Investigating the non-linear Wagner’s hypothesis in South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 462-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Temitope Lydia A. Leshoro

Purpose The commonly adopted view of the relationship between government spending and economic growth follows the Keynesian approach, in which government spending is considered to determine economic growth. However, there is another theory, which suggests that economic growth in fact determines government spending. This is Wagner’s hypothesis. The purpose of this paper is to investigate which of the two approaches applies to South Africa, and further observes the level of non-linearity between the two variables. Design/methodology/approach This study was carried out using quarterly time series data from 1980Q1 to 2015Q1. Granger causality technique was used to observe the direction of causality between the two variables, while regression error specification test (RESET) was employed to determine whether the variables exhibit linear or non-linear behaviour. This was followed by observing the threshold band, using two techniques, namely, sample splitting threshold regression and quadratic generalised method of moments. Findings The causality result shows that South Africa follows Wagner’s law, whereby government spending is determined by economic growth, supporting Odhiambo (2015). The RESET result shows that the variables depict a non-linear relationship, thus the government spending economic growth model is non-linear. It was found that if positive economic development is to be achieved, economic growth should preferably be kept within the −1.69 and 3.0 per cent band, and specifically above 1 per cent band. Originality/value The unique contribution of this study is that no previous study has attempted the non-linear government spending-economic growth nexus whether within the Keynesian or Wagner law for South Africa.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-64
Author(s):  
R. K. Ayeni ◽  
Ireti Olamide Olasehinde

Nigeria and South Africa are two dominating economies in Africa but defer in terms of infrastructural development. The question of whether this infrastructural difference culminate to the difference in economic growth in the two economies is central to this study. This paper therefore, examined the impact of capital expenditure on infrastructure and economic growth both in Nigeria and South Africa using time series data from 1980 to 2016.  Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bound tests technique of cointegration was used to on country-specific model of aggregate expenditure, following the Keynesian theory. The result showed that there is a the long-run relationship among the variables used in Nigeria and South Africa.  Capital expenditure on infrastructure has positive but insignificant impact on economic growth in Nigeria while it was positive and significant on the economic growth in South Africa.  The insignificant impact of capital expenditure on infrastructure on economic growth compare with South Africa may be the major difference in the two economies. This is traceable to lack of accountability and corruption in Nigeria compared to the good governance that truncated corruption and mismanagement in the government circle in South Africa. Tax base has positive and significant impacts on the economic growth in these two countries, this was supported by the Pairwise Granger Causality in which TAX granger caused economic growth in both countries. The study recommends injection of sufficient fund into infrastructural development in Nigeria. AS tax contributed positively to economic growth in both economies, it is recommended that tax revenue realized should be judiciously spent by providing the necessary amenities to discourage evasion of tax.


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Latif Alhassan

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the causal relationship between insurance penetration and economic growth in eight selected African countries. Design/methodology/approach – The auto-regressive distributed lags bounds approach to cointegration is employed on annual time-series data from 1990 to 2010 to test the causal relationship between insurance and economic growth in Algeria, Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa. The ratio of life and non-life insurance premiums to gross domestic product are employed as proxies for insurance market development. Findings – The results of the bound test shows a long-run relationship between insurance market activities and economic growth for Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa. Causality analysis within the vector error correction model indicates a uni-directional causality from insurance market development to economic growth except for Morocco where there is evidence of a bi-directional causality. Causality within the vector autoregressive framework also provides evidence of a uni-directional causality for Algeria and Madagascar to support the “supply-leading” hypothesis while mixed causality was found for Gabon. Practical implications – This findings provides policy direction for governments and regulatory authorities for developing insurance market in the sample countries. Originality/value – This is the first study to examine the finance-growth relationship from the perspective of insurance markets in a cross-section of African countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ebenezer Gbenga Olamide ◽  
Andrew Maredza

