Why do growth rates differ? This paper surveys the recent empirical literature on economic growth, starting with a discussion of stylized facts, data problems, and statistical methods. Six research questions are emphasized, drawing on growth and convergence research. In answering these questions, the paper argues that efficiency has grown at different rates across countries, casting doubt on neoclassical models in which technology is a public good. The latter half of the paper rounds up a variety of findings before providing answers to all six questions, including a short summary of how differences in growth rates arise.

The New Growth Evidence

ICT technologies and financial innovations: The case of exchange traded funds in Brazil, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and the United States

The paper assesses the effects of certain institutional factors on financial sector development in Sub- Saharan Africa (SSA). Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is applied to determine the extent to which these institutions affect the financial sector, and to suggest which institutions play a more critical role in each country. Results suggest that institutional factors affect financial depth and access to financial services more than asset quality and profitability (measured by nonperforming loans (NPL) and return on equity (ROE). The results also suggest that depth of credit information has the strongest influence on the NPL ratio, and political stability affects access the most. Based on model findings, policy implications on prioritizing institutional reforms to enhance financial sector development are suggested for individual countries and for country groups.

Institutional Factors and Financial Sector Development: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Our paper examines the relationship between institutional structures and the level of financial markets development in Africa. Our paper contributes to the extant literature by using other financial market development variables—ease of access to loans and venture capital availability—that have not before been used to analyzed how institutional structures influence the level of financial markets development in the context of Africa. We employ a two-step generalized method of moment estimator with corrected standard errors to examine this. We demonstrate that a high-quality institutional environment is relevant in explaining ease of access to loans and venture capital availability in Africa. Based on these results, our paper argues that good institutional structures could help stimulate the level of financial markets development in Africa. However, to attain this feat, African governments need to strengthen institutions through effective enforcement of laws to foster compliance in a specifically def...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/23322039.2018.1488342

Institutional structures and financial market development in Africa

New technologies and diffusion of innovative financial products: Evidence on exchange-traded funds in selected emerging and developed economies

This paper examines the links between institutional factors and stock market development in a sample of eight Asian countries with developing as well as mature stock markets. Five indicators of institutional quality are chosen: government effectiveness, rule of law, regulatory quality, control of corruption and political stability, together with some control variables. Our estimation procedure, utilising three different estimation methods, including the fixed effects model correcting for AR (1) errors, produced consistent results. The results obtained here provide strong evidence that economic growth, diffusion of technology, rule of law and political stability positively aid Asia's stock market expansion. On the other hand, poor regulatory quality and government effectiveness seem to be working against Asia's stock market development. Our results support the proposition that institutional quality is an integral part of enhancing the development of stock markets in a country. Thus, institutional quality matters for stock market development.

Effect of institutional factors on stock market development in Asia

This paper investigates the links between information and communications technology (ICT) and stock market development in a sample comprising of high-income and emerging market economies. The empirical results of the least squares dummy variable model confirms that personal computers and internet hosts as the two ICT variables having strong positive effects on stock market development. The results also revealed strong positive effects of market capitalization and credit to the private sector as non-ICT contributors to stock market development. Controlling for income and technological differences, our results lead us to conclude that emerging market economies have already seized an opportunity to leap frog the high-income countries that is, by going straight from underdeveloped networks to fully digitized networks, bypassing the traditional analog technology. As such this leap frogging is positively enhancing their stock markets. Some policy implications are drawn. 1. Introduction Numerous studies pertaining to the literature on stock market development have emphasized the impact of several financial and economic variable (see for example, Levine, 1991, p. 1445; Bhide, 1993, p. 2; Atje and Javanovic, 1993, p. 632-38; Harris, 1997, p. 139-140; Levine and Zervos, 1998, p.3-4; Beck, Levine and Norman, 2000, p. 195-93; Arestis, Demetriades and Luintel, 2001, p. 20). A factor that in recent times seems to have a possible strong impact on growth and development of stock markets is the new information and communications technology (ICT): mobile phones, personal computers and internet hosts. At the theoretical level, some studies have presented arguments in favor of the possible beneficial effects of information technology on an economy's financial sector. For example, Levine (1997, p. 942-43) notes that changes in telecommunications and computers, among other factors, influence the quality of financial services and the structure of the financial systems. In additions, the World Bank (1998, p.12) notes that advancements in communication have for long been a major driving force bringing about positive economic changes to many countries. Further, the Human Development Report 2001 (UNDP, 2001, chapters 2 and 3) gives a comprehensive account of how new technologies, including information and communication technology, work for the betterment of an economy. The rapid pace in dissemination of vast amounts of vital information on the performance of stock and financial markets is possibly contributing to the speed of the development of stock markets. However, at the empirical level, the literature is still rare particularly in terms that support the theoretical contention as indicated above. One reason for this rarity is the lack of long-term time data series particularly on the modern instruments of ICT (mobile phones, personal computers and Internet hosts) necessary to validate the theoretical contention. While some data have recently been made available on some of the modern instruments of ICT, an empirical investigation into ICT and stock market relationships would perhaps be a modest start to ascertain the impact of new information technology on the growth of stock markets. Such useful attempts would also complement the current discussions on information technology and its role in spreading financial knowledge. Thus, the primary aim of this paper is to examine the contribution of ICT on stock market development in emerging markets and high-income economies. To that end, in section two, we discuss some theoretical arguments on information technology and stock market knowledge linkages. A discussion of the estimation methodology, data and empirical findings are presented in section three. A conclusion and policy implications are provided in section four. 2. An Overview of ICT and Stock Market Developments One of the support systems of a country's financial market is the stock market. …

