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Item Consumer-Driven Sustainability? Issues in Turning Consumer Concern about Sustainability into Choices in the Marketplace(2016-01-29) Grunert, K.G.People are concerned about sustainability, but this concern is not necessarily mirrored in their choices when they go shopping. Different explanations have been brought forward for this apparent gap between attitude and behavior. One is that attitude and behavior stem from different roles – people are concerned about sustainability as a citizen, but as a consumer they have other concerns, like getting value for money and pleasing their family. Another explanation is that sustainability is a complex concept, and that people may have difficulties in evaluating whether something has been sustainably produced – in fact, some ways of production that people assume are not sustainable may in fact be good for the environment and for the future of mankind. The talk will address consumer perceptions of primary production (taking pig production as an example), consumer perception of technologies, and the impact that information about sustainability related issues can have on consumer choices in the marketplace.Item Understanding How Democracy Limits Public Sector Reforms in Ghana(2016-10-14) Appiah, D.; Abdulai, A-G.Ghana – Africa’s so-called model for democratic good governance – has implemented several donor-sponsored public sector reforms (PSR) in an attempt to improve core areas of state functionality, but the impact of such reforms remains generally disappointing. In this paper, we show that the nature of democratic competitive elections in Ghana is central to understanding the country’s limited success in improving the effectiveness of public institutions. Faced with a credible threat of losing power to excluded factions in competitive elections, reform initiatives tend to be driven largely by the logic of pursuing short-term projects that could deliver votes to maintain the ruling coalition rather than pursuing long term PSR to enhance the developmental effectiveness of state institutions. This has often resulted in decisions that undermine reform efforts, ranging from needless and costly institutional duplication to the wholesale removal of champions of PSR associated with previous regimes. Reform discontinuities across ruling coalitions is a norm, undermining the impact of reform initiatives that require a longer-time horizon to bear fruit.Item Firm Productivity in the Presence of Binding Fiscal Constraints in Africa(2016-04-22) Bokpin, G.We examine two key questions in this paper. First, we investigate the implications of fiscal indiscipline or otherwise on firm productivity in Africa. Fiscal policy is known to boost growth by altering work and investment incentives, promoting human capital accumulation, and enhancing total factor productivity at the micro-level (IMF, 2015). Many factors have been studied in explaining total factor productivity in Africa or its sub-regions but the role of fiscal policy in explaining firm productivity remains understudied. Yet fiscal policy is considered a binding constraint in Africa. Fiscal indiscipline is known to crowd-out the private sector and seriously undermines private sector leadership in ensuring all inclusive, broad-based growth. We measure firm-level total factor productivity using a Cobb-Douglas production function, when we regress on firm characteristics and fiscal policy indicators. In estimations with controls for country and year fixed effects, we find results that suggests firms reporting finance as a severe obstacle have relatively lower productivity levels, productivity declined with age, and audited firms are more productive than those not audited. The level of government debt to GDP, we found, had significant implications for the relation between access to finance severity and firm productivity. Fiscal Indiscipline (in its various forms) severely constraints firm productivity. The implications are that fiscal mismanagement has implications for firm-level productivity.Item ‘The World Beyond the Horizon”(2016-04-15) Nellis, J.In recent decades the world has been transformed by unprecedented economic and political developments. A new world order is shaping up with the establishment of new markets and growth opportunities. The globalisation of trade and finance has driven fundamental changes across the world alongside the rapid development of some emerging economies. Globalisation has also brought about an increasing interdependence between nations, institutions and people. In tandem, we are witnessing major social trends including, for example, the ageing of populations in the most developed economies. This contrasts sharply with the rapid growth of populations, urbanisation and educational investment in many developing countries. Innovations in technology have connected people in radically new ways. We all now have access to an almost infinite volume and range of information and knowledge. At little or no cost. The internet has killed distance! The world is becoming ever more diverse and complex – and riskier. This makes it increasingly challenging for everyone to respond appropriately. This presentation will explore this rapidly changing landscape beyond the horizon by identifying and highlighting the impact of some of the most significant trends and the implications for society, government and business.Item Stop Firing the Guns!: Conflict Mitigates the Positive Effect of FDI on Economic Growth.(2016-03-18) Agbloyor, E.K.This paper reexamines the relationship between FDI and economic growth in SSA. For the first time in this area of study, the paper examines this relationship after sifting out the effect of wars. We examine the empirical relations using a Two-Step SGMM estimator with orthogonal deviations, small sample size adjustments and robust standard errors. We find that in the full sample FDI does not exert any influence on economic growth. However, when we drop countries that have been affected by conflict, we see clearly in accordance with economic theory, that FDI has a positive influence on growth. In addition, alternative approaches using dummy variables to represent countries that have been plagued by conflict suggest that the effect of FDI on growth is lower in conflict affected countries. Finally, we find empirical support for what we term the ‘good boy’ hypothesis. Countries that have entered into war only once, exited war and never returned to war for a minimum of six years do not produce a negative interaction with FDI. These countries are now able to benefit from FDI. In essence, these countries have been ‘purged’ from the war tag. First, these results reveal the shortfalls of the many studies that have found a negative or no impact of FDI on growth. If countries want to grow and benefit from FDI, then they must strive to avoid violent conflicts! For countries that have already entered into war, avoiding a recurrence also pays significant dividends. Risk Management and InsuranceCollection