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This study examines whether movement out of agriculture accelerates productivity convergence in West Africa. We assemble an annual country panel for 16 West African economies over 2000–2023 from the World Development Indicators, Penn World Table 11.0 and Worldwide Governance Indicators. The estimable dynamic specification contains 237 country-year observations for 11 economies because the Penn World Table human-capital series determines the common complete-case sample. A pre-specified two-step System GMM model is rejected because second-order serial correlation is significant and the Hansen test is uninformative. Inference therefore rests on a dynamic country-and-year fixed-effects model with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors, supplemented by a first-order Nickell-bias assessment and a three-sector shift-share decomposition. Labour productivity is conditionally convergent: the lag coefficient is 0.841, implying a four-year half-life, or about 9.7 years under the conservative bias approximation. Capital deepening is positive and statistically precise, while manufacturing, services and agricultural-employment shares are not separately significant. This absence of statistical precision does not imply that structural transformation is irrelevant: employment reallocation contributes positively in all 16 economies. Regionally, within-sector gains account for 75.2% of observed productivity change, reallocation for 29.3%, and the interaction term for −4.5%. Policy should combine labour mobility with capital formation and productivity upgrading inside agriculture, manufacturing and services rather than pursue sector-share targets alone.

Over the years, productivity performance has been the subject that generated enormous interest amongst economic scholars.  This shows the value of productivity on business growth.  Hence, the implementation of improved interventions for productivity improvement requires appropriate innovative practices for industries.  This sentiment supports the importance of innovation for productivity improvement.   Consequently, this study assesses the influence of innovation on labour productivity in an automotive assembly organisation in South Africa.  It has been established that the manufacturing industry in South Africa has low labour productivity compared with its BRICS counterpart countries like Russia, India and China.  As a result, this study centres its attention on innovation, considering low levels of labour productivity in the manufacturing sector of South Africa. It was quantitative in design and the investigation was achieved by collecting pre-and post-innovative quarterly data for spoilage and the achievement of production targets.  The study analysed the production and related experiences of an automotive assembly organisation, operating in KwaZulu-Natal in the eThekwini Municipality that had adopted an innovative seat-handling manipulator in its assembly process.  The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model, using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), was used to analyse data.  The study indicates that spoilage rate and the achievement of production targets have the relationship with labour productivity after an innovative seat handling manipulator was implemented in the organisation.

This research examines the correlation between human capital and economic growth in South Africa. Human capital is represented by Government Expenditure on Health (GEH), Government Expenditure on Education (GEE), and Secondary School Enrolment (SER). Notwithstanding substantial investments in these domains, South Africa has enduring economic difficulties, prompting apprehensions regarding the efficacy of existing human capital policies. This research aims to evaluate the influence of differences in GEH, GEE, and SER on economic productivity, consequently guiding policy decisions. We utilised a quantitative methodology employing annual time series data obtained from the World Bank and the South African Reserve Bank. The analysis incorporated unit root tests (ADF) to determine data stationarity and Johansen cointegration tests to examine long-term correlations among the variables. The data indicate that GEH positively influences economic productivity, suggesting a correlation between increased health spending and elevated GDP. Conversely, SER exhibits a negative correlation with economic growth, indicating that merely augmenting enrolment numbers does not yield enhanced economic results. While Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has a favourable correlation with economic growth, it is statistically insignificant. The report advocates for South Africa to prioritise educational quality over enrolment figures and to ensure continuous investment in healthcare services. Furthermore, subsequent research ought to investigate the ramifications of human capital within particular sectors, such as tourism, to yield focused policy recommendations for fostering economic growth.

