Abstract The effects of macroeconomic shocks and labour market institutions on employment in sub-Saharan African countries are examined in this study. Using a sample of 27 SSA countries for the period 2007 to 2018, both linear and interactive relationships are investigated. The results show that labour market institutions (especially in terms of wage flexibility) dampen the effects of shocks on modern employment but amplify the effects of shocks on informal employment in the sampled SSA countries. There is also evidence that shocks themselves (especially those emanating from the external sector) do not matter for a huge proportion of employment changes in SSA countries. Rather, the direct effects of shocks on employment are more profound in the formal sector. The study therefore concludes that reforming the informal sector will help to ensure the effectiveness of labour market institutions in mitigating the negative impacts of external shocks on employment in SSA.

The challenge of employment growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries goes beyond economic growth prospects to include structural and demographic dimensions. This study examines the relative contributions of structural changes and demographic factors to employment growth for a set of SSA countries using available annual data from 1970 to 2014. A decomposition approach is employed in the study using the Jobs Generation and Growth (JoGGs) method which generates results that show distributive components of employment, productivity and output changes over time in a system whereby the roles of economic structure and demographic changes could be observed. The study shows that the pattern of structural change in SSA countries has led to more low-productivity and vulnerable jobs generation. Rising shares of the traditional services sector in the economy has driven a large segment of employment into informal low-wage jobs. Major consequences of the nature of demographic changes in the SSA region are found to include decline in overall employment rate and large movement of the labour market towards less productive and low-wage employment. Social policies that address population and migration are therefore required to ensure that demographic factors do not further inhibit availability of productive employment in SSA.

In this paper, the impact of tourism on economic growth in Nigeria is examined using a dynamic framework and data covering the 1983-2017 period. Tourism impacts are measured in terms of capital investment in the sector and contribution to total export revenues, while growth is considered in terms of growth in GDP per capita, services sector growth and aggregate employment. Using the autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL) approach to cointegration analysis, the study finds a unidirectional long run relationship running from tourism to economic growth in Nigeria. Moreover, it is found that the direct effect of tourism on growth is weak, rather a strong channelled impact of tourism sector development on economic growth in Nigeria is established. In the long run, tourism promotes services sector expansion and contributes significantly to overall employment growth in Nigeria.

The impact of macroeconomic policies on employment yields from output growth in sub-Saharan African countries is examined in this study. Data for 37 countries are used for the period 1991-2016 and sustainable employment yields are obtained by comparing employment elasticities for own-account (vulnerable) and employers (formal) groups. The two-stage least squares method is used to estimate employment elasticities for the panel datasets for three sub-periods (1991-1999, 2000-2009, 2010-2016), and the feasible generalised least squares method is used to estimate the effects of policies on employment elasticities based on a pooled dataset for the three sub-periods. Policy efforts are shown to be more effective if moved towards more flexible and targeted tax regimes, more rigid labour markets, and liberalised trade. On the other hand, investment and industrial policies do not appear to exert unidirectional effects on employment, especially given wide variations in government sizes and relative shares of domestic/foreign investment among the countries. There is also evidence that policy influences are more practicable with more formal employment groups. Patterns of macroeconomic policy directions are therefore critical to their effectiveness as labour market adjustment tools in the region.

The primary link between financial institutions and economic performance is the provision of resources by these institutions to businesses in order to drive enterprise development. In this study, the role of access to finance in enhancing innovation and productivity among Nigerian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is investigated using the World Bank Enterprise Survey (ES) dataset. Access to finance is categorized as external and internal to the firm. Using the logit estimation technique, the study finds that ease of accessing bank credit is the strongest positive force in driving all types of innovation among SMEs in Nigeria. In the same vein, the source of investment financing matters in terms of how it affects innovation: both internal and external sources improve investment in product, process, and organizational innovation, but only external financing has a significant effect on R&D spending and use of foreign licensed technology. Overall spending on R&D is only driven by access to external finance by the SMEs. The study also shows that increased access to finance may actually lead to productivity decline among SMEs in Nigeria.

This study evaluates the relative impacts of tax administration and business characteristics on the tax compliance behaviour of small scale businesses in Nigeria. The role of tax education as an effective tax administration strategy is also considered. Results show that tax education stimulates small businesses tax compliance behaviour, a result that is robust for both business taxes and personal taxes. It is also found that overall tax administration system in Nigeria does not have significant impact on tax compliance among small businesses in Nigeria due to inefficiencies and corruption in the system. Business ownership structure, registration status, and management qualification/experience are all found to promote tax compliance by small businesses in Nigeria.

