The debate on the natural resource curse hypothesis has attracted the attention of policy makers and policy analysts for the past few decades. However, the empirical findings on such a hypothesis have proven inconclusive. Our study investigates the threshold effects of natural resource dependence on economic growth in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) using both aggregate and disaggregate data from 1990 to 2019 by employing a threshold effect model. The results indicate a double threshold effect of natural resource rent on economic growth. In particular, below 6% of GDP, aggregate natural resource rent exerts a significant negative effect on economic growth. However, as the rents increase above 6% to about 15% of GDP its negative effect on economic growth significantly reduces. In addition, beyond 15% of GDP natural resource rent exhibit a substantial significant positive impact on economic growth. Further, the disaggregated data reveal that forest rents exhibit a strong weighty adverse effect on economic growth at all levels of thresholds. The study recommends that governments within the sub-region need to put in policies to ensure that natural resources generate at least 15% of GDP annually to promote growth.

This study investigates a comparative study on the threshold effects of inflation on financial sector development (FSD) between the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) for the period 1980–2011. Using a novel panel smooth transition regression, our results suggest evidence of the existence of a robust single threshold of inflation in both regions. Particularly, it indicates 17.9% and 14.5% of inflation for ECOWAS and SADC, respectively, suggesting that inflation above these thresholds presents detrimental effects for financial development in both regions. The study therefore concludes that price stability policies with inflation targeting framework should be the primary objective in monetary policy since high inflation is economically costly to financial development in the two regions.

The link between financial sector development (FSD) and economic growth has generated a great deal of interest among academics. Some studies argued that financial sector stimulates growth while others suggested the opposite. Thus, we conducted a comparative analysis of the effect of FSD on economic growth between Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Southern African Development Community (SADC). In addition, we sought to find out the transmission of FSD through institutional development on economic growth. The results suggested the existence of FSD-led growth in SADC but revealed no statistically significant effect in ECOWAS. Furthermore, the effect of FSD through institutional development supported a positive complementarity effects on growth in both regions but only statistically significant in ECOWAS, suggesting strong institutions complemented FSD effects on growth. We recommended that ECOWAS take steps to improve both political structures and democratic dispensation to boost the development of the financial sector.

This study analyses the factors driving CO₂ emissions from electricity generation in Ghana from 1990 to 2020. Employing Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) and Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) techniques, the research decomposes electricity generation into different factors and assesses their impact on CO₂ emissions, considering both short and long-run effects. The LMDI analysis reveals that the total CO₂ emissions from electricity generation amount to 3.33%, with all factors contributing positively in each subperiod. Notably, fossil fuel intensity, production, and transformation factors exhibit substantial contributions of about 1.16%, 0.49%, and 0.48%, respectively. Contrastingly, the ARDL results highlight that only electricity intensity and production factors significantly increase CO₂ emissions by about 0.20% and 0.09% (0.38% and 0.10%) in the short-run (long-run), while other factors contribute to a reduction in electricity generation emissions. Overall, we conclude that electricity intensity and production factors are the primary drivers of CO₂ emissions from electricity generation in Ghana. Nevertheless, effective measures to address all decomposition factors is crucial for effective mitigation of electricity generation CO₂ emissions.

Procyclicality has been discovered in crude oil price shocks on aggregate demand. Most studies have used linear estimation techniques, resulting in the loss of asymmetric correlations. We disaggregate the impact of changes in oil prices into positive and negative shocks on aggregate demand and its components from 1970 to 2015 using the nonlinear ARDL framework. The results show that oil price shocks in Ghana have a long-term beneficial asymmetric impact on aggregate demand and its components. Specifically, a positive change in oil price (0.230) has a greater positive effect on the aggregate demand than a negative effect (-0.009) emanating from a negative change in the oil price shock. Further, the same result was obtained for the components of the aggregate demand with the impact on investment expenditures (0.662) being the greatest. Policymakers should diversify energy demand according to our recommendations. Instead of exporting crude oil, officials should encourage its refinement and consumption. Lastly, we suggest that policymakers hedge and use price-smoothing strategies to reduce oil price volatility.