Purpose

The impact of financial development on economic growth has received considerable attention since the 2008/2009 global financial crisis. High levels of credit to the private sector were partly to blame for the crisis, and this has re-ignited the debate on whether the growth-enhancing effects of financial development outweigh the retarding effects associated with financial crises. This paper therefore examines the financial development–growth nexus in SADC countries during the period 1990–2015.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical analysis is conducted using the pooled mean group estimator. Furthermore, financial development indices are created due to the strong correlations between the individual financial development indicators using principal component analysis.

Findings

The results show that financial development, captured by the indices or the individual financial development indicators, has a negative impact on economic growth in the long term.

Research limitations/implications

Due to the unavailability of data, the study only focussed on banking sector development. The researcher would have preferred to incorporate stock market development.

Practical implications

Due to financial vulnerabilities emanating from an inadequate monitoring and supervisory framework, further enhancement of financial development should be undertaken with caution in SADC countries. Therefore, institutional quality should be enhanced in order for SADC countries to benefit from the development of the financial sector.

Originality/value

Most studies investigating the financial development–growth nexus in SADC countries utilise the individual measures of financial development which often produce contradicting results. This study constructs financial development indices to capture the impact of various banking sector development indicators on growth.

中文翻译：

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南部非洲发展共同体国家的金融发展与经济增长：专题研究

目的

自2008/2009年全球金融危机以来，金融发展对经济增长的影响备受关注。对私营部门的高额信贷部分归咎于这场危机，这再次点燃了关于金融发展对增长的促进作用是否大于与金融危机有关的抑制作用的争论。因此，本文研究了1990-2015年间南共体国家的金融发展与增长之间的联系。

设计/方法/方法

使用合并的均值组估计量进行实证分析。此外，由于使用主成分分析的各个财务发展指标之间存在很强的相关性，因此创建了财务发展指标。

发现

结果表明，从各项指标或各项金融发展指标中可以看出，金融发展从长远来看对经济增长具有负面影响。

研究局限/意义

由于数据的缺乏，该研究仅关注银行业的发展。研究人员本来希望将股票市场发展纳入其中。

实际影响

由于缺乏适当的监测和监督框架而造成财务脆弱性，在南部非洲发展共同体国家应谨慎地进一步加强财务发展。因此，应当提高机构质量，以使南部非洲发展共同体国家能够从金融部门的发展中受益。

创意/价值

大多数调查南部非洲发展共同体国家金融发展与增长关系的研究都采用了单独的金融发展指标，这些指标通常会产生相互矛盾的结果。这项研究构建了金融发展指数，以捕捉各种银行业发展指标对经济增长的影响。