Panel Data Analysis of Financial Development, Trade Openness, and Economic Growth: Evidence from BRICS Countries

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate the possible cointegration and direction of causality between foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow, trade openness, and economic growth in BRICS countries using panel data from 1993 to 2015. Besides these variables, money supply and domestic credit (DC) to private players are also added in the model to examine the impact of financial openness on economic growth. The Pedroni’s panel cointegration test is used to examine the existence of long-run relationship, and coefficients of cointegration are examined by fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS). Further panel Granger causality test is used to examine the direction of causality among the competing variables. The results of Pedroni’s panel cointegration test indicate that there exists a long-run relationship among the variables under considerations in BRICS countries. The coefficient of FMOLS and DOLS indicates that trade openness has a positive impact on economic growth in BRICS countries while FDI inflow has a negative impact in these nations. In addition, the results of panel Granger causality confirmed bidirectional causality between FDI inflow and economic growth in the short run. The study recommends that BRICS countries should liberalize trade openness as it strengthens the position of member countries in the world economy.