Financial liberalisation and productivity – a sample of countries from SE Asia

Abstract

Financial liberalisation, which is aimed at removing regulations on financial market activity, has become a central part of the financial globalisation process. The paper econometrically estimates by means of a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) technique the impact of a comprehensive financial policy, including regulation on the average productivity of capital. Our findings suggest that the effects of the financial policies are not uniform across the sample countries and that some form of financial control or restraints may indeed enhance economic efficiency or progress.