Effect of Information and Communications Technology on Stock Market Development: Evidence from Emerging Markets and High-Income Economies

This paper attempts to provide an economic analysis of fertility interrelationships using pooled cross-country data from the Middle East and North African region, 1982-2000. Regression results provide strong confirmation that family planning, urbanisation and female labour force participation rates are inversely related to fertility rates. Income, infant mortality rates and female education are found to have a strong positive correlation with fertility. The results of several variables are also consistent with the results obtained in earlier studies involving countries and regions other than the Middle East and North Africa. Some policy implications are drawn. INTRODUCTION The twenty countries in the Middle East and the North Africa (MENA) region had a combined population of approximately 283 million in 1997 (The World Bank, 1999, Table 1), contributing to approximately 4.9 percent of world total population. The majority of the countries are in the middle- income and medium human development categories (Table 1). The overall level of economic development of MENA is comparatively much better than many regions elsewhere (UNDP, 1999, Table 1). The level of achievement in per capita incomes and human development is largely attributable to several of the MENA countries rich natural resource base. Theoretically, as countries become rich, they tend to go through a demographic transition in which fast-improving medical conditions and high birth rates combine to give rapid population growth, a phenomenon that characterised most of Asia almost thirty years ago (The Economist, September 13, 1997). Demographic indicators provide evidence of similar demographic transitions taking place in several of the MENA countries (Table 2). Although the indicators of per capita income and human development look satisfactory for MENA, the population and population growth rate give cause for concern. Although MENA ranks the lowest in terms of the share of total world population, such is not the case in terms of the growth rate (World Bank, 1999, Table 1). MENA annual average population growth rate of 3.0 percent during 19902000 period was the highest when compared with East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and Caribbean, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Although annual average population growth rate declined to 2.5 percent in the 1990-97 period, it was second to that of Sub-Saharan Africa which recorded a growth rate of 2.7 percent (The World Bank, 1 999, Table 3) during the same period. Almost all MENA countries experienced higher population growth rates than 1.5 percent, the world average (Table 1). While it is noted that the transition from a less developed economy to one which is more developed is not only feasible and can be attained in a relatively short period of time (Stiglitz, 1996), the MENA high rate of population growth can have a retarding effect on the pace of the development process. Of main importance is the high fertility rates in MENA. High rates of fertility can have several direct effects on a country's long-term development: contribute to lower standard of living; reduces per capita land and resource availability; greater under-employment and open unemployment; demand pressures on social capital like education, health and housing; increases dependency; environmental destruction and contributes to inequalities in income distribution (Ghatak, 1995, pp. 231-233). Data in Table 2 shows MENA fertility rate trends. For the high-income countries, the fertility rates in 1980 were above 1.9, the average for all of the high-income countries (The World Bank, 1999, Table 7). In 1996, after a span of fifteen years, the average fertility rate for high-income countries was 1 .7 (The World Bank, 1999, Table 7). In the same year, for United Arab Emirates, the fertility rate was 3.5, many times higher than 1.7. While the fertility statistic for 1996 is not available for Qatar and Kuwait, it is quite likely that they followed similar patterns as noted for the United Arab Emirates. …

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Christopher Ngassam

Papers

Effect of institutional factors on stock market development in Asia

Effect of Information and Communications Technology on Stock Market Development: Evidence from Emerging Markets and High-Income Economies

Economic Analysis and Policy Implications of Fertility in Middle East and North African Countries