Purpose Existent literature suggests that Africa is heavily endowed with agriculture resources and entrepreneurship remains an important mechanism for promoting national productivity and other economic outcomes. Despite these, empirical evidence on how agriculture resources promote the effect of entrepreneurship on national productivity in Africa is nonexistent given the abundance of agriculture resources and the need for Africa to increase its productivity, which has implications for improving welfare. Hence, this study aims to examine the interplay of how agriculture resources and entrepreneurship influence national productivity by way of exploring for threshold and complementarity effects of agriculture resources in Africa. Design/methodology/approach This uses panel data of 29 Africa economies between 2006 and 2016 in a bootstrap quantile regression model. Findings First, it is reported that initial levels of agriculture resources in the form of crop and arable lands reduce national productivity while the extreme increase in agriculture resources promotes national productivity in Africa. This implies a nonlinear direct U-shape effect of agriculture resources on national productivity indicating that the enhancing effect of agriculture resources on national productivity is only achieved beyond a certain threshold of average agriculture resources. Second, agriculture resources complement entrepreneurship (which initially reduced national productivity) to promote national productivity. This implies that there is a synergetic-complementarity relationship between entrepreneurship and agriculture resources on national productivity. Practical implications These findings suggest that governments that are interested in boosting national productivity through agriculture resources may have to commit more financial resources to develop and reclaiming more agriculture resources (in the form of crop and arable lands) given that some threshold of agriculture resources are needed to promote national productivity. Similarly, developing agriculture resources by policymakers can help complement entrepreneurship to further improve the effects of entrepreneurship on national productivity. Originality/value This study attempts to present first-time evidence on the interplay between agriculture resources and entrepreneurship on national productivity by way of exploring for threshold and complementarity effects of agriculture resources in Africa.

No abstract

Over the past four decades, many economies have striven to find permanent solutions to persistent increases in public deficits and deterioration of growth. For most economies, the solution to this problem was the adoption of fiscal rules. This paper presents empirical evidence on the effects of fiscal rules on fiscal performance and economic growth using a dataset of 43 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa over 27 years. The study applies simultaneous equation models to determine the relationship between performance and growth in the public sector and also to avoid structural equation and endogeneity biases. The results show that fiscal rules significantly foster fiscal performance and decelerate growth. The study further finds the expenditure rules to be most effective in influencing fiscal balance and economic growth. The robust estimates further confirm that expenditure rules and government spending efficiency are necessary for promoting fiscal outcomes and economic growth.The study recommends the implementation of more revenue rules, debt rules and balance budget rules to ameliorate the negative effects of government spending on economic growth. In addition, Sub-Saharan African economies should carefully consider the rules applied to government spending since fiscal rules on productive spending will impede economic growth.

No abstract

Fiscal governance implemented around the globe offer useful information on the potential viable reasons for its increasing dependence and their implication for fiscal performance. This paper investigates the effects of fiscal governance in explaining the fiscal performance of countries in Africa. The paper uses a panel data of 43 countries from worldwide databases spanning from 1985 to 2011. The random effects model approach is used to analyse the data based on the diagnostic tests. Additionally, the panel corrected standard errors and Hausmann and Taylor estimation models are used to test the robustness of our results to further correct for possible errors and endogeneity in the regressors.The empirical analysis shows that fiscal policy rules and institutions have statistically significant effect on fiscal performance. The results from all the methods indicate higher coefficients of the expenditure rule relative to the other rules. This trend suggests the suitability of the adoption of the expenditure rule within the Sub-Saharan African environment. This could be partly explained by the fact that, the restrictions placed on expenditures with the aim of controlling excessive spending behaviours of fiscal authorities have been very successful in influencing fiscal deficits in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study contributes to the literature on the implication of the adoption of fiscal governance in African countries. The policy message to stakeholders is that, fiscal governance should be further strengthened to improve fiscal performance.