Development Progress in Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons from Botswana, Ghana, Mauritius, and South Africa

Nwachukwu

2015

SSRN Journal

Education as a tool in the fight against corruption has been subject to much debate in academic and policy making circles. This note extends what we know on this nexus in a threefold manner:namely, in terms of: incremental, lifelong learning and synergy effects. Four main findings are established. First, education is a powerful tool in the fight against corruption. Second, there is evidence of an incremental effect in the transition from secondary to tertiary education. Third, lifelong learning defined as knowledge acquired during primary, secondary and tertiary education negatively affects corruption. Fourth, there is evidence of a 'synergy effect' because the impact of lifelong learning is higher than the combined effects of various educational levels. The empirical evidence is based on 53 African countries for the period 1996-2010. Two main policy implications are derived. First, encouraging education through the tertiary level enhances the fight against corruption. Second, the drive towards a knowledge economy by means of lifelong learning has 'corruption mitigating' benefits.

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Incremental Effect of Education on Corruption: Evidence of Synergy from Lifelong Learning

Nwachukwu

2015

SSRN Journal

“…The choice of this periodicity is constrained by the political stability and/or non-violence indicators which are available only from the year Baliamoune-Lutz, 2013;Drine, 2013) and; sub-Saharan Africa (Subramanian, 2013;Lundahl & Petersson, 2013;Robinson, 2013;Fosu, 2013b;Naudé, 2013).…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Lifelong Learning in Political Stability and Non-Violence: Evidence from Africa

Nwachukwu

2014

SSRN Journal

Purpose -Education as a weapon in the fight against conflict and violence remains widely debated in policy and academic circles. Against the background of growing political instability in Africa and the central role of the knowledge economy in 21 st century development, this paper provides three contributions to existing literature. It assesses how political stability/ non-violence is linked to the incremental, synergy and lifelong learning effects of education.Design/methodology/approach -We define lifelong learning as the combined knowledge acquired during primary, secondary and tertiary education. Principal component analysis is used to reduce the dimensions of educational and political indicators. An endogeneity robust dynamic system Generalized Methods of Moments is used for the estimations.Findings -We establish three main findings. First, education is a useful weapon in the fight against political instability. Second, there is an incremental effect of education in the transition from secondary to tertiary schools. Third, lifelong learning also has positive and synergy effects. This means that the impact of lifelong learning is higher than the combined independent effects of various educational levels. The empirical evidence is based on 53 African countries for the period 1996-2010.Practical implications -A plethora of policy implications are discussed, inter alia: how the drive towards increasing the knowledge economy through lifelong learning can be an effective tool in the fight against violence and political insurgency in Africa.Originality/value -As the continent is nursing knowledge economy ambitions, the paper is original in investigating the determinants of political stability/non violence from three dimensions of education attainment: the incremental, the lifelong learning and a synergy effect.

“…They include, inter alia: diversification strategies of Bahrain (Looney, 2013), the United Arab Emirates (Nyarko, 2013) and Oman (Drine, 2013) and the optimal natural-resource management strategies of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Botswana and Bahrain (Naudé, 2013;Robinson, 2013).…”

Section: China Targets Countries With Abundant Natural Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sino-African Relations: Some Solutions and Strategies to the Policy Syndromes

Journal of African Business

Ssozi

2015

We survey about 110 recently published studies on Sino-African relations; put some structure on the documented issues before suggesting some solutions and strategies to the identified policy syndromes. The documented issues classified into eight main strands include, China:targeting nations with abundant natural resources; focusing on countries with bad governance; not hiring local workers; outbidding other countries by flouting environmental and social standards; importing workers that do not integrate into domestic society and living in extremely simple conditions; exhibiting low linkages between her operations and local businesses; exporting low quality products to Africa; and the emergence of China hindering Africa's development.