Afrika eğilimleri, zorlukları ve beklentileri; Doğrudan yabancı yatırımların, işçi dövizi gelirleri ve ithalatın ekonomik büyüme üzerindeki etkileri, kurumların büyümedeki rolü

The study is a compilation of three linked articles focused on Africa. The first paper 'Africa's economy; trends, challenges and Prospects' sought to achieve the following objectives; To identify the leading economies in Africa and the dynamics of their economies that are boosting growth, to identify the challenges of Africa's development, and to identify prospects and opportunities in Africa. It was shown in this study that economic growth and capital formation exhibited similar trend movement and direction. Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt were considered as top three largest economies in Africa in terms of GDP size. These economies had a strong contributing sector like Service Sector, Agriculture Sector and Mining Sector. The study identified Corruption, Poor Infrastructure, Political Instability, Capital flight and Tax evasion as the major challenges of Africa's development. Energy, Agriculture, and Infrastructure sectors in Africa were identified as having great prospects and potentials to enhance growth in Africa. Also, the second paper 'A panel analysis of the impact of Foreign Direct Investments, imports and foreign remittances on the African economy; an ARDL approach' used a data of 30 African countries from the period of 2000 to 2015. The following were the specific objectives of this study: To examine the long run and short run effects of FDI, imports and remittances on GDP growth in Africa, to examine the existence exist a long run co-integration among economic growth, FDI, remittances, and imports, and to examine the causal relationships that exist between economic growth, FDI, remittances, and imports. A panel ARDL (2, 2, 2, 2) was selected to as the best fit model with the least AIC. One important finding was the presence of a long run cointegration that existed between economic growth, FDI, imports, and foreign remittances. Also, in the long run, FDI and imports had a positive impact on economic growth levels in Africa. Remittances, however, had a significant but negative effect on economic growth. The study also found a unidirectional causality flowing from growth to FDI, imports to growth, FDI to imports, and remittances to imports. The third article 'The role of institutions in the economic growth of SSA' examined the role institutions play on economic growth in SSA. Using a sample of 36 SSA countries with data from 1996-2015, the study considered the effect of institutions on SSA as a whole and among LICs, LMICs, Upper Middle and High-income countries in SSA. The study applied the Difference GMM and found the following: institutions to be relevant in explaining economic growth in SSA and among LICs, economic institutions and political stability were necessary to foster growth. Also, Legal institutions, regulatory quality and corruption control have significant impacts on growth among LMICs. Interactions between institutions in some cases are needed for economic growth across the different income brackets. For Upper Middle and High-income countries, interactions between government effectiveness and rule of law are necessary for growth.