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ABSTRACT
Using data for a sample of 35 sub-Saharan African economies for 1995–2015, this study examines the extent to which political institutions identified as belonging to democratic or autocratic regimes explains the existing differences in innovation across sub-Saharan Africa. While the very few existing studies focus only on the direct effect of institutions, this article examines the impact of the interaction between different regime types and human capital development on innovation in developing countries. The evidence provides very strong support for the direct effect of democratic development on innovation as well as for its indirect effect via its impact on human capital development. However, the results do not support theories that argue in favour of interaction between democracy and human capital, thereby pointing to the need for better calibration of the numerous existing theories and related empirical measures.
Acknowledgements
The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support from graduate school of social and political sciences of the University of Milan. Also, the author is grateful to Professor Dr Giovanni Carbone, Professor Dr Fabio Franchino, Andrea Cassani, Jovan Bliznakovski, Lemessa Bayissa Gobena, Kassa Teshager Alemu and the two anonymous reviewers of the Journal for their constructive comments on the earlier draft of the article. The author further thanks the co-editor of Democratization, Prof. Dr Aurel Croissant, for useful and constructive suggestions for improving the original version of the article. The usual caveats apply.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
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36. Ibid.
37. Siegle et al., “Why Democracies Excel?”
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80. Ibid.
81. Ibid.
82. Democracy Index 2017.
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84. Cheeseman, Democracy in Africa.
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87. Ibid.
88. Ibid.
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92. Moyo, Winner Take All.
93. Gates et al., “Institutional Inconsistency and Political Instability”.
94. Feng, Democracy, Governance, and Economic Performance.
95. Ames, Political Survival.
96. Davin, Democracy and Economic Planning.
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Dejene Mamo Bekana
Dejene Mamo Bekana is a PhD candidate in political studies at the University of Milan, Italy. Before admission to the PhD, he holds a position of an Assistant Professor at the College of Finance, Management and Development of the Ethiopian Civil Service University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the Addis Ababa University, a BA degree in Economics from the Mekelle University and a BA degree in Accounting from Jimma University. His previous publications have appeared in Innovation and Development, Journal of Comparative Asian Development, Public Finance Quarterly, Economic Insights: Trends and Challenges, Journal of Developing Areas, The Journal of Business and Administrative Studies, The Romanian Economic Journal, Management and Marketing Journal and Young Economists Journal. Also, he is the co-author of a book chapter, Gender and Energy Nexus in Ethiopia: An Analytical Review. In Paschal B. Mihyo and Truphena E. Mukuna (2016) the Gender-Energy in Eastern and Southern Africa. His forthcoming publications will appear in The International Journal of Development and Sustainability and the Journal of Contemporary African Studies.