Good Institutional Quality Research Articles

Impact of Innovation on Economic Growth: Evidence from Malaysia

This study empirically investigates the effect of innovation on economic growth using the neoclassical economic growth model. Embarking from the traditional labour growth, physical capital and human capital framework, innovation is postulated to be the main driver for robust economic growth. Using time series techniques, we discover very attention-grabbing findings that highlight the impact of innovation on economic growth for Malaysia. First, the innovation measured by the quantity of a total number of a patent application is statistically insignificant. The result is robust for various innovation measurements, including total local patent application and total foreign patent application. Interestingly, switching to total patent grant instead of a total number of patent application (local or foreign), the empirical result shows a significant impact on economic growth. The finding indirectly reveals the crucial impact of quality innovation rather than the quantity concern. Neglecting both quality and the commercialisation process of these new technologies may not solve the rigidity of knowledge commercialisation paradox. Finally, we test for the prominent institutional quality in mediating economic growth under a knowledge-based economy. The interaction between institutional quality and the total patent grant has significantly accelerated the role of innovation channel to economic growth. The empirical findings imply that inadequacy of innovative technology flow over the long term has a detrimental effect on national innovative capacity. Thus, the innovation-economic growth nexus needs to be complemented with a good institutional quality framework, skilled human capital and broader networking to commercialise the innovative product to ensure that the innovation activities promote economic growth.

Evaluation of the Non-Linear Effects of the Public Debt on the Economic Growth of the WAEMU

The aim of this article is to analyse the nature of the relationship between public debt and economic growth in the WAEMU. A standard growth model was specified and then estimated in quadratic form from the GMM (GMM). The results show a non-linear relationship between public debt and economic growth. Thus, public debt stimulates economic growth when it does not exceed the threshold of 15% of GDP. Robustness tests show that public debt is boosting the economic conditions of countries with sound macroeconomic policies and good institutional quality.

Does Oil Ownership Affect Institutions?

A large body of literature shows that oil wealth leads to poor quality of institutions. The existing literature, however, neglects the dimension of ownership. This article provides the first empirical investigation of whether ownership of oil matters for institutional quality. Using a novel database on ownership structures, it analyzes a sample of 38 oil-rich developing countries during 1984–2005. The estimation results show that ownership matters and that private ownership of oil leads to a better quality of institutions than state ownership. The results are useful for oil-rich countries in adopting appropriate policies to maximize the benefits of oil to the nation.

Distributional Effects of Corruption When Enforcement is Biased: Theory and Evidence from Bribery in Schools in Bangladesh

In many models of corruption where enforcement is unbiased, the rich are more likely to pay bribes for their children's education, implying that corruption reduces educational inequality. We develop models of bribery that reflect the fact that in developing countries, anticorruption enforcement is not unbiased, and higher income of a household is associated with higher bargaining power and better quality of institutions. In models of biased enforcement, the rich are less likely to pay bribes, making bribery regressive. The OLS estimates of the effects of household income are likely to find spurious progressivity in the incidence of bribery in schools. We exploit temporary rainfall shocks to provide suggestive evidence on the ability‐to‐pay effect, while long‐term rainfall differences capture the combined ‘poor people’ and ‘poor area’ effects. We find that the poor are more likely to pay bribes, and the amount paid does not depend on household income. The evidence rejects the ability‐to‐pay and related models based on unbiased enforcement, and is consistent with the ‘refusal‐to‐pay model’ of bargaining power where the rich decline to pay bribes. ‘Free schooling’ is free only for the rich, and corruption makes the playing field skewed against the poor.

Institutional Quality and Financial Development: Evidence from Developing and Emerging Economies

Using a panel data set of 189 countries by employing dynamic models OLS, fixed effect, random effect and generalized method of moments (GMM) estimators. The study revisits the relationship between institutional quality and financial development in developing and emerging countries. This study is ever the first comprehensive and wide-ranging that categorizes the countries into developing and emerging countries using multiple dynamic approaches. Experimental findings of the study are based on GMM, which indicates that better institutions are important for financial development, specifically political stability, control of corruption and regulatory quality positively affect financial development in the global panel of the study. Rule of law negatively affects financial development, which reveals that in most of the global countries, the rule of law is very feeble. Control of corruption index is positively effecting financial development in emerging and global panel which indicates that most of the countries have reduced corruption to low level. The current study also found that emerging countries have reduced corruption, but other institutional indicators are found to be insignificant. The overall result concludes that good quality institutions are the main drivers of financial development and it stimulates financial development. The present study suggests that developing and emerging countries should focus to improve the institutional quality by re-examining the rules of law, government effectiveness and voice accountability institutional factors to make it better.

