This study extends the inclusive growth literature on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by addressing two conspicuous gaps. First, the study examines the effects of social equity policies and economic integration on inclusive growth. Second, the study investigates the joint effects of economic integration and resource allocation on inclusive growth. Using data on 43 SSA countries for the period 1980-2019, we provide robust evidence from the GMM estimator to show that relative to economic integration, social equity policies are rather remarkable in enhancing inclusive growth. The results further reveal that, although economic integration induces inclusive growth, the effect is pronounced in the presence of productive resource allocation. Policy recommendations are provided in line with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement and the reversals of welfare gains due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Trade openness is an important determinant of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Consequently, studies have examined the relationship between FDI inflows and trade openness. This study develops a new measure of trade openness to re-examine the relationship between FDI inflows and trade policy openness using principal component analysis. This new measure captures the ease of trading activities and trade tariffs. Dynamic panel estimation technique was employed to analyze the relationship between trade policy openness and FDI inflows in SSA countries. The results indicate that an open economy attracts FDI. The study recommends efforts at reducing cost of trade.

Faced with intermittent challenges of maintaining a stable external balance, several reports (see for example Bank of Ghana, 2005Ghana, , 2009Ghana, , 2015 attribute external imbalances to oil price shocks as a primary concern. Developments in the oil price literature however, suggest that effect oil price shock on macroeconomic variables depends on the source of the price shock. Hence, we examin the impact of oil price shocks on Ghana's external balance considering the source of the price shock. We employ a two-stage estimation which involved SVAR and ARDL. Results reveal that oil demand shocks tend to have a positive long run effect on external balance and oil market specific demand shock was also found to negative long run effect. Whereas oil supply shock was found to have a negative impact on trade balance and current account balance, its effect on capital account balance was positive. The implication of this result is that output in industrial commodities must be expanded following an oil price shock that is as a result of oil demand shock, since oil demand shock is usually an indication of expansion in global economic activities and leads increased demand for such commodities.

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The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of crude oil production on macroeconomic performance in Ghana. The study employed monthly data from January 2011 to December 2018. The structural vector autoregressive model was employed to analyse the impact of crude oil production on macroeconomic performance. The findings of the structural impulse response function revealed that crude oil production had no impact on the agricultural sector, services sector, exchange rate and inflation. However, crude oil production had a negative and positive impact on the manufacturing sector and fiscal balance, respectively. The findings imply that the government through Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and other major oil stakeholders should establish oil refineries, petroleum industries and fertiliser plants domestically to provide a forward linkage for the non-oil sectors. Also, the government through the Ministry of Trade and Industry should develop the services sectors to meet international standards to provide a backward linkage to the oil sector and ensure the integration of the sectors into the oil industry. The government needs to intensify measures to make the manufacturing sector recover from the adverse effect of the production of crude oil.

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This study examines the extent to which three aspects of tax obligations affect foreign direct investment (FDI) stock in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using a panel of 36 countries in SSA from 2005 to 2016 and employing the dynamic system generalized method of moments (GMM) regression approach, the findings show a significant negative impact of all measures of tax obligations. However, the effect of the number of taxes and the time it takes to honour tax obligations are found to have greater negative effect. The findings show that although foreign investors are attracted by natural resources, they still care about the complicated and bureaucratic tax system. This challenges the conventional notion that FDI will always be attracted to and be maintained in Africa as long as there are natural resources. The practical implication is that reducing the number of taxes as well as the time it takes to honour tax obligations should be among the key measures for SSA economies to maintain high stock of FDI. As a contribution, this study provides an important information for the debate on fiscal environment and FDI in Africa.