Monetization, Financial Development, and Growth: Time Series Evidence from 22 Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa

Does financial development enable economic growth in developing countries?

Abstract

Does financial development enable economic growth in developing countries? We find evidence for this in sub-Saharan Africa, a region where there is an urgent need to promote growth. Using a modern time series methodology and data for 22 countries over the period from 1960 to 2009, we find unidirectional links from financial development to measures of real activity for about two-thirds of them. In most cases the effects come from narrow money rather than more broadly-defined financial aggregates. This suggests that monetization plays a distinct role in capital accumulation and growth in many of these countries.

This is an output from the ‘Politics, Finance and Growth’ Project

Citation

Peter L. Rousseau, Alexandra D’Onofrio, Monetization, Financial Development, and Growth: Time Series Evidence from 22 Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, World Development, Volume 51, 2013, Pages 132-153,

Monetization, Financial Development, and Growth: Time Series Evidence from 22 Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa

Updates to this page

Published 30 November 2013