Despite the rapid economic growth recorded since the 1990s, inequality, poverty and unemployment levels remain high in most African countries. As such, achieving socio-economic goals has been the major focus of policymakers. The objective of this study is to examine the effect of financial inclusion on human development in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Access to and usage of financial services may encourage business start-ups, allow individuals to invest in health and education, manage risk and lessen the burden of financial shocks, and therefore, impact positively on human development. The study employs the panel data approach and utilises the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) technique. The results show that financial inclusion has a positive effect on human development. Therefore, it is recommended that policymakers implement measures that reduce the costs of access to and usage of financial services, such as investments in infrastructure, and raise awareness of the available financial services.

Purpose: Innovation is regarded as a crucial determinant of growth and development in South Africa, and small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) have been earmarked as instruments for the achievement of the socio-economic goals and innovation as set out in the National Development Plan. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of innovation on SMME performance in South Africa.Design/methodology/approach: The empirical analysis was conducted using the quantile regression technique to examine the effect of innovation on the performance of firms at different sales levels. Data from the World Bank's enterprise survey was used for the analysis.Findings: The results of the empirical analysis showed that R & D expenditures have a positive and significant effect on performance for firms with higher sales (high growth or larger firms). There is evidence that the introduction of new products/services promotes performance for low growth/ smaller firms.Practical implications: The empirical results imply that innovation is crucial for SMMEs’ development and growth. However, smaller/low growth firms are not able to spend on R & D due to a lack of funds which could be the reason for their low survival rate. More support needs to be provided to smaller firms with lower sales growth, given the large financial outlay required for R & D expenditures. Despite the lack of funding for R & D expenditure, smaller firms are encouraged to introduce new products and methods of production that do not require major financial outlays.Originality/value: There is scant empirical evidence on the impact of innovation on firm performance in South Africa. Most studies investigate the challenges faced by SMMEs and the different types of innovation approaches used by firms. Furthermore, the study employs the quantile regression approach which highlights the effect of innovation on firms of different sizes.

Despite the successful transition into democracy in South Africa, poverty and inequality levels remain consistently high for an upper-middle-income country. The pace of human capital development continues to be inadequate to solve the socio-economic challenges. The objective of the study is to examine the effect of human capital formation represented by education attainment, on poverty and inequality in the Eastern Cape province. Using the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimator, the study investigates the long-run relationship between the variables. The study found that an increase in human capital leads to a decline in poverty levels. However, human capital is positively related to income inequality which is an indication of unequal economic opportunities and inequality in the education system. The study recommends that policies be introduced to reduce inequality in schools. Community involvement in improving the quality of schools is of utmost importance. Education policies such as school choice may have contributed to education inequality.

Purpose: The impact of financial reforms and financial development on an economy has received considerable attention over the recent past. This paper aims to investigate whether financial liberalisation and financial development increase the likelihood financial crises in Southern African development community (SADC) countries.Design/methodology/approach: Due to the binary nature of the dependent variable, the logit model is used for the analysis using data for the period 1990 to 2015.Findings: The results showed that financial liberalisation captured by real interest rates reduces the likelihood of financial crises. Furthermore, regulatory quality strengthens this reductive effect of financial liberalisation on the probability of financial crises. On the other hand, financial development represented by bank credit increases the incidence of financial crises. The results also suggest that financial liberalisation may increase the likelihood of financial crises indirectly through financial development.Research limitations/implications: The study recommends that a sound regulatory and supervisory framework be established as well as institutional quality raised to curb the effect of financial development on the incidence of financial crises.Originality/value: There is scant evidence on the role that financial liberalisation and financial development play in the incidence of financial crises in the SADC. This study incorporates the effect of institutional quality in the analysis which has been neglected by most studies on financial reforms in SADC countries. A number of recent studies in SADC countries conclude that financial development resulting from financial reforms, may hinder economic growth. Therefore, this study sheds light on this negative relationship.

New economic thinking speculates that the diversification and sophistication of economic capabilities/structures is key in explaining why African countries lag in development behind the rest of the world. We question the extent to which non-traditional growth factors such as governance and institutional quality are related to economic complexity for 35 African countries. We estimate panel GMM regressions using 8 different measures of governance/institutional quality for both linear and kinked regressions using annual data collected between 1996 and 2021. The baseline estimates reveal a positive linear relationship between most measures of governance and institutional quality and economic complexity. Our sensitivity analysis further show that institutions/governance have stronger relationship with economic complexity in the post-global financial crisis era. Moreover, nonlinear or kinked relationships emerge once the data is segregated into different income and resource abundant groups. Altogether, our findings of a nonlinear relationship between institutions/governance and economic complexity are novel to the literature and offer unique insights on how African policymakers can use governance/institutions for improving the complexity of production processes.

In our study, we employ DCC-GARCH and Wavelet coherence analysis to examine the co-movement between global covid-19 indicators (cases, recoveries and deaths) and stock returns of main equity markets in G20 countries using daily data spanning between February 2, 2020 and August 28, 2021. Our empirical results show that the co-movement between COVID-19 and G20 stock returns has been switching between negative and positive correlations across the entire time window. The wavelet coherence analysis further reveal that negative (positive) co-movements predominantly exist as lower (higher frequencies) for cases and deaths and are more mixed for recoveries. The findings also show that the short-frequency components correspond to periods around the initial announcement of the initial pandemic and also around the announced of subsequent variants of the COVID-19 virus. Policy and market implications from our study are also discussed.