Azmat Gani

Aid type and its relationship with human well being

This paper examines the effects of foreign aid type on human well being. Cross‐country regressions revealed aid for education and water to be positively correlated with human well being in low‐income countries while aid for education and health are positively correlated with human well being in lower‐middle‐income countries. The results also confirm growth in output and gross domestic investment to be positively associated with human well being in low‐ and lower‐middle‐income countries. In the low‐income countries, it is also found that unproductive government expenditure, conflicts and rural populations are negatively correlated with human well being. Conflicts and rural populations are also negatively correlated with human well being in the middle‐income countries.

Indicators of business environment, institutional quality and foreign direct investment in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries

This paper empirically investigates the effect of five business environment indicators and four measures of institutional quality on FDI inflows in GCC countries. The empirical results reveal that the time required to start a business, the time required to enforce a contract, the time required to register a property and the time required to resolve insolvency are negatively and statistically significantly correlated with FDI inflows. Our findings also confirm that political instability and absence of democracy, in fact, encourages FDI inflows. We conclude that the business environment strongly matters for FDI inflows into the GCC countries.

The main determinants effecting international visitor arrivals in New Zealand Some empirical evidence

This study examines the main determinants of international visitor arrivals in New Zealand in light of New Zealand’s major earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 as well as the global financial crisis of 2007. Our results provide strong evidence that visitor origin country per capita incomes, relative prices, real exchange rates, the distance between New Zealand and its main visitor origin countries and New Zealand’s record of good governance are statistically significant determinants of visitor arrivals to New Zealand. Our findings also reveal a negative but statistically insignificant effect of the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011on visitor arrivals to New Zealand. Our findings do not provide any significant regressive effect of the global financial crisis on visitor arrivals to New Zealand.

Measures of tolerance and economic prosperity

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a wide range of measures of tolerance, considered from social and institutional perspective relate to growth in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Design/methodology/approach - – The empirical framework is based on a growth regression equation with a specification that is common in the growth literature. The estimation includes the generalized least squares, fixed and random effects methods. The empirical analysis is based on cross-country data from a sample of countries from the OECD. Findings - – The findings on social measures of tolerance provide strong support that OECD countries are tolerant toward migrants and women’s participation in economic activities and national policy making. The findings also provide evidence that political rights, civil liberties and rule of law as indicators of institutional tolerance, are strongly associated with growth. Practical implications - – The findings presented here from OECD countries lead to the conclusion that tolerance matters for the prosperity of nations. The findings of this study have policy implications beyond the OECD countries and particularly relevant to the developing economies. Originality/value - – This paper makes a new empirical contribution to the tolerance literature.

The effect of trade and institutions on pollution in the Arab countries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of trade and institutional quality on pollution in the Arab countries.Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is based in fixed estimation procedure. It utilises cross‐country data for 13 Arab countries into a reduced form equation.Findings – The empirical findings provide strong evidence that across the Arab countries, trade, industrial activity and income have a positive effect on pollution. The test of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is found to be negative, providing strong support for the EKC hypothesis. The results also provide strong evidence that regulatory quality has a significant negative effect on pollution.Originality/value – This paper makes a new contribution on the effect of trade and institutional quality on emission levels in the Arab countries.

Air Quality and Under-five Mortality Rates in the Low-income Countries

Abstract This study investigates the effects of air quality, measured by PM10 pollution, on mortality among children aged five years and less in the low-income category of countries. The empirical results obtained from three different estimation procedures consistently reveal that PM10 pollution is positively and statistically significantly correlated with deaths among children aged five years and less due to acute lower respiratory infections. The empirical findings also provide strong evidence that, other than PM10 pollution, health care spending, nutrition and immunisation against diphtheria are other significant determinants of mortality among children aged five years and less.

The Empirical Determinants of Corruption in Developing Countries

This paper investigates the main factors determining corruption in developing countries. It employs the fixed-effects estimation technique to data for several developing countries, pooled for the period 2004 to 2010. The empirical results revealed that the level of economic development, country size, natural resource exports, foreign direct investment, absence of democracy, and colonial legacy as the main correlates of corruption in the developing economies. Some policy implications are drawn.

Capital Flight from a Small Developing Asia Pacific Economy

Capital flight from a small developing country in the Asia Pacific region, Fiji, is estimated using a variant of the residual approach. The findings show that between 1991 and 2009, approximately US

Bank lending to agriculture in a small developing country

5 billion, averaging some US

Business environment and investment potentials in selected Pacific island countries

265 million per annum has leaked out of Fiji in the form of capital flight. On an annual average basis, this has translated into 12 percent of Fiji’s gross domestic product; 19 percent of imports bills and 17 percent of lost tax revenues. The implications of this finding is that Fiji’s policymakers need to institute policies that focus on long-term secure and stable business and political environment. Some of these may include making the domestic business and investment environment more attractive, reforming the foreign investment tax incentives, retaining qualified and skilled people, eliminating institutional weaknesses in banking systems, and effective enforcement of banking and customs regulations relating to transfers of financial capital.