PurposeThis study is a pre-COVID-19 exposition of the existing situation about external debt-GDP relationship, incorporating corruption into the hypothesis, making South Africa the object of the study. The aim is to examine the causal relationship between corruption, economic growth and external debt, and in the end proffer solutions to the problems arising therefrom.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed ARDL technique on time series data running from 1990 to 2019 with real gross domestic product as the dependent variable and external debt, external debt servicing, corruption, inflation and capital formation as regressors. Necessary tests that include unit root, cointegration, CUSUM and CUSUMSq, normality, serial correlation and heteroscedasticity were performed on the model.FindingsThe study shows that corruption, inflation and external debt servicing exert negative influences on economic growth while the effect of investment on growth was positive. External debt's effect in the short run was positive while its long-run effect on growth was negative. Among other things, the need to improve and strengthen public institutions in addition to targeting tax evaders and avoiders for increased government revenue were emphasized.Originality/valueThe study incorporates corruption into the country specific debt-GDP debate as against earlier studies that excluded corruption in their time series analysis or that were cross-country based. The authors also exposit the existing knowledge of the debt-GDP hypothesis before the outbreak of COVID 19 pandemic. This is expected to serve as a precursor to subsequent studies on the rising debt of South Africa during and after the pandemic.


Author(s):  
Ronald Rateiwa ◽  
Meshach J. Aziakpono

Background: In order for the post-2015 world development agenda – termed the sustainable development goals (SDGs) – to succeed, there is a pronounced need to ensure that available resources are used more effectively and additional financing is accessed from the private sector. Given that traditional bank lending has slowed down, the development of non-bank financing has become imperative. To this end, this article intends to empirically test the role of non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) in stimulating economic growth.Aim: The aim of this article is to empirically test the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between economic growth and the development of NBFIs, and the causality thereof.Setting: The empirical assessment uses time-series data from Africa’s three largest economies, namely, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, over the period 1971–2013.Methods: This article uses the Johansen cointegration and vector error correction model within a country-specific setting.Results: The results showed that the long-run relationship between NBFI development and economic growth is relatively stronger in Egypt and South Africa, than in Nigeria. Evidence in respect of Nigeria shows that such a relationship is weak. The nature of the relationship between NBFI development and economic growth in Egypt is positive and significant, and predominantly bidirectional. This suggests that a virtuous relationship between NBFIs and economic growth exists in Egypt. In South Africa, the relationship is positive and significant and predominantly runs from NBFI development to economic growth, implying a supply-leading phenomenon. In Nigeria, the results are weak and mixed.Conclusion: The study concludes that in countries with more developed financial systems, the role of NBFIs and their importance to the economic growth process are more pronounced. Thus, there is need for developing policies targeted at developing the NBFI sector, given their potential to contribute to economic growth.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Naim Azimi ◽  
Mohammad Musa Shafiq

AbstractThis paper examines the causal relationship between governance indicators and economic growth in Afghanistan. We use a set of quarterly time series data from 2003Q1 to 2018Q4 to test our hypothesis. Following Toda and Yamamoto’s (J Econom 66(1–2):225–250, 1995. 10.1016/0304-4076(94)01616-8) vector autoregressive model and the modified Wald test, our empirical results show a unidirectional causality between the government effectiveness, rule of law, and the economic growth. Our findings exhibit significant causal relationships running from economic growth to the eradication of corruption, the establishment of the rule of law, quality of regulatory measures, government effectiveness, and political stability. More interestingly, we support the significant multidimensional causality hypothesis among the governance indicators. Overall, our findings not only reveal causality between economic growth and governance indicators, but they also show interdependencies among the governance indicators.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Esaku

