The Direction of Causality between Economic Growth and Financial Development in Upper Middle-Income Countries

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between economic growth and financial development for the period 1980 - 2017 in Upper-Middle-Income countries by employing panel (FMOLS, DOLS and GMM) and panel Granger-causality tests by Toda–Yamamoto. The results confirmed that domestic credit to private sector (percentage of GDP) and broad money (percentage of GDP) have a positive effect on economic growth. As a result, it can be said that financial development accelerates economic growth. In addition, the results showed that unidirectional causality running from economic growth to financial development in the countries of Jordan, Morocco, Belize, Botswana, China, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, and Thailand. While, the unidirectional causal relationship is running from financial development to growth in the countries of Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Dominican Republic, Malaysia, South Africa and Turkey. In contrast, there is no causal relationship in Oman, Tunisia, Brazil, Mauritius and Mexico