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Despite the increased number of stock exchanges in Africa, this segment of the financial market remains underdeveloped with low market capitalization, volume and illiquidity. Furthermore, the aftershock of the 2008 financial crisis exacerbates the poor market condition with the attendant decrease in investment. Efforts of previous policies to promote stock market development and restore investors’ confidence did not yield a positive outcome as they are yet to meet the rising demand for capital needed by domestic firms. This paper examines the relationship between poverty reduction and stock market development in Africa, using the pooled mean group (PMG) model for the sample period of 1996 to 2016. The findings suggest poverty reduction has a positive effect on stock market development both in the long-run and short-run estimates. For policy prescription, the government of the respective countries should implement programs that will promote financial inclusion and alleviate poverty to promote domestic investment in stock markets in the region.

Despite that fact that Iraq has gone very far in the liberalization of women, Iraqi board of directors is still dominated by men. However, gender diversity is one of the largest concepts of board diversity and a major issue within corporate governance where several studies seek to discover the influence of diversity on firm performance. This article aims at examining the effect of women representation on firm performance of Iraqi listed firms using panel regression analysis. The empirical results of this paper provide evidence of a positive and significant relationship between female directors and firm performance as measured by Return on Assets while no relationship with the Tobin's q. The important policy implication of this finding is that the Iraqi Stock Exchange and Iraqi Security Commission should incorporate gender diversity in CG practices and encourage women directorship in Iraq.