Notes: What happens after a shock to the expected loss rate; a sudden change in firms' expected loss rate on bonds causes both short-term fluctuations in yield, and a new, higher long-term yield. Results presented are the median of 100 individual simulations runs, individual model runs exhibit a range of outcomes. Source: Braun-Munzinger et al (2016). The outcomes for median yield over 100 trading days after a 0.36% loss rate shock. Percentiles indicate the distribution of results taken from 250 simulation runs. How can this model help in understanding the dynamics of real-world financial markets and the appropriate setting of policy in these markets? Chart 13 compares the actual distribution of corporate bond prices changes with the distribution which emerges from ABM simulations. There is a reasonable correspondence between the two, with fatter than normal tails. The model can be used counter-factually – for example, to assess the impact of a rise in the number of passive or momentum traders relative to value investors. This makes for larger and longer-lived oscillations. So too does a reduction in the market-making capacity – for example, lower market-maker inventories – as this amplifies the impact on prices of any shock to fund demand. One topical policy issue is whether constraints might be imposed on some funds to forestall investor redemptions in the face of falling prices and performance. For example, US money market mutual funds experienced such redemption runs during the course of the financial crisis.

In this paper, I attempt to examine the interrelationships between environmental growth and sustainable economic growth from the African perspective. The paper is organised as follows; section 2 examines the current economic disposition of Africa, and attempts to determine its relationship with environmental developments. Prominence is given to the components that affect environmental sustainability, namely (i) pollution and (ii) degradation. The latter will prove to present a relatively high risk to environmental sustainability in Africa. Section 3 presents a further analysis on the effects of the environment on economic growth, and that of economic growth on the environment. Section 4 tackles issues of Africa in the world economy and its environmental prospects. Section 5 provides current solutions aimed at mitigating and/ or reducing the various negative externalities related to environmental pollution and degradation such as national, regional, and international environmental management policies. Recommendations that are considered necessary to foster environmental friendly economic development are also given as input for further improvements in environmental management in Africa. 2. Economic disposition of Africa  With an estimated total population of 835,479 thousand people representing 13% of the world’s estimated 6,395, 557 thousand people,1 and spanning the 53 countries of Africa, the continent faces numerous challenges predominantly on the economic, social, and political fronts. Despite these difficulties, Africa recorded a growth rate of 3.6% in 2003, an increase from 2.7% recorded in 2002. The increasing trend in economic growth is expected to continue into 2004 [African Development Bank (AfDB), 2003].