Financial inclusion and economic growth linkage: some cross country evidence

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinabandhu Sethi ◽  
Debashis Acharya

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the dynamic impact of financial inclusion on economic growth for a large number of developed and developing countries. Design/methodology/approach This study uses some panel data models such as country-fixed effect, random effect and time fixed effect regressions, panel cointegration, and panel causality tests to examine the linkage between financial inclusion and economic growth. Panel cointegration is being used to test the long run association between financial inclusion and economic growth, whereas panel causality test is used to find the direction of causality between financial inclusion and economic growth. The data on financial inclusion are taken from Sarma (2012) for the period 2004-2010. Findings The empirical findings reveal that there is a positive and long run relationship between financial inclusion and economic growth across 31 countries in the world. Further, panel causality test shows a bi-directional causality between financial inclusion and economic growth Thus, the study confirms that financial inclusion is one of the main drivers of economic growth. Research limitations/implications This study has two limitations. First, this study considers only banking institutions in the analysis. Second, the period tested for the long run relationship is not long enough. Practical implications This study empirically measures the quantitative impact of financial inclusion policies pursued across the world. The study also suggests that policies emphasizing financial sector reforms in general and promoting financial inclusion in particular shall result in higher economic growth in the long run. Originality/value This study attempts to assess the long run relationship between financial inclusion and economic growth with the help of a multidimensional index of financial inclusion. Therefore, this can be a valuable contribution to the banks and policymakers.

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waliu Olawale Shittu ◽  
Sallahuddin Hassan ◽  
Muhammad Atif Nawaz

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of external debt and corruption on economic growth in the selected five Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, from 1990 to 2015. Design/methodology/approach Panel unit root and panel cointegration tests are employed to test for stationarity of the series and the long-run relationship, respectively. Fully modified OLS and dynamic OLS techniques are also employed to examine the long-run coefficients of the variables of the model, as well as panel Granger causality test, in order to examine the direction of causality among the variables. Findings The results indicate that there is a negative relationship between external debt and economic growth, as well as a bi-directional causality between the two variables. The findings also indicate a positive relationship between corruption and economic growth, as well as a uni-directional causality running from economic growth through corruption. Research limitations/implications The study recommends that the governments of the selected countries should address the menace of rising external debt through the adoption of other sources of capital for investment. Such include more openness of the economy for more capital, by easing restrictions on genuine imports and exports of valuable goods and services. It also suggests that the issue of corruption be tackled head-on, by such penalties that tend to make corruption less attractive. Originality/value While the relationship between economic growth and external debt, on the one hand, and corruption and economic growth, on the other hand, have received considerable attentions, the trio of external debt, corruption and economic growth have not been found combined in a model, to the best of the authors’ knowledge. Also, the countries under consideration, who jointly account for about 47 percent of the entire SSA countries’ stock of external debt, have not been jointly found in any recent panel studies involving the selected variables.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinabandhu Sethi ◽  
Susanta Kumar Sethy

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial inclusion (FI) and economic growth in India. Design/methodology/approach To measure FI, a multidimensional time-varying index is proposed following the Human Development Index method. The long-run relationship between FI and economic growth is examined by using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration and nonlinear ARDL approach. Further, the direction of causality is investigated by employing the Toda–Yamamoto Granger causality test. Findings The linear cointegration test confirms a long-run relationship between FI and economic growth for India. The improvement in both demand-side and supply-side financial services has a positive impact on economic growth. These results suggest that India can attain long-run economic growth by improving the coverage of FI. However, there is no evidence of nonlinear cointegration, indicating that there is no asymmetric effect of FI on economic growth. Further, the causality test shows that FI granger causes economic growth but not vice versa. Research limitations/implications The major limitation of the study is the availability of time series data for all important variables. The index for both demand- and supply-side indicators can be extended with several other important variables in later date once the data are available for those variables. Practical implications As the study confirms that FI is one of the main drivers of economic growth, it is suggested that the policy maker emphasizing on financial sector reforms can enjoy economic growth in the long run, especially in developing countries. Therefore, the government and policy makers need to address the issues involved in access to financial services to spur economic growth. Originality/value The study examines the long-run relationship between FI and economic growth employing ARDL bound testing approach and nonlinear ARDL approach, separately for demand-side and supply-side indicators. Further, the study uses the Toda–Yamamoto granger causality to find the direction of causal flow between FI and economic growth.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siphe-okuhle Fakudze ◽  
Asrat Tsegaye ◽  
Kin Sibanda

