scholarly journals Financial Inclusion’s Role in Economic Growth and Human Capital in South Asia: An Econometric Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4303
Author(s):  
US Thathsarani ◽  
Jianguo Wei ◽  
GRSRC Samaraweera

Many of the 2030 sustainable development goals have targeted the strengthening of financial inclusion, which is currently a key policy priority on the agendas of most governments in developing nations. The process of facilitating banking and financial services for individuals is called financial inclusion, which supports growth and the broader development goals of an economy. Although economic growth and human capital development indices have been analyzed using different proxy variables, insufficient attention has been paid to constructing a composite index for measuring this to achieve greater sustainability in terms of the economy, communities, and the environment. This study sought to address this gap using secondary data from eight countries in South Asia from 2004 to 2018. A financial inclusion index was developed through principal component analysis using an econometric approach of panel data with vector error correction models and a Granger causality test. As per the results of the study, financial inclusion has a long-run impact on human capital development in South Asian countries, whereas it has a short-run positive impact on economic growth. Domestic credits to the private sector also impact the short-run growth and human capital development in the economy. This ensures the confidence of vulnerable communities in their economy, as well as information management, and allows for quality enhancements of transactions with fewer environmental impacts. Government intervention to improve access to financial services, including ATMs and commercial banking, is one policy allowing digital finance to accelerate the achievement of sustainable development goals in South Asian countries.

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 257
Author(s):  
Ernestina Fredua Antoh ◽  
Albert A Arhin

In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, together with seventeen goals that are collectively called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study examined the effects of non-financial microfinance services on human capital development of clients and discusses its implications on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The case is drawn from Sinapi Aba Trust (SAT), which is a microfinance institution of Ghana. Primary data were collected from 361 clients in seven districts of the Ashanti Region, Ghana. The results of the ordinary least square (OLS) regression showed that non-financial services offered by SAT had positive significance on human capital development of the clients. This finding shows how additional services from microfinance institution could help clients to maximise the value of loans offered to support income-generating economic activities. For clients, the study also draws attention to the need for them to take non-financial services offered by microfinance institutions seriously to improve on their own human capital development in the context of the SDGs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Themba G. Chirwa ◽  
Nicholas M. Odhiambo

In this article, the key macroeconomic determinants of economic growth in Zambia are investigated using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach. The study has been motivated by the unsustainable growth trends that Zambia has been experiencing in recent years. Our study finds that the key macroeconomic determinants that are significantly associated with economic growth in Zambia include, amongst others, investment, human capital development, government consumption, international trade and foreign aid. The study’s results reveal that in the short run, investment and human capital development are positively associated with economic growth, while government consumption, international trade and foreign aid are negatively associated with economic growth. However, in the long run, the study finds investment and human capital development to be positively associated with economic growth, while only foreign aid is negatively associated with economic growth. These results have significant policy implications. They imply that short–run economic policies should focus on creating incentives that attract investment and increase the quality of education, the effectiveness of government institutions, the promotion of international trade reforms and the effectiveness of development aid. In the long run, development strategies should focus on attracting the accumulation of long-term investment, improving the quality of education and the effectiveness of development aid.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajesh Sharma ◽  
Pradeep Kautish ◽  
D. Suresh Kumar

Due to the socio-economic, infrastructural and governance peculiarities, identification of key macroeconomic factors determining the economic growth in developing countries becomes a complicated case. The present study attempts to assess the impact of foreign aid, government consumption expenditure, foreign direct investment, trade openness, exchange rate, human capital development, and inflation on economic growth in India by using yearly data for the period of 46 years, that is, from 1971 to 2016. An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds model enables to examine the short-run and long-run impact of selected determinants on economic growth during the study period. The outcomes of the study find that in the long run, foreign aid, the government’s final consumption expenditure and foreign direct investment have a positive and significant impact on economic growth, whereas, economic growth has been negatively influenced by exchange rate and human capital development. Contrary to the long run, foreign aid has a negative and significant impact on economic growth in the short run. The short-run outcomes show that all the selected macroeconomic determinants have either negative or positive influence on economic growth. To ensure the long-run economic growth, besides regulating the exchange rate fluctuations, policies related to export -import and human capital development need to be re-examined.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanderson Abel ◽  
Nyasha Mhaka ◽  
Pierre Le Roux

This study empirically examined the relationship between human capital development and economic growth in Zimbabwe for the period 1980 to 2015, using time series analysis techniques of co-integration, error correction model, and Granger causality tests. The study was motivated by changes which have characterised the financing of human capital since the country attained independence. A decade after independence, the government was able to adequately finance the social sectors; however, thereafter government financing has been declining since the adoption of the structural adjustment programme. The findings of this study indicate the existence of a short-run and long-run relationship between human capital development and economic growth in Zimbabwe. On the direction and significance of the relationship, the result is mixed. Human capital development, proxied by government expenditure on health, had a significant positive impact on economic growth—both in the short run and the long run—reaffirming that a healthy labour force will be more productive and efficient. Human capital development, proxied by government expenditure on education, was found to negatively impact economic growth in the long run. In conclusion, a positive relationship between human capital development and economic growth in Zimbabwe was found, although the relationship is weak.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3(J)) ◽  
pp. 101-112
Author(s):  
Kunofiwa Tsaurai

