Knowledge Economy and the Economic Performance of African Countries: A Seemingly Unrelated and Recursive Approach

Voxi Heinrich Amavilah () and Antonio Andres
Additional contact information
Voxi Heinrich Amavilah: Estrella Mountain College

Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, No 6, 110-143

Abstract: Abstract Knowledge has emerged as a potentially key driver of economic growth and competitiveness, thereby attracting more attention in Africa than before because it is crucial to understand the factors and policies that influence the knowledge economy (KE) process and economic performance. This study examines the existence and nature of the relationship between the KE and economic performance in 46 African countries. Assuming implicitly that the conditions leading to a KE include a modern Information and Communication Technologies infrastructure, a skilled labor force, an effective innovation system, and a proper institutional framework, we model technology as a key element of KE through which human capital affects both KE and economic performance. We then estimate the baseline model and find that Ordinary Least Squares results illuminate the existence of a relationship between the KE and economic performance. To check for the nature of the relationship and the robustness of the results, we estimate a seemingly unrelated regression equation (SURE) model and a recursive simultaneous equation model. Both models firmly establish the existence of a dynamic relationship between KE and economic performance. We conclude that African countries should first strengthen the KE components to prevent them from negatively affecting economic performance. We also conclude that for these countries, the transformation from resource-based into KE-led economies requires strong economic performance to put in motion the full force of the KE for even stronger economic performance.

Keywords: Knowledge economy; African countries; Seemingly unrelated regression; Economic growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C2 C3 C51 I20 O10 O33 O40 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13132-022-01033-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
Working Paper: Knowledge Economy and the Economic Performance of African Countries: A Seemingly Unrelated and Recursive Approach (2022)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jknowl:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s13132-022-01033-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13132

DOI: 10.1007/s13132-022-01033-7

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Knowledge Economy is currently edited by Elias G. Carayannis

More articles in Journal of the Knowledge Economy from Springer, Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().