Abstract
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial development, openness in financial services trade and economic growth in BRICS countries for the period 1990–2012.Design/methodology/approachAn index for financial development has been constructed using principal component analysis technique by including banking sector development, stock market development, bond market development and insurance sector development. For the robustness of the result, the long-run cointegrating relationship amongst the variables has been analyzed.FindingsOverall financial development has a positive and significant impact on economic growth. To take the full advantage of openness in financial services trade, countries need to put more emphasis on the development of their stock markets, bond markets and the insurance sector. The result shows that openness in financial services trade has a positive impact on economic growth when the stock market, bond market and insurance sector are included in the system.Research limitations/implicationsThe policy implication of the findings is that policymakers should focus more on developing all four areas of finance to get the full benefit of the financial system on the process of economic growth.Originality/valueThe authors have constructed the better indicators of financial development in the case of BRICS economies. Most of the studies in BRICS economies have measured the development of the financial sector as either banking sector development or stock market development. However, the present study includes all four areas of finance (banking sector development, stock market development, insurance sector development and bond market development) into account.
Highlights
Financial services trade has very important role in the overall development of financial sector
It indicates that to get to take full advantage of financial development, countries need to develop their all the markets of financial system because we find that when overall financial development is used, there is a causal relationship between finance and growth
Summary and conclusion The study has been conducted to analyze the relationship amongst financial development, openness in financial services trade and economic growth in BRICS economies
Summary
Financial services trade has very important role in the overall development of financial sector. The major financial services include banking, insurance, mortgage services, stock trading and brokerage, micro-finance and other similar activities. Most of the developing countries have counted on liberalization policies of both financial and trade systems to increase the economic growth, where on the one hand, trade sector focuses on barriers imposed on both trade in goods and services between the countries to reduce it, on the other hand, the financial. Levine (2001) argued that liberalizing restrictions on international portfolio flows accelerates productivity growth by enhancing the efficiency of the domestic banking industry The cost of capital may go down because of improved risk sharing or because of the reduction in financing constraints or both (Bekaert et al, 2005). Levine (2001) argued that liberalizing restrictions on international portfolio flows accelerates productivity growth by enhancing the efficiency of the domestic banking industry
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