The Effects of Financial Market Development and Regulation on Economic Growth in OECD Countries

Abstract

This study empirically analyzed the effects of financial market development and regulation on economic growth using annual panel data of 35 OECD countries during the period covering the years from 1975-2016. The panel unit root test and the panel cointegration test were conducted before the empirical analysis to confirm the abnormal time series with unit root and cointegration. We used panel cointegration estimation methods such as Dynamic OLS and Fully Modified OLS in this study. The findings of this study are as follows. First, domestic credit (DC, DCF) variables had no significant correlation with economic growth. However, MR (M2/GDP) showed strong correlation with economic growth. Second, the market capitalization index (MC) showed a statistically significant positive correlation. These results show that indirect financial institutions have stimulated economic growth and that the development of direct financial markets has been considerably effective in increasing output. Third, the analysis using the loan spread as the proxy for financial regulation showed a statistically significant negative relationship as, it decreased economic growth. This may be because higher interest rates lower real GDP by increasing the opportunity cost of consumption and investment. This study differs from previous studies in that financial stability is considered through the inclusion of financial regulatory variables.