Arusha Cooray

James Cook University | JCU

The unprecedented rise in debt levels across countries has given rise to the role of institutions on public debt. This study examines the impact of institutions on government debt in a sample of 54 EU and non-EU countries, covering the 2010 to 2022 period, employing the Logistic Quantile Regression (LQR) and Recentered Influence Function (RIF) meth...

We employ an extended Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) model combined with the environmental Kuznets curve and machine learning algorithms, including ridge and lasso regression, to investigate the impact of institutions on carbon emissions in a sample of 22 European Union countries over 2002 to 2020...

We examine how outward Chinese Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows affect the economic growth of 41 host nations over the 2005 to 2021 period. We also investigate the indirect effects of outward Chinese FDI flows on the economic growth of these countries through the government effectiveness and human capital channels. The empirical results reveal...

We estimate the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for Central Asia by allowing for the possibility of linear, U-shaped and N-shaped forms, and considering the impact of ecological footprint, climate change adaptation and energy consumption. We employ a fully modified ordinary least squares framework for cointegrating polynomial regressions, and inc...

SSRN-Online

How has public healthcare spending prepared countries for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic? Arguably, spending is the primary policy tool of governments for providing effective health. We argue that the effectiveness of spending for reducing COVID deaths is conditional on the existence of healthcare equity and lower political corruption because the h...

This paper examines the causality between remittances (REMs) and financial development (FD) in the MENA region as remittances are increasingly becoming a substantial aspect of external finance in many developing nations across the globe. The study fills the gap in the extant literature for the MENA region by exploring the inward REMs-financial deve...

Although the effects of corruption on bilateral trade are well-documented, its impact on the composition of trading partners remains unexplored. In this paper, we argue that corruption in a country imposes asymmetric costs on its trading partners depending on their characteristics. Consequently, as the level of corruption in a country changes, its...

This paper explores how US political uncertainty, stemming from partisan conflict, affects UK households' access to bank credit. Using data from a unique UK survey database and the US news-based Partisan Conflict Index developed by Azzimonti (2018), the findings document that US partisan policy uncertainty negatively affects UK households' access t...

This study estimates the role of governance and institutions in bilateral migration between countries in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) over the period 1996 to 2016. We estimate an extended random utility model of migration using pooled OLS, fixed effects, 2SLS, and PPML estimators. Our findings indicate that instit...

Aims The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a spate of studies showing a close connection between inequitable access to health care, welfare services and adverse outcomes from the pandemic. Others have argued that democratic governments have generally failed relative to more autocratic ones, simply because autocrats can make the hard choices required for...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how the uncertainty associated with fiscal policy, i.e. government expenditure and tax revenues, can affect the interest rates in a group of eleven countries, comprising high- and low-debt countries: Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand and Norwa...

Using annual data over 1966‐2014 from the Citizenship and Immigration statistics archives of Canada and constructing a time‐series for the funds brought into Canada by immigrants, we investigate if these funds, affect the exchange rate of Canada. We employ the ARDL bounds testing (Pesaran, Shin and Smith, 1999), Dynamic OLS (Stock and Watson, 1993)...

This study explores the impact of both conventional and unconventional monetary policies in the US and the Euro area on the mean and volatility of certain commodity prices. The analysis considers the prices of eight commodities, i.e. oil, natural gas, gold, silver, aluminium, copper, platinum, and nickel, while the methodology employs the EGARCH-X...

How has government healthcare spending prepared countries for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic? Arguably, spending is the primary policy tool of governments in providing effective health. We argue that the effectiveness of spending in reducing COVID deaths is conditional on the existence of healthcare equity and lower political corruption, because th...

Employing data for 125 countries and spanning the 1990–2014 period, we empirically examine the impact of human rights on income distribution and poverty. We also investigate how aid and trade can influence poverty and income distribution through human rights. The results suggest that stronger human rights records contribute to greater income equali...

The goal of this paper is to examine the transmission dynamics between the real interest rate and gold prices in the G7. The methodology follows the Bayesian Markov-Switching Vector Error-Correction (MS-VECM) model, along with regime-dependent impulse response functions, spanning the period 1975 to 2016. The findings suggest a positive association...

