Eric Evans Osei Opoku

University of Nottingham Ningbo China | Ningbo · Nottingham University Business School China

Theoretically, the impact of human development on energy poverty could occur through a number of channels, for instance, through improved social mobility and employability. In this study, we elaborate on these channels and examine how human development affects energy poverty in Africa, where access to electricity is a challenge for many. We proxy h...

Global crises have heightened policy uncertainties and efforts to address global climate change. Limited evidence exists in the literature on geopolitical risk's direct and indirect roles in addressing global emissions. In this study, we examine whether geopolitical risk could impede or facilitate efforts to attain a net-zero emissions target throu...

This study utilized instrumental variable techniques and the Driscoll-Kraay estimator to examine the effect of democracy and natural resources on income inequality using a comprehensive panel dataset from 43 sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The findings from our empirical analysis indicated that natural resources and democracy indices such as electoral, l...

Concerns about the incessant rise in emissions and their attendant effects on climate change, which is ravaging the globe, are on the ascendency. The literature has almost concluded that economic activities and growth contribute significantly to environmental degradation. Despite the plethora of studies on the effect of economic growth on environme...

This paper contributes to the debate on the determinants of deforestation, a menace that is posing threat to sustainable development, particularly in tropical developing regions. Specifically, the paper focuses on the effect of energy justice and democratization. The main contribution to the literature hinges on the emphasis on energy justice-opera...

The need for substantial economic, political, and social integration among economies and an effective domestic governance system to create a more inclusive and clean energy economy cannot be underestimated. Overreliance on biomass and other dirty fuels for cooking in developing countries has contributed to the global climate change challenge. In th...

Can economies sustain economic growth within an energy justice and democratization framework? In the literature, the role of equity in energy access and the conditional effect of democracy on economic growth in developing countries is not empirically explored. Drawing on the theory of Distributive Justice and Capability Approach to Development, we...

We augment the existing knowledge on the role of economic complexity in the environment and sustainable development debate by examining the effect of economic complexity on environmental degradation (measured by ecological footprint, CO2 emissions, N2O emissions and greenhouse gas emissions) contingent on income, using data from 35 OECD countries b...

Recent scholarly and policy discussions have focused on whether information and communication technology (ICT) and transport infrastructure enhance human development outcomes in developing countries. This study contributes to the knowledge and policy by exploring the impact of transport and ICT infrastructure on human development using comprehensiv...

This study contributes to the literature by investigating the effect of environmental degradation on foreign direct investment (FDI) using comprehensive panel data from 103 developing countries between 1970 and 2019. In this study, nine variables, namely, CO2 emissions, total greenhouse gas emissions, methane emissions, PM2.5, nitrous oxide emissio...

The theoretical debate on democracy—environment remains contentious in the environmental politics literature. The existing empirical studies have attempted to explore the effect of democracy on environmental degradation. However, there are limitations in these studies regarding how democracy was measured. Also, the prior empirical studies have been...

Access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy, and increase in women empowerment and participation in decision-making/politics are core to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN). The UN nevertheless emphasizes that without women in politics the attainment of the SDGs would seriously be...

Considering that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are interrelated and the attainment of one is a good springboard for the attainment of others, we picture the whole SDGs from two dimensions: i) economic and social development and ii) environmental sustainability. Proxying economic and social development with human development, this study e...

A fundamental aspect of China’s transition to a market economy is the change in fiscal decentralization marked by the tax reform in 1993. This paper examines the effect of revenue and expenditure decentralization and their divergences on fiscal spending multipliers in China using nationally aggregate and provincial-level data from 1978 to 2017. Our...

This paper examines the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on CO2 emissions by using disaggregated emissions data; territorial-based and consumption-based emissions. FDI is measured in three ways; inflow, net inflow, and stock. Employing data over the period 1995–2014 and a number of estimators, the results indicate FDI (whether measured as...

In this empirical paper, we revisit the financial development-impact of financial globalization using a panel dataset comprising the OECD countries for the period 1996–2017. We rely on a multidimensional financial development index and the KOF financial globalization index. We find that financial globalization has a positive impact on financial dev...

With growing industrialization comes environmental concerns. Thus, we are motivated to offer empirical insights into how industrialization affects the environment. Using ecological footprint to proxy carbon dioxide, we examine the heterogeneous effects of industrialization on the environment. We utilize data from 37 African countries from 2000–2016...

A Correction to this paper has been published: 10.1007/s11356-020-10328-8

The Balassa-Samuelson effect provides a theoretical explanation for the deviation of the real exchange rate (RER) from its purchasing power parity based on the heterogeneous productivity growth in the tradable and non-tradable sectors. This paper bridges the literature on foreign direct investment (FDI) spillovers with the Balassa-Samuelson effect...

Despite the burgeoning literature on the globalization-environmental degradation nexus, this area of empirical interest is still riddled with ambiguity. Thus, based on an extended Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) model, we re-investigate the effect of globalization on environmental degradation for 2...

Foreign direct investment (FDI) provides many African countries an important source of capital inflow. Despite notable improvements in these capital-scarce countries' economic, political and social conditions, foreign investors have not considered them viable host locations. Since FDI brings enormous spillovers to its host, some countries have rece...