MACROECONOMIC POLICIES AND THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IN NIGERIA: EVIDENCE FROM ASYMMETRIC COINTEGRATION

This study examines the impact of fiscal and monetary policies on agricultural output in Nigeria. Nearly 800 million people suffer from hunger globally and the vast majority of them live in developing countries (United Nations, 2015). These figures motivate the inclusion of zero hunger, defined as the eradication of hunger and the achievement of food security, as a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) in the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Agenda and feeding of Africa as one of the High 5s (five) of the African Development Bank Agenda. To achieve the sustainable development goals and the goal of feeding Africa for the developing countries there is the need to reinvigorate the agricultural sector of developing countries. The Agriculture sector in most developing countries is largely underdeveloped and relies on primitive tools as against mechanized Agriculture, output per hectare is still very low, access to capital and credit by farmers is very limited and at very high cost, basic amenities and infrastructure that can enhance Agricultural performance is minimal and of very poor quality. It employed the asymmetric cointegration method and documented that macroeconomic policies have mixed impact on agricultural output in Nigeria over the years. Specifically, important monetary variables that drive agricultural output in Nigeria include interest rate , exchange rate and inflation rate while government budgetary provision for the agricultural sector is still abysmal low and far below the Maputo recommendation, thus its non-significance. Institutional quality was found to have a positive relationship with agricultural output in Nigeria; however, it does significantly influence agricultural output. The study therefore concludes that macroeconomic policies both monetary and fiscal are important drivers of agricultural performance in Nigeria and good institutional quality is key in achieving better performance in the agricultural sector in Nigeria. It is against this conclusion that the study recommends that institutional quality need to be strengthen in Nigeria as this may go a long way to assist macroeconomic policies which will engender better performance in the agricultural sector. The government may need to show more political will to meet up with the Maputo (10%) requirement in terms of budgetary provision for the agricultural sector.

Institutional environment and determinants of adjustment speed to the target capital structure in the MENA region

We investigate financial structure institutional determinants of firms listed on the MENA region, and we analyze the indirect role played by institutions on the speed of adjustment. We consider a sample of 506 non-financial firms from 12 MENA countries listed on the stock exchange between 2006 and 2014. We find that the effects of firm profitability, non-debt tax savings and growth opportunities on leverage are strengthened in the context of good quality institutions. In the contrast, the effects of firm size and returns volatility are reduced. Regarding the adjustment speed, we find that the financial market development and the good quality of institutions tend to reinforce the effects of firm profitability and distance from the target. However, they moderate the influence of firm returns volatility, growth opportunities, non-debt tax savings, and asset tangibility on the adjustment process. We also note that political stability plays an indirect role to control bankruptcy costs and information asymmetries. Our results have important implications since they can interest firm executives and investors in MENA countries, and more generally in developing countries. They may provide answers to questions about the role played by institutions in the adjusting process to the target debt ratio.

FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT, TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Financial sector development plays a pivotal role in the process of economic growth and development through mobilization of savings and creating investment opportunities. Financial development also increases the level of technology by providing finance to entrepreneurs for technological innovations which leads to economic growth. Moreover, financial markets develop rapidly in those countries which have strong legal system to enforce property rights, support private contractual arrangement and protect the rights of investors that can support real economic activities. Therefore, the presence of good quality institutions strengthens financial development which leads to technological development and growth. This study investigates the impact of financial development, technology and institutions on economic growth of selected developing countries over the time span of 1996–2015. This study extends the Augmented Solow growth model by incorporating variables such as financial development, technology, institutions and their interaction terms in the model. Due to endogeneity problem, the empirical model used in the study is estimated by System Generalized Method of Moments (System-GMM). Empirical results show that financial development, technology and institutions have very strong effects on the economic growth developing countries. To attain a sustainable economic growth, developing countries should develop their institutions which are necessary for the effective functioning of financial markets that stimulate economic growth by providing finance to entrepreneurs for innovations in technological sectors.

