Wellbeing in Africa: The role of technology transfer

The study assesses the effect of technology transfers on subjective well-being in 29 African countries. We adopt the GMM and the IV Tobit models and employ the Lifeladder indicator of happiness as a measure of subjective well-being. The findings reveal a positive significant effect of technology transfers on subjective well-being in Africa after accounting for the problems of autocorrelation, endogeneity, and heteroskedasticity. After con-trolling for the limited range of the subjective well-being indicator, the findings still indicate a positive signif-icant effect of both residents' and abroad patent applications on the Lifeladder index. Employing scientific and technical article publication as an alternative indicator of technology transfers, the findings still indicate that subjective well-being in Africa is significantly improved by technology transfers and investments in academic research. The study suggests African economies should invest more in both human capital and technology infrastructure while developing patentable inventions that allow technology transfers to boost the continent's development and well-being.