In this study, the Consumption-oriented Capital Asset Pricing Model (CCAPM) is tested for Nigeria by considering returns on investments in the Nigerian Stock Exchange market and other financial assets for the period 1993: Q1 to 2016:Q4. Three tests are conducted. The first test examines forecast performance of excess returns for the selected portfolios in predicting future consumption; the second test estimates the consumption betas for the set of assets using two alternative formulations of the CCAPM; and the third test included consumption growth variable in a multifactor risk analysis to compare with the basic CAPM formulations. The empirical results indicates that while stock returns do not predict future consumption decisions well, both Treasury Bill rates and dividend yield performed well in predicting consumption behaviour. For the consumption beta estimates, CCAPM is found to only be relevant for few portfolios in the stock market, with negative betas for the entire market. Betas for Treasury bill rates and dividend yields however suggest that the assets form strong basis for both current and future consumption decisions. The results also show that the consumption growth factor does not have any significant risk premium for the categories of assets.

In this study, the role of budget and political institutions in promoting the efficiency of the budget process in Nigeria is examined. Efficiency of the budget process is described as budget activities that aid fiscal policy to respond asymmetrically to the business cycle by contracting during booms and expanding during recession. The direct institutions guiding the budget process as well as politically motivated institutional influences are considered in the study in order to show their varied impacts. Descriptive and correlation analyses are employed in describing the relationships using budget data obtained from annual budget reports in Nigeria. The empirical results from the study compare well with both regional and international positions; the budgetary process in Nigeria is fraught with largescale inefficiencies in terms of preparation and allocations. Moreover, budget institutions in Nigeria are shown to be weak in terms of maintaining accelerated processes or efficient resource use. The institutions do not provide the expected formidable guard against inefficiency of budget outcomes in Nigeria. This is largely due to strong influences of political factors in fiscal operation which, in turn, is due to inconsistent oil price development overtime. Thus, more external factors appear to bear in on the budgetary processes in Nigeria. To ensure improved countercyclical fiscal performance based on budgetary provisions therefore, the institutional framework of budget processes has to be strengthened.

In this study, the effect of public spending on the industrial sector in Nigeria is examined within a dynamic structure. The goal of the study is to present a position in which industrial production could be enhanced by properly channeling public sector spending. Using data covering the period 1980 to 2013, econometric tools are employed to empirically examine the main effects of some public sector spending factors on industrial development. It is found in the study that that public spending has no significant effect on industrial production in the short run. Moreover, government spending has a relatively weak effect on industrial production even in the long run, suggesting a disconnection between public spending and the real sector of the economy. The proper focus for policymakers bent on improving industrial performance in Nigeria, thus, is on the process of fiscal management restructuring, at least in the medium-term.

This study examines the role of education and labour productivity on income inequality in Nigeria by considering both educational attainment and productivity growth over a period of time. A dynamic structure is devised for the analysis using data for the period 1981 to 2013. The cointegration and error correction methodology is adopted in the empirical analysis. It is shown that productivity has a stronger impact on inequality reduction than education. This implies that any policy that promotes education without the productive capacity of labour would not lead to reduction in inequality. It also suggests that policies of reducing income inequality in Nigeria should invariably incorporate productivity growth measures for such policies to be sustainable.

This study empirically determines the main effects of financial openness on capital market development for a group of West African Countries. The three countries selected - Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast - have the most developed capital markets that could be said to be open and integrated at a reasonable level with external markets. The panel data regression technique was applied to annual data from the respective countries covering the period 1988 to 2010. Moreover, both the Fixed Effects and Random Effects estimations were carried out in the empirical analysis to investigate the relationships. The findings from the study indicate that higher financial openness in the sub-region would enhance the development of domestic capital markets. However, the pattern of foreign capital inflow to a country as well as the structure of external assets and liabilities appears to play a role in explaining the impact of financial openness on domestic capital markets within the West African sub-region. In this study, foreign liabilities that have direct link with domestic capital markets were shown to contribute more to capital market development in the domestic economy. Keywords: Financial openness, capital market development, Panel data, West Africa