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This paper studies the link between democracy and economic development for 28 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa for the period 1980-2005 in a panel data framework. A democracy index constructed from the Freedom House indices. A variety of panel data unit root and cointegration tests are applied. The variables are found to be integrated of order one and cointegrated. The Blundell-Bond system generalized methods-of-moments is employed to conduct a panel error-correction mechanism based causality test within a vector autoregressive structure. Economic growth is found to cause democracy in the short-run, while bidirectionality is uncovered in the long-run. In addition, the long-run coefficients are estimated through the panel fully modified ordinary least squares and dynamic ordinary least squares methods. Democracy has a positive impact on GDP and vice versa. These results lend support to the virtuous cycle hypothesis.

This paper sheds light on the income elasticity of health care expenditure in Africa. The existing literature has to date focused on developed countries due to scarcity of health expenditure data in developing countries. We herein exploit panel data techniques, combining time-series and cross-section data, which enable a substantial increase in testing power. Income elasticity of health care expenditure for 28 African countries over the decade 1991-2000 is investigated. In addition to aggregate health expenditure, we model public and private health expenditures separately. In both the short-run and longrun, public health expenditure is found to be a luxury while private health expenditure a necessity. This is not too surprising in the context of Africa, where the public sector has to strive hard to provide basic health care to the poor majority but where a rich minority can easily afford hi-tech private health care. Furthermore the income elasticity of public health expenditure is found to be pro-cyclical while that of private health expenditure is counter-cyclical, thereby reinforcing our previous finding.

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The research responds to the global trend of using technology in higher education for improving student engagement and student satisfaction. The research ontology adopted is that students may benefit from a more interactive approach of learning in classes. The methodology used is the use of a pre-designed questionnaire to test the readiness of students and faculty members for the use of social media. Three components were extracted based on EFA which are namely social media as a facilitator, improving learning proficiency and trust in data security. The research outlines the benefits, risks and challenges for adopting SNSs for improving customer satisfaction and loyalty. It is important to note that social media tools are part of the Web 2.0 interactive and intelligent system of communication being used in different fields.