Does stock market-based financial development promotes economic growth in emerging markets?: New evidence from Nigeria

This paper examines the finance growth link of two low-income Sub-Saharan African economies – Ethiopia and Kenya – which have different financial systems but are located in the same region. Unlike previous studies, we account for the role of non-bank financial intermediaries and formally model the effect of structural breaks caused by policy and market-induced economic events. We used the Vector Autoregressive model (VAR), conducted impulse response analysis and examined variance decomposition. We find that neither the level of financial intermediary development nor the level of stock market development explains economic growth in Kenya. For Ethiopia, which has no stock market, intermediary development is found to be driven by economic growth. Three important inferences can be made from these findings. First, the often reported positive link between finance and growth might be caused by the aggregation of countries at different stages of economic growth and financial development. Second, country-specific economic situations and episodes are important in studying the relationship between financial development and economic growth. Third, there is the possibility that the econometric model employed to test the finance growth link plays a role in the empirical result, as we note that prior studies did not introduce control variables.

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Financial development, openness in financial services trade and economic growth

International Trade, Politics and Development ◽

10.1108/itpd-05-2019-0002 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 42-65 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Rabia Khatun ◽

Jagadish Prasad Bist

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Stock Market ◽

Financial Development ◽

Financial Services ◽

Banking Sector ◽

Market Development ◽

Services Trade ◽

Content Type ◽

Stock Market Development ◽

Insurance Sector

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial development, openness in financial services trade and economic growth in BRICS countries for the period 1990–2012. Design/methodology/approach An index for financial development has been constructed using principal component analysis technique by including banking sector development, stock market development, bond market development and insurance sector development. For the robustness of the result, the long-run cointegrating relationship amongst the variables has been analyzed. Findings Overall financial development has a positive and significant impact on economic growth. To take the full advantage of openness in financial services trade, countries need to put more emphasis on the development of their stock markets, bond markets and the insurance sector. The result shows that openness in financial services trade has a positive impact on economic growth when the stock market, bond market and insurance sector are included in the system. Research limitations/implications The policy implication of the findings is that policymakers should focus more on developing all four areas of finance to get the full benefit of the financial system on the process of economic growth. Originality/value The authors have constructed the better indicators of financial development in the case of BRICS economies. Most of the studies in BRICS economies have measured the development of the financial sector as either banking sector development or stock market development. However, the present study includes all four areas of finance (banking sector development, stock market development, insurance sector development and bond market development) into account.

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Inflationary Thresholds, Financial Development and Economic Growth: New Evidence from Two West African Countries

Global Economy Journal ◽

10.1515/gej-2016-0042 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 20160042 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Bernard Njindan Iyke ◽

Nicholas M. Odhiambo

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Financial Development ◽

Inflation Rate ◽

Data Availability ◽

Development Economic ◽

African Countries ◽

Inflation Rates ◽

New Evidence ◽

Threshold Range

This paper examines the role of inflationary threshold effects in the finance-growth relationship for Ghana and Nigeria. Ghana and Nigeria are relatively homogenous in terms of financial development, economic growth, and inflationary history and therefore provide an acceptable choice for this empirical analysis. Due to lack of data availability, the sample spans the period 1964–2011 for Ghana and 1961–2011 for Nigeria. Using appropriately specified threshold regressions, we found inflationary thresholds in both countries during the study periods. Specifically, the inflationary threshold range for Ghana is 10.73 %–29.83 %. For Nigeria, the inflationary threshold range is 10.07 %–19.25 %. By estimating the threshold regressions, we found financial development to have positive and significant effect on economic growth during low and moderate inflationary regimes; and insignificant effect on growth during high inflationary regimes, for both countries. In particular, financial development impact greatly on growth in Ghana when the rate of inflation is below a threshold of 10.73 % but dissipates when inflation rate reaches and exceeds 29.83 %. Similarly, financial development impact greatly on growth in Nigeria when the rate of inflation is below a threshold of 10.07 % but dissipates when inflation rate reaches and exceeds 19.25 %. The results imply that policymakers in these countries should take inflation into account when devising policies to promote financial development with the aim of generating economic growth. For without low or moderate inflation rates, such policies will not achieve their intended purposes.

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