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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the asymmetric behavior between CEO pay and firm performance in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a two-step dynamic panel generalized method of moments (GMM) to reveal asymmetric responses of CEO pay to positive and negative shocks in firm performance.FindingsThe research outcomes of a two-step dynamic panel GMM) adopted reveal asymmetric responses of CEO pay to positive and negative shocks in firm performance. This implies that CEOs are handsomely compensated for good performance, but not punished for poor performance.Originality/valueThe study, therefore, suggests that CEO pay fails to serve as an internal corporate governance mechanism to alleviate agency problem in Nigeria's listed firms.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between internet use and democracy in Africa. It examines the non-linearities and causality between the two variables in the short and long run for 38 countries in Africa.Design/methodology/approachThe study is empirical. It uses pooled mean group and causality tests for the sample of 38 African countries.FindingsThe panel long-run and short-run estimates show evidence of significant non-linear relationship between internet usage and democracy. While internet usage is significantly and negatively related to democracy, squared internet usage is significantly but positively related. This suggests that internet usage increases with the decrease of democracy, but after a certain level of internet usage which is the turning point, democracy starts to increase. Additionally, there is uni-directional causality from internet usage to democracy. However, a bi-directional causality exists between squared internet usage and democracy.Research limitations/implicationsThe empirical evidence from this study suggests that internet usage and democracy are highly interrelated to each other in Africa. The findings support that at the macro level, Africa is moving toward a new stage, where internet will lead to improved levels of democracy and digital politics.Practical implicationsRemarkably, the paper shows that democracy displays a quadratic relationship with internet usage. As a whole, the findings indicate a U-shaped pattern: democracy decreases with internet usage, stabilizes, and then increases. In other words, internet usage increases with the decrease of democracy, but after a certain level of internet usage which is the turning point, democracy starts to increase.Social implicationsMany African Governments that have frequently imposed restrictions on internet and social media need to stop. The decline in democracy as internet usage increases may be explained by more severity of these restrictions. However, the findings support that at the macro level, Africa is moving toward a new stage, where internet will lead to improved levels of democracy and digital politics.Originality/valueContrary to previous conceptual papers, the current study empirically investigates the causality between internet and democracy in 38 African countries. The findings indicate a U-shaped pattern: democracy decreases with internet usage, stabilizes, and then increases. In other words, internet usage increases with the decrease of democracy but after a certain level of internet usage which is the turning point, democracy starts to increase.

The study assessed the perceived benefits of mobile phone usage among arable crop farmers in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State. A multi stage sampling technique was used to select a total of 131 arable crop farmers in the study area. Data were collected by administering structured interview schedule on the selected respondents. Frequency counts, percentages, and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) were used in the data analysis. The result revealed that the mean age of the respondents was 50years. Majority (63.4 %) of the respondents were males, a high percentage (84.70 %) were married and the mean household size of the sampled farmers was 6 members. The major uses of mobile phone by the crop farmers include: contacting local buyers of farm produce (WMS =2.63) followed by receiving information on current market prices (WMS =2.57) and hiring farm labour for farm operation (WMS =2.15). The farmers reported the benefits of mobile phone usage as to include making marketing of farm produce easier, access to timely marketing information and reduced transactional cost. The major constraints to mobile phone usage were poor network (WMS=1.78), high cost of calls making (WMS=1.21), problem of charging the phone battery as a result of erratic power supply (WMS = 1.12) and expenses on recharge cards (WMS = 1.12). Empirically, years of schooling (r = 0.413, P 0.05), households size (r = 0.260, P ?? 0.05), amount spent per week on mobile phone usage (r = 0.348 P ?? 0 .05) had positive and significant relationships with perceived benefits of mobile phone usage. It was recommended among others that extension institutions should improve the dissemination of agricultural information through the use of mobile phone for optimum benefits of arable crop farmers in the study area. Also, the network service providers should improve their areas of network coverage in the rural areas for easy access of information by farmers.

The paper attempts, by the way of econometric analysis, to evaluate the impact of defence expenditure on national economic indicators, and to determine the existence or otherwise harmony between defence spending and Nigeria's economic development. (DSE)