PurposeIn this paper, the authors examine how economic growth shapes the shadow economy in the long and short run.Design/methodology/approachUsing annual time series data from Uganda, drawn from various data sources, covering the period from 1991 to 2017, the authors apply the ARDL modeling approach to cointegration.FindingsThis paper finds that an increase in economic growth significantly reduces the size of the shadow economy, in both the long and short run, all else equal. However, the long-run relationship between the shadow economy and growth is non-linear. The results suggest that the rise of the shadow economy could partially be attributed to the slow and sluggish rate of economic growth.Practical implicationsThese findings imply that addressing informality requires addressing underlying factors of underdevelopment since improvements in economic growth also translate into a reduction in the size of the shadow economy in the short and long run.Originality/valueThese findings reveal that the low level of economic growth is an issue because it spurs informal sector activities in the short run. However, as the economy improves, it becomes an incentive for individuals to operate in the informal sector. Additionally, tackling shadow activities in the short run could help improve tax revenue collection.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina Septriani Putri ◽  
Ariusni Ariusni

Abstract : This study examined and analysis the effect of remittances, foreigndirect investment, imports, and economic growth in Indonesia in the long run andshort run. This study using Error Correction Model (ECM) method and using theannual time series data from 1989 to 2018. This study found that: (1) remittancehave an insignificant positive effect on economic growth in the long run and shortrun,(2)foreign direct investment have a significant positive impact on economicgrowth in the long run and short run, (3) import have an insignificant positiveimpact on economic growth both in the long run and short run. To increase theeconomic growth in the future, this study suggests the government to decresingimports of consume goods and increasing the inflow of capital goods, rawmaterial goods, remittances and foreign direct investment.Keyword : Remittance, Foreign Direct Investment, Import, Economic Growth andECM


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. p95
Author(s):  
Romanus L. Dimoso (PhD, Economics) ◽  
UTONGA, Dickson (MSc. Economics)

This study explored the causal relationship between exports and economic growth in Tanzania. It analyzed time series data for the period of 1980 to 2015. Economic growth is measured in terms of growth per cent while exports are measured in percentage change of goods and services sold abroad. Econometrics analysis was employed in the due course. Such procedures as testing for the presence of unit root, co-integration and causality were done. Furthermore, the Johansen co-integration and Granger causality tests were employed to examine the long-run relationship among variables. The results of co-integration indicate the existence of one co-integrating equation. The causality test results exhibited causality which runs from economic growth to exports. The results conclude that, in the long run, there is a relationship between exports and economic growth in Tanzania. This study recommends the Government to make efforts to improve exports and eventually, in the long-run, rejuvenating the economy.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-24
Author(s):  
Ntebogang Dinah Moroke ◽  
Molebogeng Manoto

This paper investigated exports, imports and the economic growth nexus in the context of South Africa. The paper sets out to examine if long-run and causal relationships exist between these variables. Quarterly time series data ranging between 1998 and 2013 obtained from the South African Reserve Bank and Quantec databases was employed. Initial data analysis proved that the variables are integrated at their levels. The results further indicated that exports, imports and economic growth are co-integrated, confirming an existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship. Granger causal results were shown running from exports and imports to GDP and from imports to exports, validating export-led and import-led growth hypotheses in South Africa. A significant causality running from imports to exports, suggests that South Africa imported finished goods in excess. If this is not avoided, lots of problems could be caused. A suggestion was made to avoid such problematic issues as they may lead to replaced domestic output and displacement of employees. Another dreadful ramification may be an adverse effect on the economy which may further be experienced in the long-run.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Ali Fahmi

This research aims to analyze the effect of government spending, investment of foreign capital investment, capital investment In Land and labor against growth of Jambi province during the 2004-2015. This research using Time Series data with regression analysis "Ordinary Least Square (OLS) wear EViews 8.  The findings from this research indicate that Labor become the most variable gives a positive impact against the next economic growth, government spending and investment, while investing PMDN PMA gives negative impact on The Economic Growth Of The Province Of Jambi. PMA investment posit no impact and no signikan against economic growth this is not prevalent, but it is possible the investment PMA in Jambi province is relatively small and still no impact in the absorption of the local Workforce. Menyikapai is an effort to boost the Economic growth of the Province of Jambi then needed a special business development policies should be directed at the activities that are labor-intensive to absorb labor as much as possible. Keywords: economic growth, government spending, PMA, the PMDN, and labor.


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