The relationship between money growth and inflation is a topic of debate among macroeconomists. This paper contributes to the empirical literature on the money-inflation pass-through using a Nonlinear Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag model (NARDL) for three countries (the U.S., U.K. and Japan) over an estimation period spanning 1950Q1 to 2014Q4. Thi...

This paper examines the relationship between corruption and financial sector development in 106 countries. Using dummy variables to capture different levels of corruption, and interaction terms to see if financial sector development depends on institutional structures, we find evidence to support the ‘sand the wheels’ hypothesis. The results sugges...

We develop a theoretical model to investigate the relation between corruption and labour supply. The theoretical model shows that corruption affects labour supply in the formal sector by reducing productivity, changing the supply of labour in the shadow economy, altering the tax burden, and distorting the saving-consumption trade-off. The predictio...

Using information from the world values survey wave 6, containing information from 78,743 respondents in 53 countries, we examine the factors which influence respondents’ answers to the question: “when jobs are scarce, should employers give priority to people of the country of origin rather than immigrants?” Taking into account a number of factors,...

Landlockedness imposes additional costs on trade and reduces international competitiveness. This paper examines the determinants of export performance in developing countries, within a comparative perspective of landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and non‐landlocked developing countries, by using a standard gravity modeling framework. The study...

This study investigates the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis on interest rate spreads across OECD countries, using a number of panel methodological approaches, over the 1990–2015 period. We examine the differential impact of the global financial crisis on interest rate spreads by dividing the sample period into two, i.e. the period prior...

This paper explores the asymmetric effect of real exchange rate changes on poverty through the remittance channel for a panel of 99 countries, spanning the period 1980-2015. Considering a threshold partial adjustment modelling approach, the results document that real exchange rate depreciations exert a stronger positive effect on poverty through re...

The current literature has examined the effect of investor sentiment on energy prices, but no study ever has explored the validity of the reverse question. Therefore, this article explore whether energy prices (i.e., crude oil and natural gas prices) affect U.S. investor sentiment, using the methodology of quantile regression. The empirical results...

Using annual data over 1966-2014 from the Citizenship and Immigration statistics archives of Canada, we investigate how the funds brought into Canada by immigrants, affects the real effective exchange rate (REER) of Canada. We employ the ARDL bounds testing (Pesaran, Shin and Smith, 1999) and Dynamic OLS (Stock and Watson, 1993) approaches to coint...

Understanding why states voluntarily cede power to international institutions, and if those institutions fulfill their stated goals, remain a pressing question in international relations. In order to evaluate the material and normative logics that may drive this type of behavior, this paper considers state commitment to and compliance with the Spec...

Trade liberalization is usually expected to lead to greater economic activity including higher labor force participation rates. Using data from forty-eight Sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1985–2012, we explore the impact of trade openness on labor force participation rates (LFPR), and examine how political institutions such as democra...

We investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade, as two measures of globalization, on female labor force participation rate in a sample of 80 developing countries over the time period 1980–2005. Contrary to the mainstream view in the literature, which is mainly based on country-case studies or simple cross-country variation,...

Adopting a production function-based approach, we model the role of health as a regular factor of production on economic growth, and use disaggregate measures of male and female health capital using principal component analysis. Allowing for the dynamics of TFP to be embedded in the production function, we estimate both in levels and in growth rate...

The existing literature has focussed extensively on the development outcomes resulting from international migrant remittances. Yet, the human capital channel promoting remittance effectiveness has received little attention. Given the multilateral policy drive to promote female literacy in recent decades, it is relevant to examine whether female hum...

Using an extensive dataset covering 187 countries during 1993–2011, this paper explores the impact of media freedom from government control on women's rights. To measure women's rights, we consider economic, political and social rights that capture the extent of government's respect for these rights at country level over time. A free press improves...

About 90 countries have adopted Freedom of Information (FOI) laws with the objective of facilitating citizens’ right to access information on government activities expeditiously. It is argued that FOI laws increase transparency and fix accountability of the government. We provide quantitative evidence on the impact of FOI laws on perceived governme...

Previous studies find that adopting Freedom of Information (FOI) laws increase reporting of corruption, as this facilitates the right of access to governmental information. Thus, it is argued that FOI laws increase transparency and enhance government accountability. However, whether or not adopting such transparency laws improves bureaucratic effic...

