Using a panel set of 28 European Union member states and 8 prospective members to the bloc over a period of 1996-2014, this paper examines to what extent institutional quality (governance index) and its sub-indicators (control over corruption, government effectiveness, political stability, regulatory quality, rule of law and voice and accountability) can influence overall economic performance measured by gross value added per capita. The paper expands on existing literature by disaggregating the growth impact of institutions for all countries in the sample, developed and less developing countries. The independent variables included in the model are gross fixed capital formation as a percentage of GDP, net barter terms of trade, government size (expenditure), quality of institution and inflation while gross value added per capita is the dependent variable. Because of the weakness of the fixed effects model, system GMM is used to estimate the coefficients. Generally, the results show a positive and significant relationship between economic performance and the quality of institution. Precisely holding other things constant, a 10 units improvement in the quality of overall institution is predicted to increase gross value added per capita by 1.33 units. Also, the impact of institutional improvements on economic performance is higher and more predominant in developed countries than in less developed. A disintegrated analysis of institutions reveals that government effectiveness and voice and accountability have positive and significant impacts on economic performance of the 36 countries. However, control over corruption and political stability and absence of violence have negative signs. Also, there is no evidence of influence of regulatory quality and rule of law on economic growth.

While there are scholars who have analysed factors that influence Turkey's bilateral exports, very few have examined the impact of cooperation/conflicts on Turkey's trade in general and with particular reference to Africa. In view of the above, this paper seeks to analyse and estimate the effect on exports from Turkey to 52 African countries of Turkey's relationship with the Africa Union for the period 1998-2015. Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) results suggest that Turkey's cooperation with Africa (TAR) is positive and statistically significant in inducing exports from Turkey to 52 selected African countries. Specifically, TAR increases Turkey's exports to selected African countries by 44.5%. Alternatively, due to TAR Turkey's exports to Africa are predicted to be 1.44 times higher than in the absence of cooperation. However, there is evidence that TAR's impact on exports vary across regions. Compared to countries in the Northern part of Africa, the effect of TAR with African countries in the East, South, and West is negative and statistically significant. Given these results, it is therefore prudent for Turkey to target countries or regional trading blocs in where export deficiency has been diagnosed so that more exports can be stimulated.

The formation of the Libyan Stock Market (LSM) has been greatly affected by instability in the country. The stock market has been active, inactive, active and inactive since its inception in 2006. On the other end, there has been a growing concern and existence of constant pressure to activate the stock market for the benefit of the economy. The factional disagreements and a weak security environment that persist pose heavy challenges for developing and re-activating the stock market. The economic outlook for Libya remains uncertain. It remains difficult to forecast economic outcomes with any degree of confidence because of high uncertainty linked to political and security developments. The times when the stock market was active, significant contribution was brought to the economy, and such has been confirmed by many stakeholders. If re-activated the LSM is expected to play vital role in capital supply for investment, which in turn drive economic development in Libya. For effective contribution, LSM should be established on strong and stable foundations.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the impact on economic performance of competitiveness of Zimbabwean economy vis-à-vis its neighbouring countries, namely