This research work examines the impacts of foreign aids and human capital on economic growth of African oil and non-oil producing countries. Adopting the time series data from 2000 to 2021, the study employs Westerlund Error Correction Based panel cointegration test to investigate the impacts of Physical Capital (FA, GCF, FDI), Human Capital (EDU, HLT) and Policy Variables (REV, EXR) on Gross Domestic Product growth rate (GDPgr). Findings from results of the study affirms that there is a long-term co-movement between the GDPgr and the explanatory variables (FA, GCF, FDI, EDU, HLT, REV, EXR) of both African oil and non-oil producing countries. The study also reveals that foreign aids are better effectively put into use in the African non-oil producing countries than in the oil producing countries. Findings in the study equally confirm that financial resources in the African non-oil producing countries are better efficiently spent on human capital and domestic investment than in the African oil producing countries. The study further shows that revenue generation and foreign exchange earnings stimulate growth better in the African oil producing countries than the non-oil countries counterparts in Africa.  

Education is generally considered to be the core source of individuals’ better life and countries' economic and social development. Consequently, attending university and getting high qualifications are perceived as tools that generate and enhance economic growth. The current study aimed to analyse the effect of various educational levels on South African economic growth. The study employed quarterly data from 1995Q1 to 2021Q4. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model was employed to assess both long-run and short-run relationships among variables. The long-run results revealed that people who completed their grade 12 (with matric certificate) and bachelor's degrees contribute positively to South African economic growth. However, honours and higher degrees (master's and PhD) were found to have an inverse relationship with economic growth in South Africa. On the other hand, the short-run relationship indicated that all education levels contribute to economic growth in the short term. Based on these findings, the author suggests that the South African higher education curriculum should be revised as the negative effect of high education towards economic growth should be resulting in growing unemployment and graduates waiting to be employed rather than creating jobs themselves. Additionally, increasing job creation for graduates with higher qualifications would reduce the number of graduates that leave the country looking for employment abroad.

Labour, entrepreneurship, and technology are important components in the success of GDP Per capita, the existing workforce is not only fixated by numbers but also must be focused on quality to have a significant impact, in addition to the ability and desire of a nation to grow interested in becoming entrepreneurs. This research base on Solow and Swan's Theory said that economic growth was influenced by the growth of production factors such as population, labor, and capital accumulation, as well as the level of technological progress described in the development of knowledge. There is an element of technological progress in the Solow-Swan model which is the main differentiator from the Harrod-Domar growth model.  This study used 42 observers consisting of 7 ASEAN countries, namely; Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Cambodia, using multiple linear regression and using classical assumption test. The research method in this study uses multiple linear regression of panel data, using the classical assumption test. To get the best model, the data will be tested for Pool Effect, Fix Effect and Random Effects Models, while the determination of the best model is based on the results of the Chow and Hausman tests. The results are shown that labor does not have a significant influence on GDP Per Capita revenue, while the entrepreneurship Index (GEI) and Technology Index (GII) variables have a positive and significant impact on GDP Per Capita revenue. The workforce hasn't affected, which is broadly described in this study because the absorption of labor has not been optimal or the provision of jobs whose proportions are not balanced with the number of the workforce.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyze the demographic bonus from the perspective of human capital in Indonesia. This research methodology uses qualitative methods and uses literature and documentation study techniques. This research data comes from secondary data sources, based on literature studies, and is analyzed descriptively qualitatively which emphasizes the use of scientific logic. The results of the study found that Indonesia is in a very good demographic bonus position, and is expected to be able to take advantage of the age structure, especially the portion of the productive age which has the potential to be the main driver of economic growth. Therefore, the government must have a supporting policy to encourage economic growth by having a strategy and implementing competency-based training (CBT) through the implementation of Deming's (1986) plan-do-check-action (PDCA) as a human resource development program that includes material for integrating technical skills and competencies in the form of skills, competencies, and the right point of view or character to make students become professionals. On the other hand, the government is expected to be able to create jobs and open up a wide work environment for young people, the workforce skilled as human capital.

The Human Development Index (HDI), which measures a country’s human development level, considering the health, education and income indicators of countries has been published in the Human Development Report each year since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme. Norway, which is a highly developed country, was at the top of the Human Development Index. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate Norway’s human development performance. In this context, the relationship between human development and economic growth has been examined at empirical level for Norway for the period between 1990-2017. In the study, firstly, ADF and PP unit root tests were performed. Then, Granger causality analysis was applied. According to the results of Granger causality analysis there is a one-way causality relationship from human development to economic growth.

