The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the effects of gender inequality on GDP and GDP per capita. A cross sectional analysis of 177 countries over the time period 1998 to 2008 is undertaken with the use of linear regressions. There are several different factors that contribute to the gender inequality within a country and several ways to measure that disparity. The most well known measurement is the Gender-related Development Index and the components within this composite index have been studied thoroughly, although the index as a whole has not. This thesis then contributes with an overall view of how the gender inequality is important for the GDP and GDP per capita. The findings illustrate how significant equality between the genders is for the economy, irrespective of the human development level within the countries. The implication of this is that gender equality is important for the GDP and GDP per capita, which is in accordance with the theories. One large issue is that there is no way of confirming the way of causality between gender equality and GDP or GDP per capita.

Economic growth is a goal for countries around the world in order to improve living standards, and the effect of foreign direct investments (FDI) has long been studied. There are today many theories and empirical studies regarding FDI. Many questions being studied but finding a straight answer to these have showed to be anything but easy. The results and conclusions go in different directions and much disagreement on whether or not FDI actually contributes to growth. One of the core triggers to the Chinese high economic growth pattern is attributed to FDI, this thesis investigates the same FDI impact on economic growth but with focus on sub-Sahara Africa. With the help of different theories and empirical studies we have selected our variables believing they will have a significant impact on this question. With the data collected from the World Bank database about the countries and seven different variables, a regression is created. The results show that FDI plays a part when it comes to GDP per-capita growth and also that corruption has a significant negative effect on growth rates. FDI in sub-Saharan Africa is hypothesized to mainly consist of brownfield investments as a potential explanation. The data this study uses is between 2005 and 2013, meaning the results are probably not applicable to be interpreted long-term.

The present study defines the concepts of Economic Growth and Poverty. The main objective of the study is to identify the relationship between these macroeconomic variables in Peru during the period 2001-2016. During the process of analysis of the variables, the evolution of Economic Growth and Poverty is described. The methodology used is descriptive and correlational, the source of data for the study was obtained from the INEI, the variables used were PBI. PBI pc and Poverty. Product of the study carried out determines the significant link that economic growth has in the reduction of poverty. Finally, it is determined that sustained economic growth in the country is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the eradication of poverty.

Although a number of studies have been conducted to understand the impact of ICT on a country’s economic output; a complete account for ICT’s influence on real GDP per capita has yet to be visualized. This study aims to investigate this topic, by exploring the hypothesis whether ICT has an impact (causal relationship) on real GDP per worker in 41 European countries from 1996-2010. Confidence in the judicial system is taken as an instrument to solve for endogeneity problems. ICT is defined as mobile, broadband and internet penetration per 100 people. We find that confidence in the justice system is a strong instrument for ICT. Therefore, using IV 2sls regression, it is observed that ICT does have a strong positive correlation and causal relationship with GDP per worker, with an elasticity of 0.4 between the variables. In light of the results, the author recommends that economic policies must be tailored to support ICT development in countries.

To be able to see if voter turnout can be enhanced, studying income is of interest. This researchpaper attempts to answer the following thesis question: “How can voter turnout in the 2016 presidential election be explained by income?” The conclusion drawn is that income, measured in GDP per capita, does affect voter turnout, however the exact influence is hard to determine.This research paper agrees with Wolfinger & Rosenstone (1980), that income rather plays a role until a voter has received a point where they can attain a “modestly comfortable standard of living”. Beyond this threshold, there are other variables and preferences that determine voter turnout. Therefore, COVI, that studies the cost variable within the utility hypothesis model, cannot explain voter turnout in relation to income. To better address voter turnout based on income, one would have to use a more extensive index and include other variables andpreferences.

The main aim of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between political stability, inflation, unemployment, GDP per capita, and vice versa. Previously this question has been studied in the relationship between political stability and each of these economic variables individually. With this research we can analyse if the poor economic performance in some countries is caused by unstable political institutions, that is why we find it important. Here we are analysing and comparing all of the economical variables at the same time and analysing which ones show the strongest relationships, or if the relationships are significant or not significant. In previous studies, the measurements that were used for political stability were: government changes, cabinet changes, index of economic freedom, or polity state. However, in this paper, the political stability measurement used is the Political stability index and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, which measures the likelihood that the government will be destabilised. Additionally, differently, from previous studies, Granger causality is used to understand causality between political stability and economic development variables.

