Fighting African conflicts and crimes: which governance tools matter?

Purpose – Crimes and conflicts are seriously undermining African development. The purpose of this paper is to assess the best governance tools in the fight against the scourges. Design/methodology/approach – The authors assess a sample of 38 African countries. Owing to the cross-sectional structure...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	International journal of social economics 2016-05, Vol.43 (5), p.466-485
Main Authors:	Asongu, Simplice, Kodila-Tedika, Oasis
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Academic achievement Accountability Arab Spring Autocracy Conflict Corruption Crime Criminal investigations Democracy Density Dependency Developing countries Economic growth Economic models Economics Globalization Governance LDCs Nonviolence Peace Police Political risk Politics Population density Quality of life Robustness Rule of law Social economics Software Specification Violence War
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Summary:	Purpose – Crimes and conflicts are seriously undermining African development. The purpose of this paper is to assess the best governance tools in the fight against the scourges. Design/methodology/approach – The authors assess a sample of 38 African countries. Owing to the cross-sectional structure of the data set, the authors adopt a heteroscedasticity consistent ordinary least squares estimation technique. For further robustness purposes, the authors employ Ramsey’s regression equation specification error test. Findings – The following findings are established. First, democracy, autocracy and voice and accountability have no significant negative correlations with crime. Second, the increasing relevance of government quality in the fight is as follows: regulation quality, government effectiveness, political stability, rule of law and corruption-control. Third, corruption-control is the most effective mechanism in fighting crime (conflicts). Practical implications – The findings are significantly strong when controlling for age dependency, number of police (and security) officers, per capita economic prosperity, educational level and population density. Justifications for the edge of corruption-control (as the most effective governance tool) and policy implications are discussed. Originality/value – The study is timely given the political instability, wars and conflicts currently marring African development.
ISSN:	0306-8293 1758-6712