This article examines the effects of capital flows on economic growth in Senegal using autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) over the period 1970-2014. Overall, our results show that remittances cause economic growth in Senegal in the long run. In contrast, external debt has a negative impact on economic growth. The ARDL results, however, show no cointegration between aid and growth or between foreign direct investment (FDI) and growth. The Quandt-Andrews breakpoint test selects year 1991 as the most likely breakpoint location for the remittances-growth equation. Finally, time-varying parameter analyses using the year 1991 as a slope dummy reveal that remittances have been growthenhancing post-1991. Therefore, government and policy makers in Senegal must create a favourable atmosphere for attracting more remittances to promote economic development.

Impact investing, defined as direct investments into small-and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) with intentionality to realize social impact and financial returns, simultaneously, has emerged as an attractive, alternative source of entrepreneurial finance in marginalized communities. In this paper, we focus on bank-based impact funds (BBFs), where impact investors and commercial bank partner to create different vehicles of impact investments (managed funds, grants/guarantees or co-financing BBFs) for financing SMEs. Through the theoretical lens of governance, as applied to bank-SME financing and the pursuit of dual mission in social entrepreneurship studies, we develop qualitative case studies in Ghana, uncovering how BBFs enable the pursuit of dual mission by SMEs. The findings are drawn upon to develop a theoretical framework that depicts a unique form of governance as constituting the (i) alignment of the incentives of impact investors and banks to resolve structural and dual-mission tensions in bank-SME financing; and (ii) pre-approval, control and monitoring mechanism necessary for the pursue of the dual mission of financial returns and social impacts in bank-based impact investing. The findings have implications for fund managers, SMEs and policymakers seeking to attract impact investments for private sector-driven development.

This study examined the effect of electric power transmission and distribution losses (ETL) on economic growth over the period of 1971 to 2012 in Ghana. Using bounds testing approach to cointegration and Bai-Perron test in ordinary least squares framework, we find long-run relationship between ETL, gross capital formation, inflation, trade openness and economic growth. Secondly, while ETL do not have robust impact on economic growth, trade openness exerts a positive impact on economic growth in the long-run. Inflation and gross capital formation, however, have mixed relationships with economic growth. Furthermore, ETL yield a threshold value of 2.07. Finally, controlling for the urban population reveals that ETL moderates the relationship between urbanization and economic growth; higher ETL associates with an increasing negative effect on GDP per capita.

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In this study, we examine the effect of health infrastructure on economic growth in 30 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries over the period 1990-2014. Using modern econometric techniques that account for cross-sectional dependence in panel data, we find that health infrastructure (measured by mortality rate) does not have robust impact on economic growth. Gross fixed capital formation, however, is positively associated with economic growth while labor force and polity variables exhibit significant association with economic growth. The results provide sufficient evidence that although capital investment is adequate, the labor force and political environment have not facilitated the health infrastructure in increasing the GDP per capita level in SSA.