This article employs the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag model in analysing the environmental impact of tourism in China from 2002Q1 to 2018Q4, while controlling for non-renewable energy consumption, trade openness, urbanisation, per capita GDP and its quadratic form. The approach permits the simultaneous testing of non-linearities in the short and long run. This is achieved through negative and positive partial sum decompositions of the regressor of interest. Findings from the article indicate the following: (i) long-run co-movements exist between tourism activities and environmental performance in China, (ii) tourism activities considerably damage the environment in China, (iii) the environment responds to tourism in an asymmetric manner, such that the damage caused by increasing tourism is smaller than the positive environmental effect of decline in tourism. Thus, less tourism protects the environment faster than more tourism damages it. A supplementary non-parametric test for non-linear causality was also performed. The result further provides strong evidence of a non-linear feedback causality between tourism activities and environmental performance in China in the first moment (mean) and second moment (variance). Tourism (environmental performance) is thus a significant predictor of China’s environmental performance (tourism).

PurposeThe growth of both the informal sector and illicit financial outflows necessitated this study, in order to investigate how countries in Africa respond to these realities in terms of mobilization of domestic resources. These are the main motivation for the current study to the extant literature in conjunction with the adoption of employing second-generation econometric techniques which take into account cross-sectional dependence and country-specific heterogeneity.Design/methodology/approachThis study therefore examined the capacity of Africa to mobilize domestic resources amidst rising illicit financial outflows and informal sector size in selected African countries between 2000 and 2018. Second-generation econometric techniques such as cross-sectional dependence tests, slope homogeneity tests, Westerlund (2007) long-run co-integration tests, Eberhardt and Teal (2010) augmented mean group estimations and Kónya (2006) panel causality testing were employed.FindingsFindings revealed the existence of cross-sectional dependence and slope homogeneity in the data series. Findings also supported the existence of depressing long-run impacts of IFOs and ISS on domestic savings. Causality test results were not uniform across variables among countries. Policy recommendations favour formalizing the largely informal African economies through budgetary policy adjustments and commitment to building stronger institutions.Practical implicationsThe fragility of the African countries economy and its macroeconomic indicators is suggestive for more policy construction.Originality/valueThis economic reality about the nature of the informal sector is one that has negated the traditional view which holds that economic reforms would make the informal sector shrink as it transits to formal sector. Experiences from Latin America and Africa in fact indicate that the informal sector is actually on an expansionary path in the wake of adjustment and policy reforms. It is often called the unobserved, unorganized or unprotected economy. With this sector growing in size, the possibility of a reverse may not be in sight, owing to the increasing poverty levels and unemployment prevalent in most African countries. Uncertain foreign investment and aid inflows coupled with lower export revenues and high levels of indebtedness have created new impetus to examine the capacity of Africa's fiscal policy regime to mobilise domestic resources for the development of the region. Surprisingly, the last decade witnessed continued rise in Africa's illicit financial outflows amidst large informal sector size (ISS).

The paper examines the link between life expectancy, public health spending and economic development in Nigeria for the period 1995 to 2017. Data used were life expectancy at birth, public health expenditure and the gross domestic product (GDP) sourced from the World Bank data. Situational analysis, Ordinary Least Square and the granger causality test techniques were employed. The situational analysis showed that the trend of GDP and expectancy were upward while health expenditure had an irregular trend. The OLS result showed that both government spending on health and life expectancy impacted positively and significant on GDP. The granger causality result showed a unidirectional relationship between life expectancy and GDP as causality runs from GDP to life expectancy. Bidirectional relationship exists between life expectancy and health care spending while there was no causality between health expenditure and GDP. The study therefore recommends that government should increase spending on health so as to improve the health status of individuals in terms of their life expectancy. This will in turn lead to an increase in productivity and help increase the country's national income so as to prepare the nation for the attainment of sustainable development, come 2030.

Over half a million females die every year as a result of pregnancy and birth complications. The vast majority of these fatalities can be avoided. SDG 3.1’s objective is to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio by 2030 to below 70 per 100,000 live births. Despite a number of policies put in place maternal mortality in Africa remains unacceptably high. This study investigates the impact of maternal mortal- ity on sustainable development in 9 selected West African countries for the period from 1990 to 2015. Data used were adjusted net savings, maternal mortality, consumer price index, per-capita income and financial development. The second-generation econometric methods were employed: cross sectional dependence, slope homogeneity, Westerlund cointegration, Eberhadt and Teal AMG regression, and the Emirmahmutoglu and Kose bootstrap Granger causality test. Findings confirm the following: First, cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity exist among the West African countries. Second, there is a long run relationship between maternal mortality and sustainable development. Third, maternal mortality impacted negatively and signifi- cantly on sustainable development. Fourth, the direction of causality varies across countries between maternal mor- tality and sustainable development. Lastly, causality runs from maternal mortality to sustainable development when analyzing the causal relationship among all countries. The findings suggest that the West African government needs to commit more funding to the health care sector and ensure access to free healthcare service to pregnant women or at low cost with quality and effective health care services if the countries must attain sustainable development by 2030.

This paper investigates the effect of food price inflation on the public health improvement as measured in terms of life expectancy, infant mortality rate, under five mortality rate and neonatal mortality rate in six selected African countries with high misery index for the period from 2000 to 2020. The Augmented Mean Group and Common Correlated Estimation Mean Group were used to determine the effect, as well as Westerlund Cointegration tests. Our findings revealed that rising food prices have a significant detrimental effect on nourishment and consequently lead to higher levels of infant under five and neonatal mortality while reducing the expected life expectancy in the African countries. High food price inflation also has a long run effect on public health. The implication of the result shows that with high rate of food prices coupled with poor child health, the Sustainable Development Goals target of ending preventable deaths of newborns and children under age of 5, and the aim of having a neonatal mortality rate of 12 or fewer deaths per 1,000 live births, and an under-five mortality rate of 25 or fewer deaths per 1,000 live births, by 2030 may not be realistic. Therefore, African Governments should gear up efforts towards reducing food price inflation, improving health expenditure, per capita income and enabling environment for safe sanitation, especially for pregnant women and little children. Also, Governments should create enabling environment for sanitation and access to safe drinking water.