Recent studies which investigated the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in BRICS include Hsin-Hong and Shou-Ronne (2012), Nandi (2012), Jadhav (2012), Darzini and Amirmojahedi (2013), Nischith (2013), Ho et al. (2013), Kaur et al. (2013) and Priya and Archana (2014). The findings from these studies shows lack of consensus and confirm that a list of agreeable determinants of FDI in BRICS countries is still an unsettled matter. This paper was therefore initiated in order to contribute to the debate on the discourse on FDI determinants in BRICS countries.This paper deviates from earlier similar studies in five ways: (1) uses most recent data, (2) is the first to investigate whether a combination of financial development, trade openness, human capital, economic growth and inflation influence FDI in BRICS countries, (3) uses different proxies of the variables that affect FDI, (4) employed both fixed effects and pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) approaches and (5) used a stacked data approach.The results of the study showed that economic growth, trade openness and exchange rate stability positively impacted on FDI, financial development positively influenced FDI under fixed effects, FDI was positively influenced by human capital development using the pooled OLS and inflation negatively affected FDI in line with literature. Taking into account these findings, this study urges BRICS to implement policies that increase financial sector efficiency and economic growth, maintain stable exchange rates, keep inflation rates at lower levels, enhance trade openness and human capital development in order to increase FDI inflows.


2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keshmeer Makun

This study is an attempt to examine the effects of trade openness along with two other conditioning variables on economic growth in Malaysia by applying time-series econometric technique. LSE-Henry’s general to specific approach results show significant positive effect of trade openness on growth. Human capital and good economic policies tested with an interaction term increases the growth effects of trade openness. The addition of these variables and findings are significant statistically and robust to different specifications. On the basis of the findings, it is concluded that while trade openness enhance growth, decision makers should also focus on human capital development. In addition, decision makers should ensure good economic policies to take full benefit of trade openness.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 504-533

This study investigates the nexus between domestic resource mobilization using aggregated and disaggregated taxes, and human capital accumulation as measured by the index of human capital and total factor productivity. The study explores panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag. We further explore the linear and nonlinear effects of taxes on human capital accumulation. The results from the scatterplots show that taxes at aggregate and disaggregated levels positively correlated with the two measures of human capital. On the linear analysis, the impact of aggregated and disaggregated taxes is largely negative under the index of human capital but largely positive under the second measure in the short-run. However, the long-run results indicate that aggregate and disaggregated taxes significantly amplify human capital accumulation. On nonlinearity, there is no presence of human capital laffer curve (HCLC) in the short-run under the two measures of human capital. However, there is presence of HCLC in the long-run. The net effects results show that some taxes (such as indirect taxes, taxes on goods and services) are distortionary in improving the level of human capital development while some taxes (such as total tax, direct tax, taxes on income, profit, and gains) can distort human capital development in the SSA region.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kesuh Jude Thaddeus ◽  
Chi Aloysius Ngong ◽  
Njimukala Moses Nebong ◽  
Akume Daniel Akume ◽  
Jumbo Urie Eleazar ◽  
...  

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine key macroeconomic determinants on Cameroon's economic growth from 1970 to 2018.Design/methodology/approachData were obtained from the World Development Indicators and applied on time series data econometric techniques. The auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds model analyzed the data since the variables had different order of integration.FindingsThe results showed long and short runs’ positive and significant connection between economic growth in Cameroon and government expenditure; trade openness, gross capital formation and exchange rate. Human capital development, foreign aid, money supply, inflation and foreign direct investment negatively and significantly affected economic growth in the short and long-runs. Hence, the macroeconomic indicators are not death.Research limitations/implicationsThe present research paper has tried to capture the impact of nine macroeconomic determinants on economic growth such as the government expenditure (LNGOVEXP), human capital development (LNHCD), foreign aids (AID), trade openness (LNTOP), foreign direct investment (LNFDI), gross capital formation (INVEST), broad money (LNM2), official exchange rate (LNEXHRATE) and Inflation (LNINFLA). However, these variables have the tendency to affect each other in a unidirectional or bidirectional manner. Further, the present research paper is unable to capture the impact of other macroeconomic variable due to the unavailability of data.Practical implicationsThe study recommends that Cameroon should use proper planning and strategic policy interventions to achieve higher sustainable economic growth with human capital development, foreign aid, money supply, foreign direct investment and moderate inflation.Social implicationsMacroeconomic indicators, if managed well, increase economic growth.Originality/valueThis paper to the best of the researcher's knowledge presents new background information to both policymakers and researchers on the main macroeconomic determinants using econometric analysis.


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