Browsing by Author "Kwatia, B.O."

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    Does personal freedom matter for financial development in Africa?
    (Cogent Economics & Finance, 2024) Kwatia, B.O.; Amewu,G.; Armah,M.
    t has repeatedly been claimed that institutions play an important, and decisive role in economic development. Many studies have analyzed the effect of formal institutions on financial development while informal institutions have received less attention. With this paper, we contribute to the effect of personal freedom as a measure for informal institutions on financial development using annual data from 40 African countries spanning 2000 to 2020. We employ the novel fixed effect panel quantile regression technique. The study documents that, in the upper quantile, personal freedom nega tively and significantly affects financial development. This finding explicates that, a low level of personal freedom restricts human choices, limiting personal participation in the development of the financial system in Africa. Thus, personal freedom is important for Africa’s financial development. The study recommends that policymakers rally resolute support to defend and protect human rights and personal liberties that encourage human choices. Additionally, the findings intuitively reinforce the pre-requisite for African governments to regularly evaluate policies that promote financial sector development, particularly economic freedom and government expenditures
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    Religiosity and financial development in Africa: evidence from panel quantile regression
    (Cogent Business & Management, 2024) Kwatia, B.O.; Amewu, G.; Armah, M.
    As secularism is increasing and religious diversity is regaining momentum worldwide, It is important to understand how systemic religious differences have influenced financial development in Africa. To this end, this study seeks to investigate the impact of religiosity on financial development in Africa by using freedom of religion to proxy religiosity and domestic credit to the private sector to proxy financial development covered from 2000 to 2020. The results from the panel quantile regression show that religiosity is negatively associated with the use of financial services across the quantile. whereas freedom of association, assembly, and civil society, and security and safety are marginally stronger within the lower, middle, and upper quantiles. The findings underscore that fundamental human rights exert significant influence on financial development in Africa. Our findings contribute to literature by expanding knowledge on the role of personal freedom on economic activities; hence, African governments and policymakers constitutionalize freedom as a fundamental human right, as freedom matters for financial development in Africa