Does the introduction of stock exchange markets boost economic growth in African countries?

We assess whether the introduction of private equity capital markets affects economic growth in African countries. We address this issue by focussing on stock exchange markets as the predominant type of new equity markets, using a Diff-in-Diff regression method. The analysis uses a panel data set from 48 Sub-Saharan countries over the time range of 1970–2018. 23 countries are part of the “treated” group – which introduced international stock exchanges – and 25 “untreated” countries serve as the control group. Our results show that when compared with the time period prior to the introduction of stock exchange markets, GDP per capita rises by the amount of 532 US$ (around 40% of the Sub-Saharan average) after the introduction of equity capital markets in the treated countries. Over the ten years post introduction, the effect is hump-shaped, with effects becoming statistically significant from the first year after implementation, with a peak in the 5th year, and it then becomes statistically insignificant from then onwards.