Debt and Growth: Different Evidence from the Western African Countries

Abstract

This paper examines the testing of the effect of debt and growth differences by following the work of Reinhart-Rogoff Propositions in the Western African Countries from 1970-2017. The objective of the study is to contribute to the literature on debt and growth relationship in the Western Africa countries by dividing the region of Western African countries into French-speaking and English speaking countries, respectively. According to the results, the log of the lag of the gross domestic product (GDP) is significant in both regions and positive sign. The debt ratio that is the debt to GDP is also substantial in both areas and negative coefficients in all the regions. External debt as a percentage of Gross National Income is not statistically significant and positive sign in the Francophone Western African Countries and negative in the Anglophone Western African Countries. To sum up, the Western African sub-region should do more in other to control their debt ratios.