Panel Analysis of the Impact of Unemployment on Sustainable Economic Growth in West Africa
Panel Analysis of the Impact of Unemployment on Sustainable Economic Growth in West Africa

Summary/Abstract: Insufficient employment opportunities in West Africa continue to weaken and potentially hamper growth sustainability. Previous studies have underexplored the interrelationships between unemployment and economic growth. This study examines the relationship between unemployment and sustainable economic growth in West Africa. The core of the study lies in the neoclassical growth model while incorporating endogenous growth theory. The study combines descriptive analysis with the application of econometric estimations. The annual panel data covering the period of 1991 to 2023 were collected from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank (WB) World Development Indicators (WDI) databases. The estimation technique employed is panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (p-ARDL), covering all the sixteen countries of West Africa. The analysis revealed that unemployment has a significant positive impact on long-term economic growth in West Africa.

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