Department of Banking and Finance
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://197.255.125.131:4000/handle/123456789/23056
Browse
336 results
Search Results
Item Government-Led digital transformation in FinTech ecosystems(Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 2024-08-01) Senyo,K.P.; Karanasios,S.; Agbloyor,K.E.; Choudrie,J.In this paper, we report on a qualitative exploratory case study of a national-level government-led digital transformation. We depart from most studies on government digital transformation that largely focus on improving existing services, bureaucratic processes, or adopting emerging digital technologies. Instead, we analyze the process of a government-led digital transformation aimed at addressing significant institutional voids within a resource-constrained context. Drawing from 60 interviews with stakeholders in the Ghanaian FinTech ecosystem, we theorize the concept of digital branching strategy as an alternative lens to envisage government-led digital transformation that considers the resource-constrained context and characteristics of governments. Our findings show that governments, especially those in resource-constrained contexts, pursue digital transformation through exploring frugal innovations and leveraging established resources, structures, and relationships within an ecosystem. We subsequently develop a process model to explain the mechanisms of a national-level government-led digital transformation. Based on the findings and the model, our study offers critical insights to re-imagine government-led digital transformation in resource-constrained contexts by demonstrating how pursuing a digital branching strategy leads to planned and emergent outcomes because of the generative nature of the transformationItem Financial inclusion and inclusive growth in Africa: What is the moderation role of financial stability?(Cogent Economics & Finance, 2023) Iddrisu, K.; Abor, J.Y.; Doku, J.N.; Dziwornu, R.This article aims to explore the interplay between financial stability, financial inclusion and inclusive growth in 40 African countries during the period 2004–2020. It acknowledges that an unstable financial system has the potential to erode confidence and hinder the essence of financial inclusion in promoting inclusive growth. However, studies regarding the combined effect of financial inclusion and financial stability on inclusive growth are hard to find, especially in Africa. By examining the effects of financial inclusion on inclusive growth and the synergistic relationship between financial stability and inclusive growth, this study seeks to shed light on how these factors interact in the context of African economies. To To cater for endogeneity issues, we used a two-step system-generalized method of moment. Our result reveals three outcomes: First, financial inclusion promotes inclusive growth. Second, financial stability alone is less effective at enhancing inclusive growth. Lastly, financial stability forms synergy with financial inclusion to further spike inclusive growth. It is recommended that policymakers strive to enhance financial inclusion by promoting financial stability.Item Challenges of income diversification and food security in Northern rural Ghana(Cogent Social Sciences, 2023) Salifu, G.A.; Salifu, Z.The relationship between income diversification and food security gained considerable attention in the academic literature in the last two decades. Smallholder farmers undertake income diversification activities to ensure improved food security amidst changing patterns of climate and rural socio-demographics. Understanding the challenges of smallholder farmers in income diversification strategies is critical to assessing the effectiveness of food security measures in savannah regions threatened by weather variability and environmental shocks. This study aims to shed light on the challenges of income diversification in Northern rural Ghana and to add to the growing body of research seeking to understand the challenges of income diversification and its link to the food security status of smallholder farmers in the deprived context of rural Africa. By exploiting a unique sample of 500 agricultural households in rural Ghana, we show that income diversification and the food security status of smallholders are positively related to both food access and nutritional diversity. Our results show that income diversification played a significant role in improving food access and dietary consumption. Highly diversified households were more likely to report being food secure as higher income diversification translated into higher incomes and food security. The single most important factor which stood out as an explanatory variable for food security in Northern rural Ghana was spousal incomes generated from diversification. Spousal incomes accounted for (29.2%) of the share of total household incomes used to purchase food for farm families in distress seasons. The findings support the use of spousal income diversification pathways as a means of reducing the negative impacts of food insecurity in the Yendi and Bimbilla Municipalities of the Northern Region. The study highlights the need for Ghana’s economic policy frameworks to address the following three cardinal challenges of income diversification : (1) poor access to start-up capital or funds, (2) poor condition of infrastructure, and (3) high costs of transportation, directly linked to the underdevelopment of Northern Ghana.Item Environmental disclosures and financial performance amid banking crisis and COVID-19: evidence from Ghana(Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, 2024) Opuni-Frimpong, J.; Akomaning, J. O.; Ofori-Boafo, R.Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of environmental disclosures (END) on the corporate financial performance (CFP) of listed companies in Ghana before and during the Banking crisis (BKC) and the COVID-19 pandemic (COV). Design/methodology/approach – This study used data from 16 companies listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange between 2012 and 2021. The END Index was used, which uses percentile ranking and is guided by Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. A diverse set of empirical tests were used to examine whether ENDs affect CFP during crises. Findings – The study offered support for the stakeholder and signalling theories generally applied to the study of END. The results confirmed that ENDs have a significant positive effect on CFP measures, return on equity and earnings per share, before and during the crises. The BKC and COV had no impact on the CFP. Practical implications – As Ghana is still recovering from the 2017 to 2020 BKC and COV, the findings of this study highlight the need for managers to embrace END reporting and engagement strategies to improve CFP and firm reputation. