Does Research Output Matter for Economic Growth in Sub Saharan African Countries? Quantity and Quality Analysis

Abstract

We study the link between university rankings and economic growth in Sub Saharan African Countries (SSA)? By applying the panel data analysis method and the system GMM technique used on a sample of 43 SSA countries during the period 1996-2015. Our results indicate that academic research exerts a positive and significant effect on the level of economic growth for both fixed and random effect. However, this relation seems to be insignificant when we run GMM in system regression. Also, findings show that domestic investment (INVES) and gross domestic savings (GDSAV) are considered as key factors for boosting economic growth in the SSA region. Contrary, the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) is positive but not significant for fixed and random effect regressions.