In this article, we sought to examine the effect of Cameroon's public expenditure, with a focus on governance, on the reduction of unemployment from 1988 to 2020. By implementing a multiple linear regression model and applying the OLS method, we found that only military spending significantly contributed to the decrease in youth unemployment. Nonetheless, the efficacy of all types of public expenditure is heavily contingent upon socio-economic conditions. It is apparent that corruption and economic crises contribute greatly to the unemployment rate, hence why public entities must make greater efforts to form a strict institutional framework governing the labor market and invest in anti-exogenous shock programs. This would ensure that unemployment rates can be decreased systematically and substantially.

This study evaluates the simultaneous impact of public and private investments on economic growth in the CEMAC zone between 1984 and 2017.To attain this aim, we use the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to test the direction of causality between the three variables above at the level of each country. We find that the direction of causality is not the same in all the countries both in the short as in long-run. We then develop an ideal model going from the Cobb Douglas production function which we quantitatively validate using panel data estimation through the method of Pool Mean Group which takes into account individual specificities. It arises that contrary to economic theory, private sector investments have positive and significant effects in short-run. However, the impact of public investments is negative and significant. In the long-run, the effects are reversed and call on the authorities of the CEMAC zone to reinforce the political risk to strengthen the public-private partnership in the process of sustainable growth.

This study aims at examining the effects of socioeconomic conditions on the relationship between public investments and the productivity of the private sector in CEMAC countries between 1982 and 2016. Theoretical and empirical studies on this issue yield different results depending on the period and countries considered. After estimating an ARDL (Autoregressive Distributed Lag) model, we find that there exists a positive effect in the short and long run of public investment on private sector investments only in Congo, Gabon, the Central African Republic and Chad. We also find that in the short run, unlike in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad and the Central African Republic where the socioeconomic conditions reduce the level of public investments, they rather reinforce their contribution to private sector investment in Gabon and Congo. In the long run, they however improve the efficiency of public investments in Cameroon and Congo and reduce it in the Central African Republic. There is therefore a need to improve the quality of institutions in order to enable the development of the private sector. Contribution/ Originality: This study contributes to the existing literature on the effects of public investment and the quality of institutions on private productivity in CEMAC zone using the ARDL techniques. This study is also one the few which has investigated on the issue in this zone giving sound recommendation to each country.