Effects of Financial Sector Reforms on Economic Growth. The Case of Nigeria


Book Description

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 4.60, course: Banking and Finance, language: English, abstract: The objectives of this study includes to examine the effects of banking sector reforms on bank performance, savings, investments, developments of the Nigerian Banking System and Economic Growth. The banking sector is without no doubt a very essential part of the economy of a nation and any reforms carried out in it extend to other parts of the economy representing a transformational moment for the economy and its people. So it remains a nationwide challenge that the Nigerian banking sector and it's reforms haven't been able to significantly support the long-term financial needs of the real sector or facilitate the growth of the Nigerian economy The Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) Test and The Phillip-Perron Test were used to test for stationarity of the variables, while the Johansen co-integration test was employed to indicate the existence of a long-run relationship among Gross Domestic Product-which acted as the Economic Growth proxy, Commercial Bank's Capital, Commercial Bank's Credit, and Number of Commercial Bank Branches which acted as the other variables. Secondary data was sourced from Commercial Bank Statistics, Central Bank Of Nigeria Bulletins, Nigeria Bureau Of Statistics, Statistical Bulletins for the period of 1998-2017. Conclusively, there was a positive and significant relationship betweenEconomic Growth and Banking Sector Reforms in the long run, but a negative relationship between Economic Growth and Financial Sector Reforms in the short-run. It was recommended that the government should ensure political and macroeconomic stability as the activities in all other sectors are affected by them, and that people are enlightened on the benefits of banking sector reforms so that they don't take opposing actions against the goal of reforms.







Financial Innovation and Sustainable Development in Selected Countries in West Africa


Book Description

Financial innovation has given a new trend to modern financial system and its importance has been widely recognized. This study investigated the effect of financial innovation augmented with bank competition on sustainable development in eight West African countries. Data were sourced from World Bank development indicators from years 2000-2013. We used two proxies of competitions, two proxies of financial innovations and regressed them on a growth indicator as well as development indicator with other control variables. Using panel data estimations, our results confirmed that an increase in banking efficiency driven by competition and financial innovation would improve economic growth and development. While the two proxies of competition were significant, the financial innovations were not significant; one displayed a negative, while the other exhibited a positive relationship with development. These results revealed the differential effects of different financial innovations adopted in the financial system. That is, the growth effect of financial innovation is sensitive to the choice of proxy. A reduction in demand for money caused by financial innovations could deter economic growth and development. This is because individuals would move away from more liquid assets to less liquid assets. On the other hand, financial innovations could potentially lead to an increase in money demand if payment systems improve and individual's demand for more liquid assets is channeled to productive sectors. We therefore concluded that policies which would drive competition and efficiency in the banking industry as well as financial innovation should be introduced to ensure effective functioning of the financial system.




Interest Rate Liberalization


Book Description

This paper undertakes a survey of theoretical considerations and an analysis of the experience of five African countries with interest rate liberalization. Despite substantial progress in monetary policy reforms, liberalization has only partially affected the level and variability of interest rates. Several factors—macroeconomic instability, oligopolistic financial markets, the absence of developed capital markets, as well as the sequencing of the liberalization programs and the asymmetric availability of information—explain the increase in the spread between lending and deposit rates as well as the rather inflexible pattern of interest rates during the transition to a market-based financial system.




Financial Crises Explanations, Types, and Implications


Book Description

This paper reviews the literature on financial crises focusing on three specific aspects. First, what are the main factors explaining financial crises? Since many theories on the sources of financial crises highlight the importance of sharp fluctuations in asset and credit markets, the paper briefly reviews theoretical and empirical studies on developments in these markets around financial crises. Second, what are the major types of financial crises? The paper focuses on the main theoretical and empirical explanations of four types of financial crises—currency crises, sudden stops, debt crises, and banking crises—and presents a survey of the literature that attempts to identify these episodes. Third, what are the real and financial sector implications of crises? The paper briefly reviews the short- and medium-run implications of crises for the real economy and financial sector. It concludes with a summary of the main lessons from the literature and future research directions.




Financial Repression is Knocking at the Door, Again


Book Description

Financial repression (legal restrictions on interest rates, credit allocation, capital movements, and other financial operations) was widely used in the past but was largely abandoned in the liberalization wave of the 1990s, as widespread support for interventionist policies gave way to a renewed conception of government as an impartial referee. Financial repression has come back on the agenda with the surge in public debt in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, and some countries have reintroduced administrative ceilings on interest rates. By distorting market incentives and signals, financial repression induces losses from inefficiency and rent-seeking that are not easily quantified. This study attempts to assess some of these losses by estimating the impact of financial repression on growth using an updated index of interest rate controls covering 90 countries over 45 years. The results suggest that financial repression poses a significant drag on growth, which could amount to 0.4-0.7 percentage points.