Economic growth is closely linked to innovation, with R&D playing a key role in generating new knowledge, products, and processes. In Portugal, public policies support R&D through financial incentives and tax benefits. This article examines the relationship between economic growth and R&D investment from both macroeconomic and microeconomic perspectives, focusing on national outcomes and firm-level performance, emphasizing the role of tax incentives in private R&D. Using a linear regression model, we find that innovation-intensive firms investing in R&D exhibit higher levels of tax planning, partly reflecting the direct effect of R&D tax incentives (SIFIDE), and potentially linked to more accurate tax management practices. Our findings align with international evidence while addressing a gap in the Portuguese context. The findings provide insights for policymakers and business leaders, emphasizing the need to monitor private R&D investments supported by SIFIDE and assess their real economic impact, given the scheme’s substantial fiscal cost.
Youth unemployment remains a major challenge in South Africa, and the COVID-19 pandemic has further disrupted education and labour-market transitions. This study investigates how educational attainment influences youth unemployment in the post-COVID period using the nationally representative 2021 General Household Survey. A sample of 3,652 youths was analysed using logit and probit models across three specifications that incorporate education, demographic factors, and household welfare characteristics. The results show that higher education significantly reduces the likelihood of unemployment, with the strongest effects for diploma and degree holders. However, these effects vary across provinces. Youth in Free State, Northwest, and Limpopo experience high unemployment even with higher qualifications, indicating weak regional labour markets. A sensitivity analysis reveals that returns to education are lower in mining-dependent provinces. The study concludes that expanding education alone is insufficient without addressing provincial labour-market constraints.
Government expenditure on health is an essential factor for the growth of any economy. However, the health system in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has not been receiving enough attention. The direct effect of public health expenditure and corruption on economic growth, as well as the role of corruption in the relationship between public health spending and economic growth in 32 sub-Saharan African countries from 2000 to 2022, is examined by this study using fixed effect and the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) as an estimation technique. The results show that both public health expenditure and corruption negatively impact economic growth, while the joint effect of public health spending and corruption enhances economic growth in SSA. Furthermore, the findings reveal that inflation hurts economic growth whereas gross capital formation and trade openness have a positive effect on economic growth. It is recommended that the government should formulate policies that will control corruption and raise the level of institutional quality in the SSA region.
The transition to a low-carbon economy represents a significant challenge and opportunity for Turkey, whose energy mix is 90% fossil fuel. In this context, this research aims to analyse the role of financial development (FD), economic complexity (EC), and environmental technology (PET) on renewable energy consumption (REC) in Turkey over the period from 1980 to 2020. The Fourier Bootstrap ARDL (FBARDL) approach, a new technique that can capture up to five smooth structural breaks and address small sample biases, indicates that a significant ‘green structural lock-in’ exists, where a 1% rise in FD and EC causes a 1.12% and 0.70% decrease in REC, respectively. In other words, Turkey’s financial development and economic complexity are still locked into fossil fuel consumption. In contrast, PET positively influences REC, where a 1% rise in PET causes a 0.12% rise in REC. The Granger causality test further confirms that FD and PET have a one-way causality to REC. The research contributes to the existing literature on the Turkish energy equilibrium, providing a much-needed antidote to the prevailing ‘positive finance’ assumptions in non-OECD economies.
Evidence on the effect of remittances on human capital development in Africa remains mixed, with limited evidence on the educational attainment of most African migrants. Understanding these patterns is crucial to assessing whether migration leads to brain drain or brain gain. This study examines labour migration from Africa and the role of remittances in shaping school enrolment rates. Using the panel-corrected standard error (PCSE) and feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) methods, the analysis accounts for heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation, and cross-sectional dependence, providing reliable estimates. The results indicate that most African migrants have attained secondary level of education, while remittances significantly improve primary and secondary enrolment, with no significant effect on tertiary education. Findings also showed that real GDP, government expenditure, and access to electricity enhance enrolment outcomes. These findings suggest that while remittances build foundational human capital, policy interventions are needed to channel resources toward educational outcomes, particularly higher education, to ensure sustainable growth in Africa.
