Financial Development, Trade Openness and Economic Growth in North African Countries

Nahed Zghidi and Zouheir Abida

Romanian Economic Journal, 2014, vol. 17, issue 53, 91-120

Abstract: This contribution investigates the causal interactions between financial development, trade openness and economic growth in a panel of 3 countries of North Africa (Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt) over the period 1980-2012. Using system Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) panel data analysis, we find strong evidence of a positive link between trade openness and economic growth. We also find evidence that trade openness appear to be working as a complement to financial development and, moreover, that the effect of trade openness is more pronounced in the presence of the financial development variable. The policy implications of this study appeared clear. Improvement efforts need to be driven by local-level reforms to ensure the development of domestic financial system in order to take advantage of trade liberalization.

Keywords: financial development; trade openness; economic growth; Dynamic panel data analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 F13 F43 O16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.rejournal.eu/sites/rejournal.versatech. ... -16/3158/5zghidi.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rej:journl:v:17:y:2014:i:53:p:91-120

Access Statistics for this article

Romanian Economic Journal is currently edited by Ioan Popa, PhD

More articles in Romanian Economic Journal from Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Radu Lupu ().