Feldstein-Horioka hypothesis states that if there is perfect capital mobility, low correlation between domestic investment and savings should be observed. However, empirical analysis failed to confirm the hypothesis. This study attempts to shed a new light on international capital mobility by incorporating the effect of the fiscal balance and the f...

This study employs panel data from 138 countries (with unbalanced time frameworks) to investigate the relationship between economic freedom and income inequality. Both linear and non-linear cointegration methodologies are used to identify a long-run equilibrium relationship between: (i) the overall Economic Freedom of the World index and income ine...

This study examines the influence of foreign direct investment (FDI), overseas development aid (ODA), and remittances on the enrollment of girls and boys in 103 countries over the years 1970–2011. The results suggest that remittances have a contemporaneous robust significant influence on enrollment, with the positive effect being slightly higher fo...

This study uses the club convergence methodology of Phillips and Sul (2007) for emerging economies spanning the period 1960–2013 to explore whether such convergence exists and whether the increase of international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) flows has been a global or club phenomenon. We find the absence of a homogeneous convergence c...

The goal of this study is to examine the relationships between economic growth and debt uncertainty by applying the threshold generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity modelling methodology in five Eurozone countries spanning the period 2001–2013. The results document that during the European fiscal crisis period, debt uncertainty e...

This paper investigates the effects of corruption on the emigration rate of low-, medium- and high-skilled individuals at the country level. Fixed-effects, system generalized method of moments (GMM) and instrumental variable estimations are used to establish a causal relationship between emigration and corruption. The empirical results indicate tha...

This paper provides new evidence on asymmetric interest rate pass-through in the U.S., the U.K. and the Australian economies by using the Nonlinear Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag model, central bank interest rates, lending and deposit interest rates from selected banks, spanning the period 2000-2013. The results provide evidence that corroborates...

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The Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) initiative was launched by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1996, to enhance the availability of timely and comprehensive macroeconomic and financial statistics based on best dissemination practices, facilitating the pursuit of sound macroeconomic policies. By joining this initiative, governmen...

The goal of the present article was to investigate not only the dynamics of the Greek public debt, but also the appropriate measures required for achieving fiscal consolidation. The empirical estimation is carried out using a macroeconomic data set spanning the period 1980–2008 and both the three-stage least squares (3SLS) methodological approach o...

Using country level panel data over the period 1970–2011, this paper evaluates the direct as well as indirect impact of three types of financial flows (foreign direct investment, remittances and official development aid) on the per capita income of a group of low and middle income countries. The empirical results suggest that the direct effect of o...

The goal of the present paper is to investigate the degree of convergence in tax revenues for a panel of 11 ASEAN, Asia Pacific and Oceania countries spanning the period 1990-2012. We apply the methodology of Phillips and Sul (2007) to various categories of tax revenues to assess the presence of convergence clubs. We consider four alternative categ...

We study the convergence of sovereign debt accumulation in five European Monetary Union (EMU) countries using quarterly data from June 2009 to June 2013, with a focus on debt ratio convergence following the 2009 sovereign debt crisis and the adoption of fiscal consolidation programmes. We test the Phillips and Sul (2007) club convergence hypothesis...

Employing a unique administrative data set on academics from the University of Wollongong (UOW), we investigate if women are under-represented in academic rank, taking into account information on personal characteristics, job characteristics, education and productivity. The results suggest that males have a significant advantage in rank attainment....

This study investigates the influence of ethnic and political fractionalisation on the provision of public goods at a district level in Sri Lanka. Evidence shows that political fractionalisation has a greater negative impact on the provision of public goods compared with ethnic fractionalisation. Similarly, political polarisation has a greater nega...

Employing data on emigration rates by education level, this study finds that primary and secondary qualified emigrants contribute positively and significantly to remittances. Tertiary qualified emigrants, however, do not contribute significantly to remittances. Remittances in turn contribute significantly to home country income. There is some evide...

Using data covering 1970–2008 for South Asia, this study investigates the influence of human capital disaggregated by gender, on economic growth. We use an extended version of the Solow growth model with per capita gross domestic product (GDP) a function of the key variables, viz. physical capital accumulation, human capital accumulation, trade ope...

A recursive system is employed to investigate the indirect effect of out-migration on gross domestic product (GDP) through remittances in South Asia, namely Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Out-migration is further disaggregated by skill level and country of destination (Middle East and other), and their effects on GDP through rem...