The purpose of this paper is to find out if selected determinants have any effect on the economic growth rate using the strong balanced panel data for the Western Balkan countries for the period 2001-2017, and the data used are on an annual basis, which in total there are 102 observation periods. For the realization of the paper, secondary data and an advanced dynamic approach were used, such as pooled OLS methods, fixed and random effects model, to test economic growth rate as dependent variable, and explanatory variables such as working remittances to GDP, exports to GDP, imports to GDP, foreign direct investment to GDP and inflation rate.  From the generated outputs, it is true to say that working remittances to GDP, exports to GDP, and imports to GDP have an effect that influences economic growth, respectively GDP growth. Even though foreign direct investment to GDP and inflation rate does not have a significant effect on economic growth, respectively GDP growth.   Keywords: Economic growth; macroeconomic determinants; panel data. JEL code: O47, O11, C23  

Total factor productivity (TFP) as a source of economic growth, has been recognized in economic theory for a long period of time. In this research we tried to examine the effect of some macroeconomic factors, which include trade openness, inflation, government expenditure, credit extended and foreign direct investment, and natural disaster drought on total factor productivity and its trend in Ethiopia by using Time series data spanning from 1991 to 2018.  The TFP was computed by using the growth accounting method from Cobb–Douglas production function.  ARDL was used for estimation of the short and long run econometric model.  Accordingly, the trend analysis shows the growth in TFP has been fluctuating over the study period. The result from ARDL indicated that; in long run foreign direct investment, government expenditure and drought negatively and significantly affect TFP. Credit extended is found to affect TFP positively and significantly, while inflation and trade openness are insignificant. Therefore, policies such as; subsidizing domestic firms, effective government spending and making the agriculture sector drought resistant need to be stimulated.

This paper x-rayed the concept, measurement and, patterns of economic development. In doing this, the paper reviewed a vast literature on concepts, measurement of economic development and, economic development patterns and their effects on growth indicators as well as on the quality of life components. This literature was sourced from known academic databases. From the overview of the concept, measurement of economic development and, economic development patterns and their relationship between growth indicators as well as the quality of life components the following were found; as new challenges emerge, the horizon of the concept of economic development expands to accommodate the prevailing challenges. Economic development has no conventional measure/indicator that completely captures it process and, there are various economic development patterns use in tackling the problem of economic growth and quality of life, some of which are; knowledge-based, trade-based, saving-based and ethnic-religious-based pattern. Future studies may use these concepts/measurements of economic development and patterns of economic development and, validate their significance using statistical methods.

This work investigates convergence among regions of Turkey with neoclassical exogenous growth perspective. According to results, it can be stated that there is a tendency of convergence among the regions of Turkey. However, there is an important crisis (2008 crisis) in the investigation period of this study in which the tendency of convergence increases. Besides, descriptive statistics show that during the crisis, the speed of convergence increases, however, apart from crisis and post-crisis, excess capacity periods it is impossible to state that there is convergence among regions of Turkey. On the other side, descriptive statistics show that periods without economic crisis also do not indicate divergence. Therefore, it cannot be stated that there is divergence or convergence among regions of Turkey for the investigation period of this study but the main conclusion is that crisis has a positive impact with respect to closing income differences among regions.

This study investigates how the development of human capital is related to economic growth in Nigeria from 1980 to 2015. Data were sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria and the National Bureau of Statistics. The study employed Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) to estimate the relationship among the variables used in this study which revealed that there is a positive long-run relationship among public expenditure on education and health, total school enrolment, gross capital formation, employment rate, life expectancy rate and economic growth. The study recommended that the government should put in place the required education and training policy that would guarantee quality schooling for different level of education. Government should also commit more funds to health sector to enhance human capital formation. It was also recommended there should be more pragmatic means to develop human capabilities.