Abstract

Research on the impact of financial development on economic growth remains inconclusive. Previous empirical examination of the link is based on aggregate GDP on the presumption that each economic sector responds identically to financial development. However, the extent of credit utilisation, as well as productivity of credit, may not necessarily remain the same across sectors. This study therefore seeks to contribute to the literature by examining the effect of financial development across sectors in sub-Saharan Africa using the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) over the period 1990–2018. Indeed, the findings show that while financial development has a positive effect on the service and agricultural sectors, a certain threshold of financial development must be reached before it can positively contribute to the growth of the industrial sector. The findings are robust to a different estimation technique. With the industrial sector considered critical for economic transformation, our findings imply that policymakers in sub-Saharan Africa need to continue to promote financial development to spur industrialization.

摘要

关于金融发展对经济增长影响的研究尚无定论。先前对这种联系的实证检验是基于总 GDP 的，假设每个经济部门对金融发展的反应相同。然而，信贷利用的程度以及信贷的生产率可能在各部门之间不一定保持相同。因此，本研究旨在通过使用广义矩法 (GMM) 检验 1990 年至 2018 年期间撒哈拉以南非洲各部门金融发展的影响来为文献做出贡献。事实上，研究结果表明，虽然金融发展对服务业和农业部门有积极影响，但金融发展必须达到一定的门槛，才能对工业部门的增长做出积极贡献。这些发现对于不同的估计技术是可靠的。由于工业部门被认为对经济转型至关重要，我们的研究结果表明，撒哈拉以南非洲的政策制定者需要继续促进金融发展以刺激工业化。