The mechanism of control of corruption and the rule of law

Purpose In this study, the authors aim to investigate the control of corruption (COC) mechanism and the rule of law (ROL) in mediating the effect of culture on terrorism financing. Thus, whether the COC and the ROL can mediate the effect of culture on terrorism financing across 78 countries has been examined. This study can provide additional evidence about the importance of having good institutional quality to hinder any deviant behavior like terrorism financing. Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modeling is used to test the mechanism of the ROL and COC in mediating the effect of culture on terrorist financing (TF). This research tries to investigate the indirect path of culture in TF through COC and ROL and to examine the role of institutions in motivating or demotivating the deviant behaviors. Findings The results revealed that COC and ROL completely mediate the relation between culture and TF. This supports the postulation that there is an indirect relationship between culture and TF. Also, the results indicate that ROL is more powerful than COC, as a governmental tool, in controlling TF. Originality/value This paper highlights the fact that, according to authors’ research, this is the first study, to the best of their knowledge, that tests the mechanism of the ROL and COC in mediating the effect of culture on TF actions and money laundry.

Fiscal policy, institutions and inclusive growth: evidence from the developing Asian countries

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of fiscal policy and institutional quality on the inclusive growth process of the selected developing Asian countries. Inclusive growth is a growth process which ensures that everyone is participating and benefited by growth process. Design/methodology/approach This study uses system generalized method of moment to address the problem of endogeneity and omitted variable bias. Findings Empirical results showed that both fiscal policy and institutions have positive effects on inclusive growth. Our empirical results confirmed that fiscal policy can work more efficiently in the presence of good quality institutions in the developing Asian countries. Research limitations/implications Government should take measures to improve infrastructure, roads and transport system, and main share of government expenditures should be allocated to development, education and health projects. There is a need to transform the tax structure of the countries with the huge emphasis on the progressive tax system and this is likely to benefit the lower segment of the population. There is a need to develop institutions as they serve as a road map for the development of a country. There should be coordination between government policies and institutions. Supervision of fiscal policy through good institutions is needed for the proper allocation and utilization of public resources. Practical implications By restructuring the taxation system subject to the provision of quality institutions, government can incentivize entrepreneurs to make significant investments. This creates jobs for lower segment of a society, brings down poverty and increases the income level of a country. This increases the individual and collective welfare of an economy that ensures the inclusive growth within a country. Originality/value In this study, proxies used for fiscal policy are government expenditures and tax revenues as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) to examine its impact on the certain measures of inclusive growth such as employment, income inequality and GDP per capita. This study provides useful insights for the policy makers using fiscal policy to achieve the goal of inclusive growth in developing countries.

THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONAL QUALITY IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FDI AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN VIETNAM: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM PROVINCIAL DATA

All investigations into the role of institutions in the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth conclude the impact of interaction between FDI and institutional quality on economic growth is significantly positive. Contrary to the conclusion of these studies, this paper finds it is significantly negative for a panel data of 43 provinces in Vietnam over the period 2005–2012 via the estimation method of difference panel GMM Arellano–Bond. In addition, the estimated results also show: (1) FDI inflows significantly foster economic growth; (2) Good institutional quality has a significantly positive impact while bad institutional quality has a negative albeit insignificant effect on economic growth. From the policy perspective, these findings signal an important message to developing countries that governments should carefully adjust policies and institutions because aside from attracting more FDI inflows and promoting the economic activities, it can also be detrimental to economic growth.

The Impact of Governance on Economic Growth: An Empirical Assessment in Sub-Saharan Africa

In recent decades, issues of good governance and its impact on the well-being of populations have been at the heart of debates among researchers and international organizations. This article examines the impact of governance on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. The panel data estimated shows that governance has a positive and significant impact on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa at the 1% threshold. An improvement of one unit of this composite governance indicator would lead to an increase in the economic growth of 19.43% on average. Effective governance and the rule of law are important determinants of economic growth. However, a country that improves these two indicators would encourage an increase in its economic growth. A better quality of institutions would reduce poverty through economic growth.

A simultaneous equation model of economic growth and shadow economy: Is there a difference between the developed and developing countries?

The shadow economy is a complex phenomenon present, to a large extent, in the developing, and the developed countries. This study builds a dynamic simultaneous equation model that establishes an inter-connection between economic growth and the shadow economy for 17 developing and 33 developed countries over the 2005–2015 period. Using the data of the shadow economy size from Medina and Schneider (2018), we found that the relationship between economic growth and the underground economy is unidirectional in the MENA countries, but it is bidirectional in the OECD countries. The results also suggested that institutional quality interacts strongly with the relationship between economic growth and the underground economy. More specifically, we found that a higher GDP per capita is associated with a smaller shadow economy in countries with a good institutional quality. However, in countries where institutional quality is low, the increase of GDP per capita does not influence the size of the underground economy.

