Effect of financial development on economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper examines the overall economic growth effect when the growth in finance and real sector is disproportionate relying on panel data for 29 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1980–2014. Results from the system generalized methods of moments (GMM) reveal that, while financial develo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of policy modeling 2018-11, Vol.40 (6), p.1104-1125
Main Authors: Ibrahim, Muazu, Alagidede, Paul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Economic growth
Excess finance
Financial Development
Real sector
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Summary:This paper examines the overall economic growth effect when the growth in finance and real sector is disproportionate relying on panel data for 29 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1980–2014. Results from the system generalized methods of moments (GMM) reveal that, while financial development supports economic growth, the extent to which finance helps growth depends crucially on the simultaneous growth of real and financial sectors. The elasticity of growth to changes in either size of the real or financial sector is higher under balanced sectoral growth. We also show that rapid and unbridled credit growth comes at a huge cost to economic growth with consequences stemming from financing of risky and unsustainable investments coupled with superfluous consumption fueling inflation. However, the pass-through excess finance–economic growth effect via the investment channel is stronger.
ISSN:0161-8938
1873-8060
DOI:10.1016/j.jpolmod.2018.08.001