Greenhouse Gas emission increase is largely attributed to carbon dioxide emissions as the major gas causing climate change and atmospheric warming. According to Environmental Kuznets Curve Theory (EKC), the increase in economic growth is expected to reduce the environmental pollution from carbon dioxide emission caused at the beginning stages of economic growth. In this thesis, I examined the impact of economic growth on carbon dioxide emission. The key hypothesis tested in this study is the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. Data from 1967 to 2016 from over 15 countries in North and South America, published by the World Bank were used. Since EKC posits a non-linear relationship between economic growth (GDP/capita) and Carbon dioxide emission, I used a quadratic component in the regression model. I analyzed the data using the OLS regression as my baseline model. Each country is unique in many respects that are hard to capture by a set of variables in econometrics model. This poses a challenge to estimating an unbiased estimate. Using panel data model allowed controlling for time invariant unobserved country-specific factors that could bias the estimates. I estimated a fixed effect panel regression to examine the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth is primarily measured with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. The results of the fixed effect panel regression showed that all variables are significant, except export and inflation which were not significant. OLS could not solve the issue of heterogeneity among the variables. Estimating country-specific fixed effects model eliminates unobserved heterogeneity across countries and, therefore provides relatively unbiased estimates compared to OLS estimates. The positive correlation between Total CO2 emissions, CO2 emissions from Solid, and CO2 emissions from gas and GDP per capita suggests that carbon dioxide emissions increase as GDP/ capita increases before the turning point. The negative correlation between Total CO2 emissions, CO2 emissions from Solid, and CO2 emissions from gas and GDP per capita squared suggests that there is a polynomial (quadratic) form which is like that of inverted U-shape of the EKC curve. The coefficient, although it is very small, suggests the impact of the negative relationship after the turning point at the vertex of EKC curve is fractional. As expected, the result indicates a higher population causes an increase in total CO2 emissions. The result from CO2 emissions from liquid shows a negative relationship between the dependent variable CO2 emissions from liquid and the independent variable GDP per capita at the highest level of significance. This result is different from that of total carbon dioxide emissions, CO2 emissions from Solid, and CO2 emissions from gas. Carbon emission from liquid looks different from carbon emissions from solid and gas. There are high and constant emission throughout all the years and in all countries used in the analysis. EKC hypothesis is proven to be true for total carbon dioxide emissions, carbon dioxide emission from solid and gas. The hypothesized correlation between GDPs per capita square and CO2 emissions is statistically supported for Total CO2 emission, CO2 emission from solid and CO2 emission from gas. CO2 emissions from Solid, and CO2 emissions from gas and GDP per capita squared suggest that there is a polynomial (quadratic) form which is like that of inverted U-shape of the EKC curve. This proves that EKC model is proven to be true for my data. Policies like population policies can help in increasing growth in GDP per capita and reducing growth in the amount of carbon dioxide emissions. Population policies could play a significant role aimed at mitigating and reducing climate change.

So far, numerous studies have been devoted to investigate the relationship between happiness and income by asking the question whether economic growth has a positive impact on happiness. However, the reversed relationship from happiness to economic output has received much less attention in the literature. This paper attempts to investigate such relationship by using data from the European Value Survey that contains subjective reported well-being (happiness, or life satisfaction) values across 47 European countries from 1981 to 2009. Gender imbalance is used as an instrument for happiness in order to disentangle the causal effect of happiness on income. Based on a derived Solow model, where labor efficiency is assumed to be positively affected by worker happiness, regression analyses suggest that the sense of happiness does have a positive and highly significant impact on GDP per worker. Robustness tests further show that the result also holds for life satisfaction. According to the results, the author recommends governments to use well-being oriented index, along with GDP to measure the overall economy.

The positive contributions of entrepreneurship towards the economic development were already proved by the previous researchers. The main aim of this study was to analyse the determinants of entrepreneurial activity in the Nordic countries over the period of years 2004‑2013 to provide the supportive empirical analysis for the Nordic entrepreneurial policy makers. Data were obtained from the various databases and were formed into the panel dataset. Entrepreneurial activity was quantified by the two variables, rate of registered business activity and established business ownership rate. For each entrepreneurial activity, acting as the dependent variable, was estimated the set of econometric models following the econometric approach with the Fixed Effects Estimator. The results obtained for the both dependent variables did not substantially differ from each other and were generally in agreement with the results obtained by the previous scholars. The hypothesis stating the positive relationship between unemployment rate, GDP per capita and entrepreneurial activity, during the analysed period, were accepted. Also the negative impact of administrative barriers on entrepreneurial activity was confirmed. However, no statistically significant empirical support was obtained for the hypothesis assuming the positive relationship between R&D sector and entrepreneurial activity.

African countries have over the last few decades, experienced a thorny path towards sustained economic growth. Quite a number of researchers have opined that a major factor responsible for their stunted growth path is the prevalence of corruption in the governments of many African countries. However, a group of scholars, called revisionists, have suggested that corruption actually acts as grease in the wheel that ensures the smooth running of an economy, by providing a mechanism to evade inefficient bureaucratic procedures and allow more equitable representation of minority members of the society. With the increasing exposure of African economies to the international community, there is a need to examine the obtainable evidence in relation to corruption and economic growth in African countries. This thesis, therefore, aims to establish the nature of the relationship between corruption and economic growth in the selected African countries. The growth rate of gross domestic product per capita is used to represent the variable, economic growth. The study employs the use of panel data fixed effects and random effect estimation techniques, across 18 countries, over the period of 1997 – 2016. The results show that corruption has a positive relationship with economic growth in the selected African countries. This is in line with the grease in the wheel argument for corruption proposed by revisionists. The results also indicate that corruption has a moderately significant impact on economic growth at 10% level of significance. The literature review suggests that corruption affects economic growth directly and indirectly through mechanisms such as investment (private and public), human capital, openness, and institutional mechanisms, among others.