Bhagwati hypothesis opines that the overall impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth is conditioned on countries' level of integration with the international market. We test this hypothesis for some selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Does this hypothesis hold given our sample evidence? Yes! No! Maybe! We explain why...

This paper employs a recently constructed consumption-based carbon dioxide emissions data in which emissions computations are made based on fossil fuel usage domestically, in addition to emissions emanating from imports minus exports. We contrast this measure with the commonly measured territory-based carbon dioxide emissions data and examine how t...

Widespread food insecurity remains a daunting challenge in Africa, despite significant gains in global efforts to eliminate hunger over the last three decades. This paper examines the effects of easing trade across borders – through reductions in documents, time, and costs to export and import – on food security outcomes in Africa. To control for e...

In recent years, the major concern about the environment has been the emissions of greenhouse gases and the consequent impact on climate change. There is a huge interest among scholars in examining factors that contribute to environmental degradation. In this study, we examined the environmental impact of foreign direct investment and industrializa...

In this paper, we employ data from 46 African countries over the period 1980–2014 to examine financial sector development convergence, using bank- and market-based measures of financial development. Within the framework of the generalized method of moments (GMM), we present evidence that both the bank– and market–based financial sector development...

This study investigates the nexus between energy demand and foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa, using the simultaneous system Generalized Method of Moments estimator and panel data that consists of 27 African countries over the period 2000 - 2014. Specifically, the study hypothesizes a non-linear relationship between energy demand and FDI, w...

Previous empirical studies on the causal relationship between financial development and economic growth are not instructive given their failure to unearth the causality trend across the different time periods. Using a more recently developed and robust indicator of financial development, we revisit the causal relationship between financial developm...

Earlier studies on the impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on economic growth have not been instructive largely on their failure to examine the sectoral transmission channels through which FDI affects growth. We re-examine the impact of FDI on economic growth in Africa using the system generalized method of moments. The results reveal that, w...

This study examined the effect of population growth and urbanization on the environment (carbon dioxide emissions) for 37 sub Saharan African countries based on 1980-2010 annual data. Using the Pooled Mean Group estimation technique, the findings of the study show that affluence and industrialization have negative effect on the environment (increas...

Earlier studies on the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth have not been instructive largely on their failure to examine the sectoral transmission channels through which FDI affects overall growth. We re–examine the impact of FDI on economic growth in Africa relying on panel data from 38 African countries over the period 19...

Using firm-level data from 139 countries, this paper investigates the effect of competition in both the domestic and foreign markets on firm productivity and export decisions. Applying a sample selection endogenous treatment (SSET) Poisson model that tackles both the issue of endogenous sample selection and endogenous treatment at the same time, we...

Improving social welfare in the developing world remains a top priority on the global development agenda, as policymakers and international development partners worldwide strive to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Using data on 40 African countries over the period 2010–2015, this paper investigates the extent to which trade facilitat...

In the 21st century, the Sino–Africa relations are characterized by increasing levels of trade and investment. Additionally, African governments consider China a vital stakeholder in their plans to transform their economies through technology. This study empirically examines whether China's exports of information and communication technology and hi...

Whilst the last couple of decades have witnessed an unprecedented growth expedition in Africa, an important question is how to make the growth sustainable. A remarkable distinction between the growth experience in the Asian economies and the African economies is that Africa has more or less skipped the industrial stage which many developed countrie...

FDI flows to Africa have mainly emanated from OECD member countries and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). With a special emphasis on these sources for the period 2001 to date, this chapter adopts a descriptive approach and sheds light on how FDI is impacting development in Africa. Though the OECD has historically and still rema...

In this paper, we examine the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth, and how democracy moderates this relationship using panel data of 16 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries for the period 1971–2013. Employing a panel vector autoregressive model (PVAR) in a generalized method of moments (GMM) framework, the findings support th...

The issue of whether capital inflows promote domestic investment has been of major concern especially in developing countries considering their massive dependence on these inflows. To this end, we make a case for 25 sub-Saharan African countries, using foreign direct investment and external debt as proxies for capital inflows, and the pooled mean g...

This study examined the effect of population growth and urbanization on the environment (carbon dioxide emissions) for 37 sub Saharan African countries based on 1980-2010 annual data. Using the Pooled Mean Group estimation technique, the findings of the study show that affluence and industrialization have negative effect on the environment (increas...

This paper investigates the long-run impact of foreign direct investment and trade openness on economic growth in Ghana (1970–2011) within the framework of the endogenous growth literature. Adopting the autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing approach to cointegration the results suggest that the interaction of foreign direct investment and e...

This paper examines the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth and determines how the regulatory regime of the countries affects the FDI-growth relationship for 22 sub-Saharan African countries for the period 1980-2011. Using General Methods of Moments (GMM) estimation technique, the findings of the study show that both FDI an...

The study has identified that (i) the rationalists' theory of neorealism and neoliberalism, (ii) the social constructivism theory, and (iii) several theories of economic integration are key in explaining regionalism and economic integration in Africa. Nevertheless, theories of economic integration that share some parellels with neoliberalism theory...