Finance & Economics Review

Moderating Effect of Environmental Quality on the Relationship Between Trade Openness and Health Expenditure in Sub-Saharan African Countries

2025-02-13T02:47:53+00:00

Purpose: The main objective of this study is to investigate the moderating effect of environmental quality on the relationship between trade openness and health expenditure in sub-Saharan African countries.

Methods: This research utilizes panel data from 41 member countries of sub-Saharan Africa, covering the period from 1996 to 2020. Data was sourced from the World Development Indicators (WDI). The econometric analysis employs the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) technique to address endogeneity issues in panel data.

Results: The findings reveal a significant positive relationship between trade openness and health expenditure in sub-Saharan African countries. Specifically, a 1% increase in trade openness corresponds to a 582.4-point increase in health expenditures. However, the study also indicates that trade openness negatively impacts environmental quality, as a unit increase in trade openness leads to a decline in environmental quality. This degradation has adverse health outcomes, contributing to increased health spending due to increased incidences of cardiovascular diseases, eye defects, and respiratory tract infections. The study finds that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita negatively affects health expenditure, with a 1% increase resulting in a 0.1843-point decrease. Conversely, population growth positively influences health expenditure, where a 1% increase leads to a 0.1099-point rise in health spending. Industrialization has also been found to have a positive and statistically significant effect on health expenditure at the 5% level, although it contributes to environmental degradation, further impacting human health.

Implications: This study's theoretical implications enhance our understanding of the interconnections between trade, health expenditures, and environmental quality.

Fintech Services and Entrepreneurship in Africa

2024-12-05T19:09:32+00:00

Purpose: This paper examines the effect of fintech on entrepreneurship to ascertain the role of financial technology services on individual entrepreneurial intention in five sub-Saharan African countries.

Methods: The analysis was based on an extended probit model to determine the country-specific effect of mobile money account ownership (Fin) on individuals who used fintech services to start a business (Ent) as a measure of entrepreneurship. The impact of other control variables (X) such as credit access, education, and labor force participation on entrepreneurship (Ent) was also considered.

Results: The findings show that fintech services through mobile money are significantly associated with an increased likelihood of entrepreneurship in The Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, and South Africa. Credit access, higher levels of education, and labor force participation are other drivers of entrepreneurship in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.

Implications: Country-specific characteristics play a significant role in engendering entrepreneurship; thus, the government should intensify efforts to diffuse and adopt fintech for optimal livelihood and economic transformation.

Originality: Overall, this paper accounts for the role of technology penetration in financial services and contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship development in the African context. The research utilizes the World Bank Global Findex data, which is nationally representative, to provide insight into the subject matter.

Limitations: This paper's analysis relied on the 2017 World Bank Global Findex Database, the most recent data available. Although this may be perceived as insufficient, the findings were valid due to their alignment with similar outcomes in the literature

Exploring the Determinants of Liquidity of Private Commercial Banks in Bangladesh

2025-01-03T23:18:03+00:00

Purpose: The main objective of this study is to explore the critical bank-specific determinants of the liquidity of private commercial banks in Bangladesh.

Methods: This research examined the financial statements of twenty private commercial banks in Bangladesh over thirteen years (2010–2022). Various statistical tests and analyses, including the F-test, Breusch and Pagan LM Test, Modified Wald Test, Pesaran CD Test, Wooldridge Test, and Feasible GLS Model, were employed to evaluate the panel data.

Results: The regression results showed that the net interest margin, capital adequacy, financial leverage, credit quality, operating efficiency, and bank age are statistically significant variables influencing the liquidity of private commercial banks in Bangladesh. The study also indicates that a bank`s age moderates the impact of financial leverage, credit quality, and operating efficiency on liquidity.

Implications: The study's theoretical implications deepen understanding of factors influencing bank liquidity, integrating bank age as a moderating variable. As far as the practice is concerned, it assists policymakers and bank managers in enhancing liquidity management techniques, guaranteeing financial stability, and promoting resilience within the banking industry.

Originality: This study distinguishes itself by examining the moderating effect of bank age on liquidity determinants in private commercial banks in Bangladesh, a facet seldom explored in prior studies.

Post-COVID-19 Inflation Dynamics in Bangladesh

2025-02-10T13:02:36+00:00

Purpose: Bangladesh's economy has recently experienced elevated inflationary pressures, which significantly affect economic stability and growth. This study analyzes the factors driving inflation in Bangladesh and determines whether supply-side factors or demand-side pressures primarily influence it.

Methods: The ARDL approach is used in this study's estimating process to use monthly secondary data from January 2015 to September 2024, available from different sources like Bangladesh Bank (BB) and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). This study utilized three separate models for scenario analysis to determine whether inflation dynamics are the same for the pre-COVID and post-COVID periods or over the entire period and whether supply-side or demand-side phenomena drive inflation. The rate of inflation is the dependent variable in the model; industrial production, import, inward remittance, exchange rate, and central bank policy rates (repo, reverse repo) are our independent variables, and the broad money supply is included as a control variable. A correlation matrix is also used to observe the connection among the variables.

Results: This study's findings reveal a long-run relationship among industrial production, lag value of inflation, import, lag values of exchange rate, and broad money supply, but the central bank policy rates have no statistical significance for Bangladesh. This revealed that the channels through which monetary policy influences inflation may be weak or ineffective, or inflation may be driven more by supply-side factors than demand-side ones, reducing the effectiveness of monetary policy.

Implications: The finding informs policymakers or experts that the recent inflationary trend is a supply-side phenomenon and will be adjusted over time.

Originality: This study offers a story contribution by systematically analyzing the post-COVID-19 inflation dynamics in Bangladesh, distinguishing between supply-side and demand-side drivers. Unlike previous studies, which primarily focus on pre-pandemic inflation trends or general macroeconomic conditions, this paper examines explicitly the structural shifts in inflationary pressures caused by the pandemic’s aftermath.

Limitations: Inflation is a multivariate variable, and while fiscal deficits may directly influence inflation, their data are only available annually. Therefore, we cannot include this variable in our article.