Regional Economic Development Research

Missing Transformational Place Leadership-Why High-Tech Industries are not Developed in Hong Kong

Yifei Sun, Erik Baark — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0800

This paper adopts a place leadership perspective to examine the failed efforts of developing high-tech industries in Hong Kong. It demonstrates that it is challenging to change from transactional to transformational leadership and argues that the failure of developing high-tech industries in Hong Kong is partially attributable to the lack of transformational political and business leaderships. The political leaders' ineffectiveness in developing hightech industries in Hong Kong is also attributable to the regional/national/international institutional structural forces that have created both opportunities and challenges. This study contributes to the discussion on the critical value of transformational place leadership for creating new local/regional economic growth path and the embeddedness of place leadership in local/regional/national political and economic institutions.

External Debt and Poverty Headcount Ratio in West African Countries: Does Governance Matter?

Michael Kouadio, Moukaila Mouzamilou Takpara, Romuald GUÉDÉ — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0800

This paper analyses the link between external debt and poverty headcount ratio in the fifteen (15) West African countries, taking into account governance. Using the feasible generalized least squares (GLS) panel method for the period 1996-2021, we find that an increase in external debt contributes to the worsening poverty headcount ratio in the region. Then, enhancing governance while borrowing external funds does improve the poverty level. The regression shows that in West African Countries, governance indicators as well as the composite index of governance and the interaction term (governance composite index* external debt) contribute significantly to the reduction of the poverty rate. Therefore, there is a need for West African governments to be cautious when borrowing external funds and work towards sustainable debt management to prevent negative effects on poverty rates. In addition, the level of good governance should be improved in external debt management and poverty ratio reduction.

A Comparative Assessment of the Contribution of Foreign Direct Investment to Economic Development of Nigeria and Ghana

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Generally, sub-Saharan countries suffer setbacks in regard to capital accumulation necessary to sponsor investment demands, thus promoting economic development. As a result, they look out for foreign sources such as foreign direct investment (FDI) to augment the investment-saving gap. Recently, due to global shake-ups and uncertainty, there has been a drastic fluctuation in the level of FDI inflow into the West African sub-region, especially in the two giant economies of Nigeria and Ghana. This attracted the attention of this research work. Thus, this study comparatively reassesses the contribution of FDI inflow to the economic development of these giant economies from 1980 to 2020 to determine which one of them benefits the most given the fluctuation in FDI inflows. The outcome reveals that FDI inflows have a significant influence on the economic development of both economies. In Nigeria particularly, evidence shows a strong positive correlation between FDI and Gross Domestic Product Per Capita (GDPPC), implying that the Nigerian economy is investment-driven in the period under consideration. Essentially, the Nigerian economy can achieve its desired development with FDI support. Similarly, findings indicate that FDI inflows into Ghana have a strong positive impact on economic development. Thus, a recommendation is made for the Ghanaian government to source more foreign resources by opening her economic borders wide for global integration. Pursuance of trade liberation policy for the purpose of attracting more foreign resources is critical to the attainment of sustainable economic development in both economies. Policy actions enabling stable macroeconomic conditions and a peaceful environment for smooth investment operations are key factors guaranteeing economic development.