Does Rising Resources Income, Consumer Prices, Government Outlay, and Globalisation Hinder Africa's Sustainable Development?

Abstract

Africa's inability to achieve the SDGs may have far-reaching consequences on the rest of the world since some goals carry transboundary features such as climate change, resource management, and globalisation. Thus, this study examined the long-term effect of contemporary challenges such as growing resource income, rising consumer prices, inefficient public spending, and globalisation on Africa's quest for sustainable development. A robust measure of sustainable development that integrates resource productivity is adopted. The study period spanned from 1991 to 2021, and data sourced from 24 African countries. The empirical output for this study is derived using long-term methodologies, including feasible generalised least squares, Driscoll-Kraay, and panel dynamic ordinary least squares. The estimation of the long-term model was to capture the consequential effects of contemporary issues on sustainable development. Evidence from the model revealed that increases in resources income, consumer prices, public outlay, and globalisation are deterrents to sustainable development. However, rising income (the control variable) enhanced sustainable development. The individual cross-sectional regression outputs also demonstrated similar effects. Given these contemporary challenges, the study proposed relevant policy measures to aid the attainment of sustainable development.