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the effect of END on CFP in the context of before and considering the Ghanaian BKC and COV. In addition, it is one of the few studies that investigates how ENDs affect the CFP of Ghanaian-listed firms.Item Effective monetary policy, banks’ pricing behaviour and human development in Africa(International Journal of Banking Accounting and Finance, 2022) Iddrisu, A.G.; Abor, J.Y.; Andani, A.This paper empirically examines the effect of monetary policy effectiveness on human development in Africa. We employ both micro-bank level and macro-country-level data. Bank-level data is taken from the bank scope database maintained by Fitch, IBCA, and Bureau Van Dijk. Series are yearly, covering a sample of 320 banks across 29 African countries. Panel fixed effects, random effects and IV regressions were estimated for the period 2002 to 2013. For our IV estimation, the paper explores an instrumental variable based on the fact that effective monetary policy is conditional on the independence of the central bank. The regression results that ensued suggest that first, effective monetary policy translates to high banks’ loan and deposit prices. Building on these results and employing various specifications of banks’ pricing strategy, the second test suggests that high banks’ pricing induced by effective monetary policy tends to increase human development. Results of the net effects eventually suggest that effective monetary policy, overall, does not improve human development.Item The impact of economic outlook on green fnance: insights from linkages between green and infation‑indexed bonds(Environment, Development and Sustainability, 2023) Le, T.; Abakah, E.J.A.; Goodell, J.W.; et al.While inflation-indexed bonds focus on mitigating the impact of inflation and preserving the purchasing power of investors, green bonds prioritize investments in environmentally responsible projects. These bond types offer distinct investment opportunities that cater to the diverse preferences and objectives of investors. With this in mind, this study aims to explore the dynamic relationship between inflation-indexed bonds and green bonds using wavelet analysis, quantile regression, and the Diebold-Yilmaz procedures for the period spanning October 2016 to January 2021. By considering green bonds as indicative of green energy outlooks and inflation-indexed bonds as a reflection of overall economic conditions, we investigate the hypothesis that inflation-indexed bonds dominate green bonds within a sample of emerging markets. Our findings reveal significant interdependence between green bonds and inflation-indexed bonds across various wavelet time scales. Consistent According to recent research, inflation-indexed bonds exhibit a dominant influence on the relationship, while the nature of this dependence alternates between positive and negative. Furthermore, quantile connectedness analysis demonstrates that spillover transmissions are more pronounced during extreme positive and negative market conditions. The outcomes of this study hold relevance for both investors and policymakers alike.Item Integration between emerging market equity and global markets; is it fundamental or noisy? Evidence from wavelet denoised volatility spillover analysis in time and frequency domain(Applied Economics, 2022) Jena, S.K.; Abakah, E.J.A.; Tiwari, A.K.; Roubaud, D.The study investigates the integration between the five largest emerging stock markets, Morgan Stanley Capital Emerging Market Index, and global financial markets like the US S&P 500, Brent Crude Oil and Dollar Index based on wavelet denoised volatility spillover in time and frequency domain using forecasted error variance decomposition framework. It is found that the impact of noise on connectedness is more pronounced in the short run and declines in the longer term. Further, long-term connectedness which is much higher than that of short-term connectedness confirms the existence of fundamental (noisy) concernedness in the long (short) term. The impact of noise varies by time and frequency. The policy implications are discussed.Item 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 expendituresItem Board Characteristics, Ownership Structures and Gender Diversity on Bank Risk-taking Behavior of Banks in Ghana(African Journal of Business and Economic Research, 2022) Musah, A.; Boye, G.N.A.; Okyere, B.; Dodor, C.T.The study examined the effect of board characteristics, ownership structure and gender diversity on bank risk-taking behaviour in Ghana. The study sampled 15 commercial banks in Ghana over a 10-year period, where data was analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and regression analysis. The analysis showed that board characteristics such as board size, the proportion of non-executive directors on the board, board chairperson independence as well as female representation on the board of banks in Ghana are significant determinants of bank risk-taking behaviour. The result shows that while board size, the proportion of non-executive directors on the board and female representation are associated with higher risk-taking behavior. chairperson independence is associated with lower bank risk-taking behaviour. On the ownership variables, the study found that foreign ownership and government ownership were significant determinants of bank risk-taking behavior, while managerial ownership was statistically insignificant. On the significant ownership structure variables: foreign ownership reduces bank risk-taking, while government ownership increases bank risk-taking. Female CEO was statistically insignificant, even though it is positively associated with bank's risk-taking level. The results show that corporate governance variables and ownership structures are significant determinants of bank risk-taking behaviourItem Tail risk dependence, co-movement and predictability between green bond and green stocks(Applied Economics, 2022) Tiwari, A.K.; Abakah, E.J.A.; Yaya, O.S.; Appiah, K.O.This paper examines the coherence of extreme returns between green bonds and a unique set of green stocks. We use the novel quantile cross-spectral coherence methodology of quantile spectral coherency model, cross-quantilogram correlation approach, windowed time-lagged cross-correlation, and windowed scalogram difference models as estimation techniques. The study period spans from 28 November 2008 to 23 September 2020. Our measure of green stocks comprises the constituents of the MSCI Global Environment Price Index: Alternative Energy, Green Building, Pollution Prevention or Clean Technology while our green bond market is proxied by S&P Green Bond Index. We find the dependency between Green Bonds and green stocks to be weak, and this is high during market downturn periods in the short- to medium-term dynamics. This suggests that Green Bonds do act as a hedge, diversifier, or safe-haven instrument for environment portfolio in the short-term, medium-term and long-term dynamics during bearish market conditions. We conclude that green bonds and green stocks are two distinct asset classes with a distinct risk-return profile despite their common climate-friendly nature.