Does institutional quality condition the effect of bank regulations and supervision on bank stability? Evidence from emerging and developing economies

Does institutional quality enhance or weaken the effect of bank regulations and supervision on bank stability? We use a sample of around 1050 commercial banks from 69 emerging and developing economies over the 2004–2013 period and show that the answer to this question depends on the type of institutional quality and on the type of bank regulation. Political stability strengthens the positive effect of capital regulation and activities restrictions on bank stability as measured by the z-score. Control of corruption also enhances the positive effect of activities restrictions on stability. On the other hand, the positive effect of capital regulation and private monitoring on stability subdues when good quality institutions that induce loan repayment, such as strong creditor rights and the rule of law, are present. Finally, we do not find strong evidence that the negative effect of supervisory power on bank stability is conditioned by institutional quality. In further analysis, we disaggregate the z-score measure and find that institutional quality conditions the effect of bank regulations on stability more by affecting profit stability and profitability rather than by influencing capitalisation. These findings could be useful for bank regulators in emerging and developing economies in the light of the implementation of the Basel III accord.

Democracy, Quality of Government, and Public Goods Provision: The Case of Water Management

A large strand of research has argued that democracy with its broad representation and electoral accountability is beneficial for the provision of public goods to the general population. However, there is a large variation in how the existing democratic regimes perform, implying that democratic institutions are not sufficient to secure people’s wellbeing. The aim of this paper is to explore the sources of this variation. With the point of departure in theories on democracy, quality of government, and public goods provision, we posit that the way democracies perform in the delivery of public goods to their citizens depends on the presence of good quality institutions that shape the implementation of public policies. Using a mixed method design, this paper both empirically tests this proposition and offers an in-depth investigation into the mechanisms behind the interdependent relationship. In the first stage of our analysis, we explicitly test the conditional effects of democracy and quality of government on public goods provision using water quality as an example of such public good. The results show that democracy is associated with higher water quality only in countries where quality of government is high. In contexts with low governmental quality, more democracy even seems to be associated with higher water pollution. In the second stage of our analysis, we proceed with examining the mechanisms of how poor quality of government disrupts the positive effects of democracy on people’s access to safe drinking water using interview data from a typical case of Moldova.

Institutional quality and export-led growth: an empirical study

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of institutional quality on the export-led growth (ELG) with global evidence of a panel of 119 countries.Design/methodology/approachThe research framework looks at the role of exports in promoting growth via. good institutional quality. The methods of testing are panel data approach of causality, and fixed and random effects models.FindingsEmpirical results show that good Institutional quality mediates the ELG relationship in general, and middle income group in specific. The legal institutional quality has significant positive impact, whereas political and economic institutional quality have significant negative impact on ELG for all sampled countries.Research limitations/implicationsThe Kuncic’s (2014) institutional quality data are annually available between 1990 and 2010. Therefore, time series analysis for individual country is bias with 21 observations. And, this study ignores other potential variables such as capital, labor, real exchange rate, and so on, may possibly contribute to omitted-variables bias.Practical implicationsPolicymakers may well utilize institutional quality reforms either in terms of improving existing institutional quality or enhancing “second-best” institutions as a policy instrument to reap success from export-oriented growth strategies.Originality/valueExisting studies on ELG have ignored institutional quality as a relevant variable. It looks at the three institutional quality indicators, namely political, economic, and legal in ELG framework.

Distributional Effects of Corruption When Enforcement is Biased: Theory and Evidence from Bribery in Schools in Bangladesh

In many models of corruption where enforcement is unbiased and the official maximizes her income, the rich are more likely to pay bribes for their children's education, implying that corruption reduces educational inequality. We develop models of bribery that reflect the fact that, in developing countries, anti-corruption enforcement is not unbiased, and higher income of a household is associated with higher bargaining power and better quality of institutions. In models of biased enforcement, the rich are less likely to pay bribes, making bribery regressive. The OLS estimates of the effects of household income are likely to find spurious progressivity in the incidence of bribery in schools. We exploit temporary rainfall shocks to provide suggestive evidence on the ability to pay effect, while long-term rainfall differences capture the combined 'poor people' and 'poor area' effects. The IV estimates show that the poor are more likely to pay bribes, and the amount paid does not depend on household income. The evidence rejects the ability to pay and related models based on unbiased enforcement and is consistent with the refusal to pay model of bargaining power where the rich decline to pay bribes. Free schooling'' is free only for the rich, and corruption makes the playing field skewed against the poor.

