On the political economy of financial reform

This paper studies what induces governments to undertake reforms aimed at financial development. Its starting point is Abiad and Mody (AER 95(1), 2005). Rather than their ordered logit technique, it uses a within groups approach allowing for error dependence across countries and over time. This paper finds that policy change in a country is negatively rather than positively associated with its liberalization level, while the regional liberalization gap does not appear relevant. On the effects of shocks and crises, it suggests that some of the Abiad and Mody (2005) findings are robust, but others are fragile. Furthermore, it claims that the extent of democracy is important for this analysis, and identifes a negative effect of the extent of democracy on policy reform.Financial liberalization; Financial reform; Political economy; Cross country dependence

Will political liberalisation bring about financial development?

This paper studies the e¤ect of political liberalisation on financial development in two steps. First, the paper examines whether political liberalisation in terms of institutional improvement promotes financial development, using a panel dataset of 90 developed and developing countries over 1960-99. The empirical evidence reveals a positive effect on financial development at least in the short-run, particularly for lower-income countries, ethnically divided countries and French legal origin countries. In the second part of the paper, a before-after event study approach is used to explore the impact of democratic transitions on financial development. It indicates that a democratic transformation is typically followed by an increase in financial development.Political liberalisation; Financial development.

Does external trade promote financial development?

Several recent papers have argued that trade and financial development may be linked, either for political economy reasons, or because foreign competition and exposure to shocks lead to changes in the demand for external finance. In this paper we use the cross-country and time-series variation in openness to study the relationship between trade and finance in more detail. Our results suggest that increases in goods market openness are typically followed by sustained increases in financial depth.openness, trade, financial development.

Determinants of Financial Development

"As the world has witnessed the worst financial crisis and climate crisis of our age, during the period of 2007-2009, the issues surrounding the emergence and development of financial markets and carbon markets is becoming an increasingly significant area of research and debate worldwide. By engaging with recently developed methods of research and new areas of practice, this book investigates the political, economic, policy and geographic determinants of the development of financial markets. The volume examines the causality between financial development and aggregate private investment from an economic perspective. It also explores the consequences of political liberalization, focusing on the impact of institutional improvement on financial development. It studies what stimulates governments to initiate reforms aimed at boosting financial development, and analyses the determinants of carbon markets in developing countries from a geographic point of view. This book is essential reading for all interested in economic and financial development, climate change, environmental economics, and applied econometrics.

What determines financial development?

This paper studies the fundamental determinants of cross-country differences in finnancial development. Two prominent tools for addressing model uncertainty, Bayesian Model Averaging and Automatic Model Selection using PcGets, are jointly applied to investigate the financial development effects of a wide range of variables taken from various sources. The analysis suggests that the level of financial development in a country is determined by its institutional quality, macroeconomic policies, and geographic characteristics, as well as the level of income and cultural characteristics.Financial development, Model uncertainty, Bayesian Model Averaging, PcGets

Determinants of Financial Development

"As the world has witnessed the worst financial crisis and climate crisis of our age, during the period of 2007-2009, the issues surrounding the emergence and development of financial markets and carbon markets is becoming an increasingly significant area of research and debate worldwide. By engaging with recently developed methods of research and new areas of practice, this book investigates the political, economic, policy and geographic determinants of the development of financial markets. The volume examines the causality between financial development and aggregate private investment from an economic perspective. It also explores the consequences of political liberalization, focusing on the impact of institutional improvement on financial development. It studies what stimulates governments to initiate reforms aimed at boosting financial development, and analyses the determinants of carbon markets in developing countries from a geographic point of view. This book is essential reading for all interested in economic and financial development, climate change, environmental economics, and applied econometrics.

Private investment and financial development in a globalized world

Using recently developed panel data techniques on data for 43 developing countries over the period 1970-98, this paper provides an exhaustive analysis of causality between aggregate private investment and financial development. GMM estimation on averaged data, and a common factor approach on annual data allowing for global interdependence and heterogeneity across countries suggest positive causal effects going in both directions. The finding has rich implications for the development of financial markets and the conduct of macroeconomic policies in developing countries in an integrated global economy.Private Investment, Financial Development, Global Interdependence, Common Factor Analysis, Panel Unit Root Test, Panel Cointegration Test

The decarbonization of China's agriculture

Agriculture is one of the major greenhouse gas (GHG) emission sources in China. This paper aims to identify the key factors that have led to rising GHG emissions in China's agricultural sector in recent decades. This research allows for spatial dependence across provinces, making use of regional data from 31 provinces in mainland China. It investigates the effects of agricultural machinery, different energy types, fertilizer consumption, pesticide employment and agricultural investment on carbon emissions. The findings of this research contain significant policy recommendations for Chinese policy makers in terms of how to decarbonize China's agricultural sector, based on diverging circumstances of each region's agricultural system. It also has important implications for emission abatement policies in other developing countries sharing a similar emissions profile and regional characteristics

The global partnership for inclusive growth

This paper investigates the determinants of inclusive growth with a focus on foreign aid. Based on the Solow growth model, a theoretical model has been developed which shows that foreign aid can stimulate inclusive growth if it is effectively used for augmenting either physical or human productive capacity. Based on UNDP's (2011) human development index, this research calculates the inequality-adjusted human development index, and uses its growth rate to measure inclusive growth. The empirical section of this paper finds evidence for a significantly positive effect of foreign aid on inclusive growth in the sample countries. It further suggests that foreign aid fosters inclusive growth effectively, particularly when aid is directed to health and education. This research has important implications for an enhanced global partnership in areas such as foreign aid to achieve an inclusive society

Green growth: Theory and evidence

What are the major determinants of green growth? What role can the government play to promote green growth? To address these questions, this paper develops a simple Green Solow model that sheds light on the role of finance and technology in the process of green growth. The empirical section of the article augments this canonical green growth model to include structural variables relating to finance, technological development, trade openness, natural resource exploitations, and areas where the government can play an important role. In addition, the use of the spatially-corrected generalized method moments approach affords us to explore the role of such factors as growth performance of the neighbouring countries, domestic learning or determination to achieve its national desired target, and political and economic shocks in the process of green growth. It is hoped that research reported in the paper will stimulate further research in the area