Monetization, Financial Development, and Growth: Time Series Evidence from 22 Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Does financial development enable economic growth in developing countries? We find evidence for this in sub-Saharan Africa, a region where there is an urgent need to promote growth. Using a modern time series methodology and data for 22 countries over the period from 1960 to 2009, we find unidirectional links from financial development to measures of real activity for about two-thirds of them. In most cases the effects come from narrow money rather than more broadly-defined financial aggregates. This suggests that monetization plays a distinct role in capital accumulation and growth in many of these countries.