External and Internal Imbalances in South Mediterranean Countries

South–MED countries are characterising by non-diversified economic structures. Some are heavily dependent on oil resources to support their economic growth and development; while others are relying disproportionately on real estate, tourism and low-value added export products. This makes them vulnerable to external economic conditions. Together with the wider geo-political situation of the region, which fuels economic uncertainty, this creates significant threats and problems, including with regard to trade deficits and the current account (external imbalances). The domestic political situation is also not conducive to economic stability. Governments in South–MED countries are rather centralised and often lack transparent and good-quality institutions. In the economic sphere, this contributes to exacerbating budget deficits and escalating government debts (internal imbalances). In conjunction, internal and external imbalances both reflect and reinforce the inability of these economies to climb up the value-added ladder, developing more competitive products and specialisations that will help them achieve more sustainable economic growth, balanced fiscal stances and trade account surpluses. Within this context, and largely in response to the new risks that emerged in the financial sphere, with regard to both internal and external imbalances, after the global financial crisis, government policies in the South–MED adopted – sometimes harsh – economic reform programmes as a way to stabilise their economies and manage the associated risks. Adjustment programmes, however, are socially painful and may also have adverse effects on the economy, thus increasing further the fragility of these economies and threatening a further deterioration of their external position. This raises two analytically interesting and, in policy terms, very pressing questions about, on the one hand, the extent and nature of internal and external imbalances in these countries and, on the other hand, the appropriateness of the adjustment policies that were pursued. This study provides an extensive analysis of these issues, focusing on the case of six South–MED countries, namely Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia. It examines in detail the internal and external imbalances of these countries, over the last three decades, both descriptively (through the use of graphs) and econometrically (through time-series econometric techniques). It subsequently reviews the range of adjustment programmes, austerity policies and other macro-economic adjustment mechanisms (e.g., exchange rate policies) that were deployed in these countries to deal with the internal and external threats to stability and, by reflecting on these two lines of research, it provides useful insights about the effectiveness and appropriateness of these policy responses in addressing the problem at hand.

INTERNATIONAL APPROACHES TO TACKLING CORRUPTION: WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN’T?

A well-developed set of international anti-corruption tools now exists. These range from broad conventions to focused initiatives in specific policy areas. This article argues that international agreements work best when they are focused and they speak to the common interests of the parties involved. Solutions need to be creative, they need to bring in a broad coalition of stakeholders and they need to be focused on specific problems. International agreements need to help states with good quality institutions of governance focus on developing transparency initiatives, accountability drives and nuanced efforts to tackle particular national variants of “legal corruption.” In countries with patchy institutions of governance the scope for international influence is broader, while in states with serious governance challenges the best international anti-corruption efforts will often have surprisingly little to do with corruption at all. In a state where the rule of law is patchy or non-existent then anti-corruption laws (or indeed laws more generally) mean very little. The challenge here is to improve the basic tools of governance in the knowledge that only then can the issue of corruption be brought on to the agenda.

Institutional quality and agglomeration of fast food multinationals in Latin American cities

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the location decision of multinationals across major cities in Latin America. Based on agglomeration economics and institutional theory, the paper explores whether institutional quality of a city can temper the attraction of agglomeration factors.Design/method/approachThe paper analyzes the geographic dispersion of three global fast-food franchise networks in 45 Latin American cities. The explanatory variables are horizontal aggregation of other multinationals and the institutional quality of a city. The direct and indirect impacts of horizontal agglomeration are explored through negative binomial regression with controls for city population and economic power [gross domestic product (GDP)].FindingsThe key finding is that location choice of fast-food networks is driven principally by market conditions and to a lesser extent by horizontal agglomeration. The institutional quality of a city has a positive influence on the agglomeration of fast-food networks. A city with strong institutional quality makes this relation stronger.Research limitationsOther multinational and national fast-food franchises are not included in the paper. Future studies should include a greater number of global and local fast-food franchisers.Practical implicationsThe positive reinforcements of agglomeration and strong institution are important for the investment location decision of fast-food multinationals. The institutional quality of the city should be an important consideration in the location decision as it expands regionally and within a country. Smaller cities may not offer the agglomeration advantages of the large metropolitan areas, but their good institutional quality may reduce the business costs for multinationals.Social implicationsLarge cities in Latin America tend to reap the benefits of agglomeration. As a result, smaller secondary cities struggle to be relevant in generating economic activity and attracting private investments. One strategy to achieve relevance is to build strong and transparent institutions and a solid business environment.Originality/valueThe inclusion of institutional quality at the city level as moderation of the agglomeration factors influencing the location decision of a multinational is original. This paper contributes to our understanding of the importance of regional cities in attracting the investment of multinational firms.