This study examines the effect of dividend policy on shareholder value of listed companies in Ghana. It analyses the factors affecting dividend policy and how dividend policy affects shareholders’ value. Data from 2009 to 2014 financial reports of listed companies on the Ghana Stock Exchange were used. The data was analysed using pooled OLS panel regression. The findings reveal that ROE, firm age, tax, tangibility, GDP growth and interest rate are statistically significant in explaining dividend policy. The study suggests that firms consider the use of dividend yield as an appropriate measure when making choices in dividend policy. The study finds a positive relationship between dividend per share and shareholders’ value. More so, firms with higher dividend yield tend to reduce shareholders’ value, as confirmed by a negative and significant relationship between dividend yield and shareholders’ value. It concludes that dividend policy has a strong relationship with shareholders’ value. The study recommends that managers should embark on prudent investment activities that would generate higher returns (both dividend and capital gains) to shareholders in order to increase shareholder value.

This study empirically examines the effect of foreign banks entry on banking efficiency scores, using the truncated regression data envelopment analysis model for 25s banks in Ghana, over a 6‐year period (2010–2015). We decompose the efficiency scores into three (technical, cost, and allocative efficiency), and the results indicate that banks in Ghana are marginally inefficient in operating closer to their optimal capacity. The findings show that the input‐oriented model slacks are needed to push an inefficient bank closer to where an efficient bank is positioned. From the results, an immediate and a short‐term entry of foreign banks have a consistent negative relationship with both technical‐ and cost‐efficiency scores whereas long‐term entry of foreign banks shows an inconsistent relationship with the three banking efficiency scores. Thus, the drive towards a positive impact of foreign banks entry on the three efficiency scores is dependent on the form of banking efficiency considered and the interaction term between competitive banking environment (competition) and foreign banks' entry. The study suggests that policymakers and managers in emerging markets should improve on their bank efficiencies in both a competitive banking environment and during periods of foreign bank entry. Moreover, managers of banks should make adjustment to their input resources in order to cope with new banking technologies from foreign bank entry—thereby improving banking efficiencies.

Purpose This study aims to examine the hypothesis that the effect of insurer risks on profitability is conditional on regulation, using two main regulatory directives in the Ghanaian insurance market as a case study. Design/methodology/approach This study used the robust ordinary least square and random effect techniques in a panel data of 30 insurers from 2009 to 2015 to test the research hypothesis. Findings The results suggest that regulations on no credit premium and required capital have insignificant effects on profitability of insurers. On the contrary, this study documents evidence that both policies mitigate the effect of underwriting risk on profitability and suggests that regulations significantly mitigate the negative effect of underwriting risk to improve profitability. Practical implications The finding suggests that policymakers and regulators must continue to initiate, design and model regulations such that they help tame risk to improve the performance of insurers in Ghana. Originality/value This study provides first-time evidence on the role of regulations in controlling risks in a developing insurance market.

Purpose Existent literature suggests that Africa is heavily endowed with agriculture resources and entrepreneurship remains an important mechanism for promoting national productivity and other economic outcomes. Despite these, empirical evidence on how agriculture resources promote the effect of entrepreneurship on national productivity in Africa is nonexistent given the abundance of agriculture resources and the need for Africa to increase its productivity, which has implications for improving welfare. Hence, this study aims to examine the interplay of how agriculture resources and entrepreneurship influence national productivity by way of exploring for threshold and complementarity effects of agriculture resources in Africa. Design/methodology/approach This uses panel data of 29 Africa economies between 2006 and 2016 in a bootstrap quantile regression model. Findings First, it is reported that initial levels of agriculture resources in the form of crop and arable lands reduce national productivity while the extreme increase in agriculture resources promotes national productivity in Africa. This implies a nonlinear direct U-shape effect of agriculture resources on national productivity indicating that the enhancing effect of agriculture resources on national productivity is only achieved beyond a certain threshold of average agriculture resources. Second, agriculture resources complement entrepreneurship (which initially reduced national productivity) to promote national productivity. This implies that there is a synergetic-complementarity relationship between entrepreneurship and agriculture resources on national productivity. Practical implications These findings suggest that governments that are interested in boosting national productivity through agriculture resources may have to commit more financial resources to develop and reclaiming more agriculture resources (in the form of crop and arable lands) given that some threshold of agriculture resources are needed to promote national productivity. Similarly, developing agriculture resources by policymakers can help complement entrepreneurship to further improve the effects of entrepreneurship on national productivity. Originality/value This study attempts to present first-time evidence on the interplay between agriculture resources and entrepreneurship on national productivity by way of exploring for threshold and complementarity effects of agriculture resources in Africa.