The study examined the influence of corporate governance principles on banks financial performance in Ghana. Data for the study was gathered from the annual reports and the financial statements of the sampled banks from the period 2007-2016. Random effect model was used to analyse the data. This study found a significant positive relationship between board size and financial performance measured by ROA and ROE of banks in Ghana. Additionally, the study found a statistically positive relation between foreign ownership and financial performance measured by ROE and ROE. Interestingly, the study outcome further indicated positive but no statistically relationship between board independence and institutional ownerships and ROA and ROE of the sampled banks in Ghana. Generally, the study supports the view that an improved corporate governance practices is key to increasing firm financial performance.

Financial systems have been found to have a positive influence on the economic development of most countries. The stock market, which is also a component of the financial system is said to play an integral role in economic growth. This paper examines the macroeconomic determinants of stock market development in Ghana for the period 1992 to 2012 using annual secondary data from Bank of Ghana Quarterly Economic Bulletins, Ghana Statistical Service, Ghana Stock Exchange Market Statistics, the World Bank and IMF's International Financial Statistics. The macroeconomic indicators such as the real income (GDP per capita income), domestic saving, stock market liquidity, financial intermediary growth, macroeconomic stability (inflation) and private capital flows with stock market capitalization used as a proxy for the study were collected and used for the analysis. These variables were examined to establish a relationship with stock market developments based on a linear regression model. The regression analysis found stock market liquidity to be statistically significant to stock market developments as opposed to the other determinants (such as macroeconomic stability International Finance and Banking ISSN 2374-20892016 (inflation) real income and domestic savings and private capital flows) which were found to be non-significant. This result suggests that macroeconomic stability (inflation), real income, domestic savings and private capital flows proved not to have any significant impact on stock market development, since their regression coefficients were not statically significant at the 5% level of significance.

Studies in a multiplicity of reporting jurisdictions worldwide have revealed considerable divergence in the impact of IFRS/IAS adoption on taxation. There is minimal empirical study on the tax impacts or effects of reporting entities following the transition from GNAS to IFRS by Ghanaian listed companies. The study therefore investigates the changes to corporate taxes, deferred tax and net tax assets (liabilities) using a sample of entities from the Ghana Stock Exchange over the period 2007 / 2006 to 2008 / 2007 which encompasses the move from GNAS to IFRS, particularly IAS 12.The research design was predominately quantitative in nature and cross-sectional in approach. The population for the study was all companies’ listed (42 companies) on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) as at December 2015. The study used a sample of 22 listed entities after deducting invalid search results, companies that previously did not use GNAS as well as not using Ghana Cedis as their currencies, delisted entities since 2007 and free zone entities.The adoption of IFRS/IAS led to a few more listed companies paying less taxes and majority not having any changes in their tax burdens following the restatement of accounts from GNAS into IFRS/IAS. Overall, the paired sample t-test of GNAS and IFRS on reported tax amounts showed no differences between IFRS and GNAS computed amounts. Largely, 90.1% of firms observed did not report any changes to current tax assets. Whiles 94.5%, 86.4% and 59.1% of observations reported negative changes in deferred tax assets, current tax liabilities and deferred tax liabilities respectively. In terms of industry sectors, the manufacturing / trading industry saw a positive change of 13% in current year tax expenses burden whiles the financial / insurance / information technology industry reported a decrease of 13.3% in current year tax expenses liability.A further and in-depth longitudinal study could be done to study the trend of tax burdens as well as the pattern of effective tax rates of listed companies since the adoption of IFRS/IAS in Ghana since this one provide mixed impacts.

This chapter presents a literature review of the evolution of sustainable transportation in Western Europe. It examines the historical development in sustainable transportation and the way forward for future sustainable transportation models and strategies. It reviews the sustainable practices of 12 Western European nations and their contributions to reducing the impact of global environmental degradation. The choice of these 12 nations is based on sustainable progress in enhancing environmentally friendly means of mobility. The literature reveals that the emphasis on sustainable transportation system in Western European nations is worthy of discussion primarily because of the dramatic improvement attained in reducing emission of carbon dioxide. This chapter also aims to identify some of the applied policy instruments and the monitoring processes enacted in several of these European nations.

In Benin, hypertension is a leading cause of death and a significant contributor to the disease burden. This study aims to determine the explanatory factors of high blood pressure among people aged 30 to 64 years in Benin. We used data from Benin's 2017-2018 Demographic Health Survey to analyse hypertension determinants. Based on the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) score, the Probit model (5922.56) is a better fit for the data than the Logit model (5924.997). The probit estimate indicates that the likelihood of having high blood pressure increases, with odds ratios ranging from 1.1453 for the age group of 35-39 years to 1.9572 for the age group of 50-54. Being female, living in the South or Centre region, having higher education levels, and having diabetes also increase the likelihood of having high blood pressure. These findings provide insight into the factors that contribute to the prevalence of high blood pressure and may help inform public health interventions aimed at reducing its incidence.