a feedback effect except for economic freedom and industrialization. Policies intended to lessen income inequality can enhance environmental quality.

It is not uncommon that different government officials and practitioners infer the fallingagricultural share in GDP to the underpinning of structural transformation in an economy. By using variousstudies result and a time series of data spanning from 1981 up to 2017, this paper investigated, whetherthe declining share of agricultural output in GDP is indicating structural transformation or not in Ethiopianeconomy. The study showed that the service is the fastest-growing sector in Ethiopia, and it covers morethan 40% of GDP. The share of agriculture sector was 45% of GDP until 2011, while the industry sector hasbeen stagnating. Thus, it shows how the falling share of the agriculture sector in GDP is being supersededby the service sector. Empirical works also reveal that even though the share of the agricultural sector inGDP is falling, it is the primary source for the overall economic growth of Ethiopia. The share of the ruralpopulation has decreased from 89 percent in 1981 to 80% in the year 2017. So the vast population of thecountry is living in rural areas where agricultural-based activities are common. Lack of labor shift from theagricultural sector to the industrial sector can also be attributed to the insufficient expansion of themodern industrial sector to absorb the growing force labor. Furth more, the demographic transition alsoshowed a relative decline. Since structural transformation involves several interrelated processes, thedeclining share of agriculture output to GDP alone cannot explain the prevalence of structural change; theother processes like; industrialization, urbanization, and demographic transition need to be scrutinized

Finance-growth nexus is among the main debatable issue in economics and policymaking. So, this research tried to look at the effect of financial sector development on the economic growth of 25 sub-Saharan Africa countries by using panel data for time 2010-2017. Precisely, three dynamic panel data models which look the effect of financial sector depth, access and efficiency on economic growth were estimated by two-step system GMM estimation. In this research, credit extended to the private sector per GDP, commercial bank branch per 100,000 adult population, and Return to assets were used as a proxy for financial sector depth, access, and efficiency, respectively. Accordingly, the results revealed financial sector depth, access, and efficiency have a positive and statistically significant effect on the economic growth of these countries.  It is therefore recommended for the concerned bodies that broadening the depth of financial institutions by giving more credit for the private sector is essential. Besides, the financial institutions will have to be expanded to increase their accessibility to the mass and have to take some measures which promote their efficiency.

This study examined the effect of sectoral output volatility on economic growth and the determinants of economic growth in the Ethiopian economy. The study used annual time series data spanning from 1981 to 2018 and included capital stock, working-age population, trade balance, and sectoral output volatility as anexplanatory variable. Using the Exponential General Autoregressive ConditionalHeteroscedasticity (EGARCH) and Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) cointegration test, the study found a long-run relationship between economic growth and economic growth explanatory variables. From the ARDL model, capital stock and trade balance (which has been negative throughout the study period) was found to have a positive and negative significant effect on the economic growth of Ethiopia, respectively. In the long-run, volatility of industrial and service sector output growth had a negative and statistically significant effect on the economic growth of Ethiopia. In recent years the role of agriculture in the Ethiopian economy, particularly in terms of contribution to the national GDP, has been declining—indicating the growing importance of service and industrial sectors. Therefore, smoothening and maintaining the positive sectoral output growth is advisable for the betterment of the economy. Besides, balancing the foreign trade and curbing unrestricted importation is recommended as long as economic growth is concerned.