September 2010

Estimating the growth-maximizing tax rate for Cote d’Ivoire: Evidence and implications

  This paper investigates the optimal tax burden for the Ivorian economy. To address this issue, the empirical analysis was conducted using both Scully and quadratic regression models and annual data covering the period from 1960 to 2006. These models suggest that the growth-maximizing tax rate is in the range of 21.1 to 22.3% of GDP. At that tax rate, the economic growth rate would be around 6.2% instead of...

Author(s): Yaya Keho

September 2010

Exploring the causality relationship between trade liberalization, human capital and economic growth: Empirical evidence from Pakistan

  There is a rapidly growing literature on the interaction between trade liberalization and economic growth but few have analyzed the relationship between trade liberalization, human capital and economic growth. This paper attempts to investigate empirically the causality relationship between trade liberalization, human capital and economic growth in Pakistan by employing co-integration and granger causality...

Author(s): Imran Sharif Chaudhry, Ali Malik and Muhammad Zahir Faridi

September 2010

External reserve holdings in Nigeria: Implications for investment, inflation and exchange rate

  The paper investigates the impact of change in external reserve positions of Nigeria on domestic investment, inflation rate and exchange rate. Using a combination of ordinary least square (OLS) and vector error correction (VEC) methods, it was observed that change in external reserves in the country only influences foreign direct investment (FDI) and exchange rates and no influence of it was found on domestic...

Author(s): Usman Abdullateef and Ibrahim Waheed

September 2010

Some empirical literature evidence on the effects of independent directors on firm performance

  This work is a review of existing literature on the effectiveness of independent directors at ensuring superior firm performance. The study finds that the evidence in this regard are not only mixed, but may also be culture-bound because while some studies, especially most of those structured and conducted in the US, find no positive relationship between the presence of independence directors on the board and...

Author(s): Ronald Chibuike Iwu-Egwuonwu