IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i3p1220-d730302.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Key Drivers of Public Debt Levels: Empirical Evidence from Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Seth Nana Kwame Appiah-Kubi

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, 16500 Prague, Czech Republic)

  • Karel Malec

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, 16500 Prague, Czech Republic)

  • Joseph Phiri

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, 16500 Prague, Czech Republic)

  • Mikhail Krivko

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, 16500 Prague, Czech Republic)

  • Kamil Maitah

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, 16500 Prague, Czech Republic)

  • Mansoor Maitah

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, 16500 Prague, Czech Republic)

  • Luboš Smutka

    (Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, 16500 Prague, Czech Republic)

Abstract

The rising public debt level in Africa and the sustainability of that debt remains an important research agenda. As such, understanding the factors that impact the rising public debt level in Africa remains an important research agenda. Our paper investigates the key determining drivers that have a direct and indirect impact on the rising level of public debt in Africa from a panel of 47 African nations for the period 2000–2018. Using the generalized method of moments (GMM) and fixed effects two-stage least squares (IV-FE) methodological approach the study confirms that a rise in the corruption level leads to an increase in the public debt in Africa. Our findings additionally indicate that government investment enhances the positive and significant association with public debt levels in the sampled countries. Our result revealed that government consumption and tax revenue have a significant negative relationship with the levels of public debt in Africa. Lastly, our results showed that military expenditure has a positive but insignificant relationship with public debt levels in Africa. In terms of policy recommendation, the study suggests African countries should intensify the fight against corruption and strengthen political and governance institutions that will help reduce public debt levels and promote economic growth and development.

Suggested Citation

  • Seth Nana Kwame Appiah-Kubi & Karel Malec & Joseph Phiri & Mikhail Krivko & Kamil Maitah & Mansoor Maitah & Luboš Smutka, 2022. "Key Drivers of Public Debt Levels: Empirical Evidence from Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-15, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:3:p:1220-:d:730302
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1220/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1220/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Seth Nana Kwame Appiah-Kubi & Karel Malec & Mansoor Maitah & Sandra Boatemaa Kutin & Ludmila Pánková & Joseph Phiri & Orhan Zaganjori, 2020. "The Impact of Corporate Governance Structures on Foreign Direct Investment: A Case Study of West African Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-15, May.
    2. Neha Saini & Monica Singhania, 2018. "Determinants of FDI in developed and developing countries: a quantitative analysis using GMM," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 45(2), pages 348-382, May.
    3. R. David Mclean & Tianyu Zhang & Mengxin Zhao, 2012. "Why Does the Law Matter? Investor Protection and Its Effects on Investment, Finance, and Growth," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(1), pages 313-350, February.
    4. Serven, Luis & Solimano, Andres, 1993. "Debt crisis, adjustment policies and capital formation in developing countries: Where do we stand?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 127-140, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kazi Musa & Kazi Sohag & Jamaliah Said & Farha Ghapar & Norli Ali, 2023. "Public Debt, Governance, and Growth in Developing Countries: An Application of Quantile via Moments," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-13, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Seth Nana Kwame Appiah-Kubi & Karel Malec & Sandra Boatemaa Kutin & Mansoor Maitah & Michael Chanda Chiseni & Joseph Phiri & Zdeňka Gebeltová & Sylvie Kobzev Kotásková & Kamil Maitah, 2020. "Foreign Ownership in Sub-Saharan Africa: Do Governance Structures Matter?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-15, September.
    2. Seth Nana Kwame Appiah-Kubi & Karel Malec & Mansoor Maitah & Sandra Boatemaa Kutin & Ludmila Pánková & Joseph Phiri & Orhan Zaganjori, 2020. "The Impact of Corporate Governance Structures on Foreign Direct Investment: A Case Study of West African Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-15, May.
    3. Seth Nana Kwame Appiah-Kubi & Karel Malec & Joseph Phiri & Mansoor Maitah & Zdeňka Gebeltová & Luboš Smutka & Vojtech Blazek & Kamil Maitah & Jitka Sirohi, 2021. "Impact of Tax Incentives on Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-12, August.
    4. Njangang Henri & Nembot Ndeffo Luc & Nawo Larissa, 2019. "The Long‐run and Short‐run Effects of Foreign Direct Investment on Financial Development in African Countries," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 31(2), pages 216-229, June.
    5. Liu, Haiyun & Islam, Mollah Aminul & Khan, Muhammad Asif & Hossain, Md Ismail & Pervaiz, Khansa, 2020. "Does financial deepening attract foreign direct investment? Fresh evidence from panel threshold analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    6. Ferrell, Allen & Liang, Hao & Renneboog, Luc, 2016. "Socially responsible firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 585-606.
    7. Aydin Ozkan & Roberto J. Santillán‐Salgado & Yilmaz Yildiz & María del Rocío Vega Zavala, 2020. "What Happened To The Willingness Of Companies To Invest After The Financial Crisis? Evidence From Latin American Countries," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 43(2), pages 231-262, May.
    8. Mike W. Peng & Wei Sun & Cristina Vlas & Alessandro Minichilli & Guido Corbetta, 2018. "An Institution-Based View of Large Family Firms: A Recap and Overview," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 42(2), pages 187-205, March.
    9. Aghanya, Daniel & Agarwal, Vineet & Poshakwale, Sunil, 2020. "Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), stock price informativeness and liquidity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    10. Simon Schumacher & Stephan Paul, 2017. "Capital Markets Union – Promising Prospects for Corporate Financing?," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 18(3), pages 289-304, August.
    11. O'Toole, Conor M. & Morgenroth, Edgar L.W. & Ha, Thuy T., 2016. "Investment efficiency, state-owned enterprises and privatisation: Evidence from Viet Nam in Transition," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 93-108.
    12. Lou, Zhaohui & Xie, Qizhuo & Shen, Jim Huangnan & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2024. "Does Supply Chain Finance (SCF) alleviate funding constraints of SMEs? Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(PA).
    13. Chen, Ruiyuan & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Wang, He, 2017. "Do state and foreign ownership affect investment efficiency? Evidence from privatizations," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 408-421.
    14. Nathapornpan Piyaareekul Uttama & Rapipong Promnart, 2022. "Shadow economy and the efficiency of FDI inflow: the case of ASEAN economies," International Journal of Economics and Business Research, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 23(2), pages 136-155.
    15. Kusnadi, Yuanto, 2015. "Insider trading restrictions and corporate risk-taking," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(PA), pages 125-142.
    16. Galanti, Sébastien & Leroy, Aurélien & Vaubourg, Anne-Gaël, 2022. "Investment and access to external finance in Europe: Does analyst coverage matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    17. Yilmaz Bayar & Marius Dan Gavriletea, 2018. "Foreign Direct Investment Inflows and Financial Development in Central and Eastern European Union Countries: A Panel Cointegration and Causality," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-13, May.
    18. An, Zhe & Li, Donghui & Yu, Jin, 2016. "Earnings management, capital structure, and the role of institutional environments," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 131-152.
    19. Zhe An & Wenlian Gao & Donghui Li & Dezhu Ye, 2022. "Dividend payouts, cash‐flow uncertainty and the role of institutions," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(7-8), pages 1356-1390, July.
    20. Wang, Xinyi & Zhu, Ling, 2023. "How does export VAT rebates policy affect corporate investment efficiency? Evidence from corporate tax stickiness," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:3:p:1220-:d:730302. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.