Purpose: Interaction between environmental pollution and economic growth determines the achievement of the green growth objective of developing economies. An economy turns around the inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) when pollution is effectively dampened by social, political and economic factors as such economy grows. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the EKC considering the impact of institutional quality on six variables of environmental pollution (carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), suspended particulate matters (SPM), rainfall, temperature and total greenhouse emission (TGH)) using the case of Nigeria.Design/methodology/approach: The EKC model includes population density, education expenditure, foreign direct investment and gross domestic investment as control variables, and it was analysed using the autoregressive distribution lag (ARDL) econometric technique, which has not been applied in the literature on Nigeria.Findings: The results, inter alia, indicate that there is EKC for CO₂and SPM. This implies that the green growth objective can be pursued in Nigeria with concerted efforts. Other environmental pollution indicators did not exert significant influence on economic growth.Practical implications: Therefore, it is recommended that Nigeria’s institutional quality be strengthened to limit environmental pollution in light of economic growth.Originality/value: Previous studies are yet to apply a more developed econometric method, like the ARDL, to estimate the EKC model for Nigeria. This study fills this observed knowledge gap.

Across the globe, a rise in income inequality has been experienced for the last two decades, particularly in developing countries. This problem of income inequality poses a challenge to Africa’s ability to attain the United Nations (UN) Sustainment Development Goals (SDGs) of reduced inequalities (SDG-10). Against this backdrop, there is a need to harness the potential of financial development to reduce income inequality in Africa. Therefore, this study empirically examines how financial development affects income inequality in Africa. Financial development dimensions, access, depth, efficiency, and stability were considered to achieve the study’s objective. The study applied the system generalized method of moments (SGMM) to analyse data and the findings showed that each dimension of financial development had a varying impact on income inequality. Access, stability and efficiency components of financial development reduce income inequality, while the depth dimension of financial development exacerbates income inequality in Africa. Therefore, the study recommends that policymakers should not neglect other dimensions of finance in facilitating economic development.

It has been observed that export promotion drive boosts economic growth of developing countries (Nigeria inclusive) through the multiplier effects that the income earned from exports has on the economy. Prior to the discovery of oil, agriculture has been the main contributor to the Nigerian external sector. It is in the light of this that this study sets out to examine the impact of agricultural export on Nigeria’s economic growth. This study used the Autoregressive Distribution Lag (ARDL) econometric technique to analyze the long run relationship and the impact of agricultural exports on Nigeria’s economic growth. Economic growth is the dependent variable, and is proxied by the real gross domestic product, the explanatory variables include: agricultural export, foreign direct investment, inflation rate and the labour force. The results from the ARDL technique revealed that agricultural exports significantly affect Nigeria’s economic growth; this suggests that, a 1percent increase in - agricultural export will boost economic growth in Nigeria by approximately 25percent.Therefore, from the results, the study recommended that agricultural export need to be promoted through the increase in agricultural production base.

This study adds a new perspective to the finance-tourism relation by examining the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in the dynamics. We interrogate the discourse with data on 44 Asian economies from 2010-2019. The approach entails the use of tourism receipts, domestic credit to the private sector, four ICT indicators (mobile phone subscriptions, fixed telephone subscription, fixed broadband subscription and secured Internet servers). For the most part, the results reveal that (1) finance and ICT independently boost tourism; (2) the interaction effect is negative, (3) negative interaction not sufficient to erase the enhancing-properties of finance on tourism; (4) positive net impact of finance; and (5) results are heterogeneous across the sub-samples. Our findings strengthen the argument for financial technology (FinTech) and calls for stronger integration of the financial system with ICT innovation in order to fully harness the potentials and gains from tourism.

Liquid liabilities are required to develop key sectors that drive the Nigerian economy by ensuring that loans are available for investment purposes. However, controversies concerning the effectiveness of growth finance in fostering liquid liabilities in Nigeria exist. Thus, this study examines the relationship between growth finance and liquid liabilities in Nigeria, with insight into Nigeria’s real sector. In achieving its objective, the study utilizes secondary data from the annual reports of the Central Bank of Nigeria (1980–2018). The study finds that gross domestic savings significantly drive liquid liabilities in the long run compared to other growth finance indicators, which include stock market development and remittance inflows. Therefore, the study recommends that to improve liquid liability, gross domestic savings, among other growth finance indicators, should be harnessed as a tool to efficiently influence liquid liabilities in the Nigerian economy. The study concludes that attention should be paid to development policies that drive all stakeholders’ gross domestic savings.