Focusing on the examples of Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Zaire, this text demonstrates how African rulers hold on to power while severed from foreign aid and subjected to collapsing economies and disappearing bureaucracies.

Warlord Politics and African States

Corporate governance in emerging markets: A survey

https://faculty.smu.edu/millimet/classes/eco6375/papers/baltagi%20et%20al.pdf

Financial Development and Openness: Evidence from Panel Data

This study provides new evidence on the relationship between finance and economic growth using an innovative dynamic panel threshold technique. The sample consists of 87 developed and developing countries. The empirical results indicate that there is a threshold effect in the finance–growth relationship. In particular, we find that the level of financial development is beneficial to growth only up to a certain threshold; beyond the threshold level further development of finance tends to adversely affect growth. These findings reveal that more finance is not necessarily good for economic growth and highlight that an “optimal” level of financial development is more crucial in facilitating growth.

/pdf/does-too-much-finance-harm-economic-growth-1321ibzepl.pdf

Does too much finance harm economic growth

Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective: A Book of Essays

https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/1148/1/Fulltext.pdf

Government ownership of banks, institutions, and financial development

Political economy theories of financial development argue that in countries where a narrow elite controls political decisions, financial development may be obstructed to deny access to finance to potential competitors. We use panel data on developed and developing countries from 1975-2000 to examine this hypothesis, as well as looking at the effect of regime transitions on financial development. Our results show that the degree of democracy and political stability explain differences in the speed of financial development and that including these regime characteristics makes legal origin variables obsolete.

The Political Economy of Financial Development

Conservation and conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo: the impacts of warfare, mining, and protected areas on deforestation

We present new cross-country evidence that reveals that during 1995–2007, government ownership of banks has been robustly associated with higher long-run growth rates. We also show that previous results suggesting that government ownership of banks is associated with lower long-run growth rates are not robust to conditioning on more ‘fundamental’ determinants of economic growth.

/pdf/government-ownership-of-banks-institutions-and-economic-2u4g1gs4nk.pdf

Government Ownership of Banks, Institutions and Economic Growth

Piracy off the Horn of Africa has grown substantially in recent years: 217 ships reported being attacked by Somali pirates during 2009. Although less than one percent of ships transiting the Gulf of Aden in 2009 suffered attacks, Somali piracy creates considerable economic costs and distortions. Some ships now routinely avoid the region and the estimated additional costs of specialty marine risk insurance for ships using the Gulf of Aden trade route were estimated to be in the region of US$ 400mn for 2009. International naval forces (including missions from the EU and NATO) are present in the Gulf of Aden to ensure the delivery of food aid to displaced people in Somalia, to protect shipping in the Gulf of Aden and to deter pirates from operating in the region. In our research we show that the naval presence has prevented an explosion of piracy in the Gulf of Aden, but does not appear to have had a significant deterrent effect on pirates. Some ship owners gamble that they will not be attacked and do not co-operate with the navy, thereby providing easy targets for pirates. In the meantime pirates' risk of injury, detention and trial in encounters with the navies remains relatively low. In any case sea-based naval operations will have limited success as long as Somalia remains a failed state. However, we show that partial improvements in local stability and governance are likely to increase pirate attacks. Therefore the most promising solution of the piracy problem would be to establish and fund a Somali coastguard. This would enforce both anti-piracy laws and stop illegal fishing off the coast of Somalia, providing new opportunities for economic for Somalia's coastal communities.

Anja Shortland

Papers

Government ownership of banks, institutions, and financial development

The Political Economy of Financial Development

Conservation and conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo: the impacts of warfare, mining, and protected areas on deforestation

Government Ownership of Banks, Institutions and Economic Growth

The Business of Piracy in Somalia