PurposeThe paper examined the relationship between financial development and economic growth for the period 1996 to 2018 in Eswatini.Design/methodology/approachThe Autoregressive Distributed Lag bounds test (ARDL) was employed to determine the long-run and short-run dynamics of the link between the variables of interest. The Granger causality test was also performed to establish the direction of causality between financial development and economic growth.FindingsThe ARDL results revealed that there is a long-run relationship between financial development and economic growth. The Granger causality test revealed bidirectional causality between money supply and economic growth, and unidirectional causality running from economic growth to financial development. The results highlight that economic growth exerts a positive and significant influence on financial development, validating the demand following hypothesis in Eswatini.Practical implicationsPolicymakers should formulate policies that aims to engineer more economic growth. The policies should strike a balance between deploying funds necessary to stimulate investment and enhancing productivity in order to enliven economic growth in Eswatini.Originality/valueThe study investigates the finance-growth linkage using time series analysis. It determines the long-run and short-run dynamics of this relationship and examines the Granger causality outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sreenu Nenavath

Purpose This paper aims to show a long run and causal association between economic growth and transport infrastructure. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the authors use ARDL models through the period 1990 – 2020 to investigate the relationship between transport infrastructure and economic growth in India. Findings The infrastructure has a positive impact on economic growth in India for the long run. Moreover, Granger causality test demonstrates a unidirectional relationship between transport infrastructure to economic development. Stimulatingly, the paper highlights the effect of air infrastructure statistically insignificant on economic growth in the long and short-run period. Originality/value The original outcome from the study delivers an inclusive depiction of determinants of economic growth from transport infrastructure in India, and these findings will help the policymakers to frame policies to improve the transport infrastructure. Hence, it is proposed that the government of Indian should focus more to upsurge the transport infrastructure for higher economic development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (9) ◽  
pp. 3779-3798 ◽  
Author(s):  
David N. Aratuo ◽  
Xiaoli L. Etienne ◽  
Tesfa Gebremedhin ◽  
David M. Fryson

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the causal linkages between tourism and economic growth in the USA and determine how they respond to shocks in the system. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a variety of time series procedures, including the bounds test, Granger causality test, impulse response functions and generalized variance decomposition to analyze the relationship between monthly tourist arrivals (TA) to the USA, real gross domestic product (GDP) and real effective exchange rates. Findings Results suggest that GDP Granger causes TA in the USA in the long run, indicating the economy-driven tourism growth hypothesis. Additionally, a shock to GDP generates a positive and significant effect on TA that persists in the long-run, while exchange rate shocks only have a significant effect in the first six months. Research limitations/implications Different tourism sectors may exert different degrees of influence on the economy. The use of aggregate data on TA in the analysis assumes homogeneity in the industry, thus, only represents the average relationship between tourism and GDP. Practical implications This study provides insight that shapes the investment, marketing, sustainability decisions of the public and private sectors aim at increasing tourist flows to drive economic development at the national, state and local levels. Originality/value Though several studies have examined the factors influencing the international tourist demand of the USA, this is the first to investigate the causal relationships between tourism, GDP and exchange rates for the USA. It is also the first in the US tourism literature to account for the nature of interactions between the three variables because of innovations in the system.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 1192-1210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muazu Ibrahim

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the interactive effect of human capital in financial development–economic growth nexus. Relative to the quantity-based measure of enrolment rates, the main aim was to determine how quality of human capital proxied by pupil–teacher ratio influences the relationship between domestic financial sector development and overall economic growth. Design/methodology/approach Data are obtained from the World Development Indicators of the World Bank for 29 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period 1980–2014. The analyses were conducted using the system generalised method of moments within the endogenous growth framework while controlling for country-specific and time effects. The author also follows Papke and Wooldridge procedure in examining the long-run estimates of the variables of interest. Findings The key finding is that, while both human capital and financial development unconditionally promotes growth in both the short and long run, results from the interactive terms suggest that, irrespective of the measure of finance, financial sector development largely spurs growth on the back of quality human capital. This finding is also confirmed by the marginal and net effects where the interactive effect of pupil–teacher ratio and indicators of finance are consistently huge relative to the enrolment. Statistically, the results are robust to model specification. Practical implications While it is laudable for SSA countries to increase access to education, it is equally more crucial to increase the supply of teachers at the same time improving on the limited teaching and learning materials. Indeed, there are efforts to develop rather low levels of the financial sector owing to its unconditional growth effects. Beyond the direct benefit of finance, however, higher growth effect of finance is conditioned on the quality level of human capital. The outcome of this study should therefore reignite the recognition of the complementarity role of human capital and finance in economic growth process. Originality/value The study makes significant contributions to existing finance–growth literature in so many ways: first, the auhor extend the literature by empirically examining how different measures of human capital shape the finance–economic growth nexus. Through this the author is able to bring a different perspective in the literature highlighting the role of countries’ human capital stock in mediating the impact of financial deepening on economic growth. Second, the author makes a more systematic attempt to evaluate the relative importance of finance and human capital in growth process while controlling for several ancillary variables.