We use extreme bounds analysis (EBA) to examine the comparative growth effects of gender disaggregated and level-specific enrolment ratios in a panel of Asian economies. To test our hypotheses, we employ both endogenous and exogenous growth frameworks. The externality effects of education are positive and robust for both males and females and are r...

We investigate empirically the impact of maternal mortality on the enrolment rate of girls and boys at the primary and secondary levels. We also examine whether the effect of maternal mortality on enrolment is strengthened or weakened by religion. Evidence shows that at both the primary and secondary levels, maternal mortality has a negative impact...

Do countries compete for FDI by liberalizing policies favoring FDI? Our measure of policies favoring FDI is an event count of changes made by a country in a given year in the arena of approval procedures, sectoral restrictions, operational conditions, incentives, investment guarantees, foreign exchange, and corporate regulations to attract FDI. Usi...

This study examines the short- and the long-run relationship between electricity demand and its determinants in the Iranian residential sector. The studyemploys unit root tests, cointegration and error-correctionmodels on annual time series for the period, 1967–2009. The results showthat electricity price is insignificant and income elasticity is l...

The goal of the present paper is to investigate not only the dynamics of the Greek public debt, but also the appropriate measures required for achieving fiscal consolidation. The empirical estimation is carried out using a macroeconomic dataset spanning the period 1980-2008 and both the 3SLS methodological approach on a theoretical model and the st...

In this paper, we investigate the macroeconomic determinants and the effect of host country business cycles on remittance inflows. Estimating a dynamic panel data model by the system GMM, we document that remittance inflows are pro-cyclical to home country volatility but counter-cyclical to the volatility in host countries. This result does not hol...

Investigating the impact of health capital disaggregated by gender on economic growth in a sample of 210 countries over the period 1990 to 2008, this study suggests that the influence of health capital across countries cannot be generalized. The results for the full sample indicate that health capital does not have a robust and significant effect o...

We estimate the steady state growth rate for the Nordic countries using a “knowledge economy” approach. An endogenous growth framework is employed, in which total factor productivity is a function of human capital (measured by average years of education), trade openness, research and development, and investment ratio. We attempt to identify the var...

Do countries compete for FDI by liberalizing their FDI policy regimes? Our measure of FDI policy liberalization is an event count of changes made by a country in a given year in the areas of approval procedures, sectoral restrictions, operational conditions, incentives, investment guarantees, foreign exchange, and corporate regulations to attract F...

This study investigates the influence of migrant remittances on two dimensions of the financial sector, namely, size and efficiency in a sample of 94 non-OECD economies. Evidence suggests that migrant remittances contribute to increasing the size and efficiency of the financial sector. The study, in addition, examines the impact of remittances on f...

A number of existing studies have examined the theoretical link between financial development and economic growth. Kose et al. (2010), among others, have argued that financial development can affect the extent of the benefits from foreign direct investment. Other studies, such as Huang (2010) have suggested that the quality of political institution...

Examining the influence of women's suffrage and democracy on gender equality in education in a sample of 80 countries, covering Asia, Africa, the Middle East, South America and Eastern Europe, this study shows that countries with a longer duration of suffrage tend on average to perform better in terms of gender equality in education. The empirical...

Examining the influence of women's suffrage and democracy on gender equality in education in a sample of 80 countries, covering Asia, Africa, the Middle East, South America and Eastern Europe, this study shows that countries with a longer duration of suffrage tend on average to perform better in terms of gender equality in education. The empirical...

Incorporating migrant remittances among other variables into a growth model, and employing panel data over the 1970–2008 period, this study investigates the impact of migrant remittances on economic growth in South Asia. Migrant remittances are found to have a significant positive effect on economic growth. A sig-nificant positive interactive effec...

Growth literature has focused mainly on the long-term growth outcomes, but policy makers of the developing economies need rapid improvements in the short- to medium-term growth rates. In this article, we argue that this widening gap can be reduced by distinguishing between the short- to medium-term growth effects of policies from their long-run gro...

This study examines the impact of two dimensions of the government, namely, size and quality, on two dimensions of the financial sector, size and efficiency, in a cross section of 71 economies. The study finds that increased quality of the government as measured by governance and legal origin positively influences both financial sector size and eff...