IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jknowl/v16y2025i2d10.1007_s13132-024-02284-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How are Economic Governance Institutions Moderating the Effect of Economic Complexity on Trade, FDI Inflow, Environmental Degradation, and Economic Growth in Africa?

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Agu

    (University of Nigeria)

  • Jonathan Emenike Ogbuabor

    (University of Nigeria)

  • Benjamin Udoka Onah

    (University of Nigeria)

Abstract

Available literature shows that the economic structure of countries can influence trade, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow, environmental degradation, and economic growth across nations. However, this literature is scarce in Africa. Besides, economic governance institutions are important factors that may affect growth. Hence, this paper investigates how economic governance institutions are moderating the effect of economic complexity on trade, FDI inflow, environmental degradation, and economic growth in Africa from 2000 to 2020. Employing the system GMM and marginal effect techniques, our results show that: (i) economic governance institutions provide important channels through which economic complexity drives trade, FDI inflow, and economic growth in Africa; and (ii) governance institutions in Africa moderate the effect of economic complexity on the environment by stimulating economic activities that lead to higher carbon dioxide emissions as a byproduct of growth. Overall, we find evidence that improved governance institutions in Africa are capable of intensifying trade, attracting more FDI, and spurring economic growth. The study made some insightful policy recommendations based on these findings.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Agu & Jonathan Emenike Ogbuabor & Benjamin Udoka Onah, 2025. "How are Economic Governance Institutions Moderating the Effect of Economic Complexity on Trade, FDI Inflow, Environmental Degradation, and Economic Growth in Africa?," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(2), pages 9536-9567, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jknowl:v:16:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s13132-024-02284-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s13132-024-02284-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13132-024-02284-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13132-024-02284-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic governance institutions; Economic complexity; Trade; FDI inflow; Environmental degradation; Economic growth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N20 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth
    • F43 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Economic Growth of Open Economies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:spr:jknowl:v:16:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s13132-024-02284-2. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.