Showing papers by "Joshua Abor published in 2016"

Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in SSA: The Role of Institutions

Abstract: This article examines the relationship among foreign direct investment (FDI), institutions and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa in different country environs. We employ a two-step generalized methods of moments estimator with Weidmeijer corrected standard errors and orthogonal deviations to examine the empirical relations. In the full sample, we do not find evidence that FDI promotes growth. We also do not find a significant relationship between institutions and economic growth. Finally, we do not find convincing evidence that institutions alter favorably the effect of FDI on economic growth. In the subsample that excludes countries with developed financial markets, again we do not find a significant relation between FDI and economic growth. However, we find evidence suggesting that institutions play a direct role in spurring economic growth. Further, the quality of institutions seems to alter favorably the relationship between FDI and economic growth. Finally, in the sample that excludes countries with abundant natural resources, we find a direct and positive relationship between FDI and economic growth. We also find a direct relationship between institutions and economic growth. The growth-enhancing effects of FDI, however, seem to reduce as the quality of institutions improves. The major implication from our study is that countries should take into consideration their own realities when they fashion policies to benefit from FDI in terms of achieving better growth outcomes. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Health insurance and quality of care: Comparing perceptions of quality between insured and uninsured patients in Ghana’s hospitals

Abstract: The introduction of health insurance in Ghana in 2003 has resulted in a tremendous increase in utilization of health services. However, concerns are being raised about the quality of patient care. Some of the concerns include long waiting times, verbal abuse of patients by health care providers, inadequate physical examination by doctors and discrimination of insured patients. The study compares perceptions of quality of care between insured and uninsured out-patients in selected hospitals in Ghana to determine whether there is any unequal treatment between insured and uninsured patients in terms of quality of care, as empirical and anecdotal evidence seem to suggest. A cross-sectional survey of 818 out-patients was conducted in 17 general hospitals from three regions of Ghana. These are the Upper East, Brong Ahafo and Central Regions. Convenience sampling was employed to select the patients in exit interviews. Descriptive statistics, including frequency distributions, means and standard deviations, were used to describe socio-economic and demographic characteristics of respondents. Factor analysis was used to determine distinct quality of care constructs; t-test statistic was used to test for differences in quality perceptions between the insured and uninsured patients; and regression analysis was used to test the association between health insurance and quality of care. Overall, there was no significant difference in perceptions of quality between insured and uninsured patients. However, there was a significant difference between insured and uninsured patients in respect of financial access to care. The major quality of care concern affecting all patients was the problem of inadequate resources, especially lack of doctors, lack of drugs and other basic supplies and equipment to work with. It was concluded that generally, insured and uninsured patients are not treated unequally, contrary to prevailing anecdotal and empirical evidence. On the contrary, quality of care is a concern of both insured and uninsured patients.

Corporate governance mechanisms and accounting information quality of listed firms in Ghana

Abstract: This paper analyses the implications of internal corporate governance mechanisms for accounting information quality which uses discretionary accrual as a proxy. The empirical research is based on a sample of 20 non-financial institutions listed on the Ghana stock exchange (GSE) for an 11-year period, 2003 to 2013. The results show that the operational earnings are more persistent than operational cash flow which suggests that in predicting future values from current ones, operational earnings gives a better output in looking at the long-term sustainability aim of a firm, than operational cash flows. The results also suggest that the board independence and foreign ownership constraint opportunistic managers to manipulate the earnings leading to a higher level of accounting information quality. By extension, these results have important policy implications for regulators in assessing the effectiveness of corporate governance on earnings quality.