2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Shahbaz ◽  
Mohammad Mafizur Rahman

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the relationship between exports, financial development and economic growth in case of Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach – The autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing approach to cointegration and error correction model are applied to test the long-run and short-run relationships, respectively. The direction of causality between the variables is investigated by the vector error correction model Granger causality test and robustness of causality analysis is tested by applying innovative accounting approach. Findings – The analysis confirms cointegration for the long-run relation between exports, economic growth and financial development in case of Pakistan. The results indicate that economic growth and financial development spur exports growth in Pakistan. The causality analysis reveals feedback hypothesis that exists between financial development and economic growth, financial development and exports, and, exports and economic growth. Originality/value – This study provides new insights for policy makers to sustain exports growth by stimulating economic growth and developing financial sector in Pakistan.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 1123-1134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kashif Munir ◽  
Ayesha Ameer

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the long-run as well as short-run effect of economic growth, trade openness, urbanization and technology on environmental degradation (sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions) in Asian emerging economies. Design/methodology/approach The study utilizes the augmented STIRPAT model and uses the panel cointegration and causality test to analyze the long-run and short-run relationships. Due to the unavailability of data for all Asian emerging economies, the study focuses on 11 countries, i.e. Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand, and uses balance panel from 1980 to 2014 at annual frequency. Findings Results showed that the inverted U-shape hypothesis of the environmental Kuznets curve holds between economic growth and SO2 emissions. While technology and trade openness increases SO2 emissions, urbanization reduces SO2 emissions in Asian emerging economies in the long run. Unidirectional causality flows from urbanization to SO2 emissions and from SO2 emissions to economic growth in the short run. Practical implications Research and development centers and programs are required at the government and private levels to control pollution through new technologies as well as to encourage the use of disposed-off waste as a source of energy which results in lower dependency on fossil fuels and leads to reduce emissions. Originality/value This study contributes to the existing literature by analyzing the effects of urbanization, economic growth, technology and trade openness on environmental pollution (measured by SO2 emissions) in Asian emerging economies. This study provides the essential evidence, information and better understanding to key stakeholders of environment. The findings of this study are useful for individuals, corporate bodies, environmentalist, researchers and government agencies at large.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 692-704
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ali ◽  
Lubna Khan ◽  
Amna Sohail ◽  
Chin Hong Puah

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of foreign aid (FA) on corruption in selected Asian countries (Pakistan, India, Srilanka and Bangladesh) using the panel data from 2000 to 2014. Design/methodology/approach The author used Levin-Lin-Chu and Im-Pesaran-Shin panel unit root tests to check the stationary properties of the variables. The Pedroni’s and Kao panel cointegration approach was applied to analyze the variable’s long-run relationship. The author used panel dynamic ordinary least squares (PDOLS) and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) framework to estimate the coefficients of cointegrating vectors. Additionally, the panel granger causality test was performed to check the causal relationship between the variables. Findings The results from PDOLS and FMOLS indicate that FA has a significant negative impact on the level of corruption. This infers that the foreign assistance decrease the level of corruption perception index, hence, more corruption in the country. Originality/value Overall, the study fulfills the need to understand the aid-corruption nexus, particularly in the case of the Asian region.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-189
Author(s):  
Kolawole Ogundari ◽  
Adebayo Aromolaran

Purpose This study aims to investigate the causal relationship between nutrition and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. Design/methodology/approach A dynamic panel causality test based on the Blundell-Bond’s system generalized methods-of-moment was used. To make efficient inference for the estimates, the authors check for the panel unit root and co-integration relationship amongst the variables. Findings The variables were found to be non-stationary at level, stationary after first difference and co-integrated. The results of the causality tests reveal evidence of long and short-run bidirectional causality between nutrition and economic growth, which implies that nutritional improvement is a cause and consequence of economic growth and vice versa. Originality/value This is the first study to consider causality between nutrition and economic growth in the region.


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