This paper presents the role of capital controls in the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth in developing countries. Data of forty-four ( 44) developing countries for the period of 2005-2014 were sourced and analysed using panel generalized method of moments and two stage least square. The result revealed that entrepreneurship had a robust, positive and significant effect on economic growth. In addition, the study confirmed that the intensity of capital controls matter could further strengthen the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth in developing countries. These results were not only consistent with intuition and experience, but also with empirical findings of the previous studies. Theoretically, it confirmed the view of Keynesian economists that promote the use of capital controls in an economy. Contribution/ Originality:This study is one of the few studies to provide a comparative analysis between African and other developing countries. It answers the following questions: What is the effect of entrepreneurship on economic growth in developing countries? Are there any dynamic effects of capital controls on economic growth in selected developing countries?

Based on the controversy surrounding the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow from one country to another and the suggestion that inflow of FDI might be a result of countries’ locations, this study therefore revisits the determinants of FDI and economic growth by testing for the roles of country’s location in the determination of the inflow of FDI to Nigeria. Unlike other studies, this study finds that countries’ locations do not play any significant role in determining FDI inflow to Nigeria. The study, therefore, employs fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) to examine the determinants of FDI in Nigeria. The FMOLS results show that FDI, manufacturing sector, tax revenue, financial development, health expenditure, net trade and human capital have a positive relationship with income growth. These results were statistically significant except for tax revenue, net trade and human capital. These results support the argument that these variables are important determinants of economic growth. The article also finds a negative and statistically significant relationship among FDI, income growth, import and capital formation. These results are in conformity with economic theory in the sense that import of goods and services constitutes a leakage in the economy. Negative impact of capital formation and security could be associated with the prevailing high level of corruption, sharing of security votes and misappropriation of funds among the public officials in Nigeria. JEL Codes: F23, F26, F21, H24

This study uses annual data between 1990 and 2010, and employs Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) method to examine what determines poverty level in Nigeria. Unlike many studies, we measure poverty with poverty index generated from combination of per worker agricultural value added, real per capita income and consumption per capita using principal component analysis and common measurement of poverty (i.e. per capita real income). We first remove the trend component of our dependent variables (poverty index), using Butterworth filter and then regressed them on the important variables of interest. The findings show negative relationship between political right in levels and poverty, but positive relationship was found when political right was differenced. This result was not statistically significant. Political terror was found to reduce poverty with statistically significant result in levels when per capita real income was used for poverty, and became positively related with poverty when differenced. The result was statistically significant. We found that civil liberty was positively related to poverty, but the result was not statistically significant. Democracy was noted for reducing poverty with statistically significant result, while the increase in population and poverty were positively related with statistically significant result.

This study verifies the role of government spending on the relationship between human development and economic growth in West African Countries using an extension of human development measure. We generate a new measure of human development that considered environmental influence by performing Principal Component Analysis on environmental variables such as: (i) Atmospheric Pollution (i.e. carbondioxide (CO2), (ii) emmissions, fossil fuel energy consumption, methane (CH4) and (iii) Nitrous (N2)) and incorporate welfare measures used by HDI (i.e. Education, Health and Income) to generate a scientifically weighted index (HDIGEN).The study employed Fixed effect method using annual time series data between 1980 and 2017. The results showed that human capital on its own is positively, statistically and significantly related with output. However, when human capital is interacted with government spending (GSHK), negative relation was found, but not statistically significant. These results might not be found wanton in the sense that all the countries under study are documented among the corrupt nations. Most of the funds meant for augmenting human capital might not be spent for the purpose for which they are meant. We found negative relationship between human development and output when we used the most common measure of human development (HDI) and the generated one (HDIGEN), but only the one generated was statistically significant. The results showed that measuring human development requires holistic approach of measure, especially consideration of environmental factors. When we interacted government spending with HDIGEN, we discovered positive relation and statistically significant results, while the interaction of government spending with HDI, showed negative and statistically insignificant results. The implication is that if government of these countries can be sincere in spending on improving environmental factors while focusing on improving human development, sustainable development goal can equally be achieved.

This study examines the relationship between the components of defense spending and poverty reduction in Nigeria for the period 1990-2010. While most studies on defense spending and poverty rely on monetary measure of poverty, this study constructed poverty index fro m hu man develop ment indicators using principal co mponent analysis. Four models were estimated using Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) method, two in wh ich poverty index constructed fro m human development indicators serves as dependent variable and the others in which infant mo rtality rate serves as dependent variable. The results show that military expenditure per soldier, military participation rate, trade, population and output per capita square were positively related to poverty indicator. They were all found to be statistically significant except trade and output per capita square. Population that was not significant in model four was found to be significant in model two. Military expenditure, secondary school enrolment and output per capita were negatively related to poverty level. However, only total military expenditure was found to be statistically significant in model one and three, while output per capita in model three was found to be statistically significant. Others were statistically insignificant. The findings confirm the trade off between the well-being and capital intensiveness of the military in Nigeria, pointing to the vulnerability of the poor among the Nigerians.