The synergistic effect of insurance and banking sector activities on economic growth in Africa

It is widely understood that the insurance and banking sectors of every economy perform some functions in driving economic growth. What is not yet well documented is whether their roles are complimentary or substitutive. With the aid of the dynamic panel generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique, this paper evaluates the synergistic effect of both sectors on economic growth in a panel of 10 African countries that are responsible for most of the activities in the continent’s financial sector. The insurance-banking-growth nexus was also examined through bootstrap panel causality tests. The results show that the life insurance market and the banking sector, as well as the non-life insurance market and the banking sector, are complimentary. We find that, overall, the relationship between the insurance and banking sectors in Africa is a complimentary one and that their synergistic impact on economic growth is positive. The feedback hypothesis was also confirmed in the relationship between the insurance sector and economic growth and between the banking sector and economic growth.     

Inflation,financial development,and growth: A trilateral analysis

A large body of evidence links financial development to economic growth, yet the channels through which inflation affects this relationship and its stability have been less thoroughly explored. We take an econometric and graphical approach to examining these channels, and find that higher levels of financial development, combined with low-inflation, are related to higher rates of economic growth, especially in lower income countries, but that financial development loses much of its explanatory power in the presence of high-inflation. In particular, small increases in the price level seem able to wipe out relatively large growth effects of financial deepening when the annual rate of inflation lies between 4% and 19%, whereas the operation of the finance–growth link is less affected by inflation rates above this range. Growth is generally much lower, however, in such high-inflation settings where financial development is typically repressed.     

Equity market and money supply spillovers and economic growth in BRICS economies: A global vector autoregressive approach

Previous studies report that private credit as a proxy of financial development contributes to economic growth in BRICS economies. This paper employs three additional measures of financial development, namely equity market, money supply and market capitalization, and further investigates cross-country evidence on the impact of equity market and money supply spillovers on economic growth in BRICS economies. Utilizing a Global Vector Autoregressive (GVAR) framework and quarterly data from 1989Q1 and to 2012Q4 from BRICS economies, we find that equity market and money supply variables do not predict the contributions of financial development in each BRICS member in boosting economic growth in the other member countries. However, market capitalization significantly influences economic growth. These results suggest that, besides private credit, market capitalization is another key channel of promoting growth in individual economies and the region. Policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

Further evidence on finance-growth causality: A panel data analysis

This paper reassesses the causal relationship between financial development and economic growth. Using recently developed panel methods on a data set of 71 developed and developing countries over the period 1960-2004, our study confirms previous results of a bidirectional causality between finance and growth. In addition, we show significant differences among country groups when considering both long-run and short-run causality. While in low and middle income countries there is no supportive evidence of short-run causality between financial development and economic growth, in high income countries economic growth significantly affects financial development.     

Corruption, economic growth, and income inequality in Africa

This paper uses panel data from African countries and a dynamic panel estimator to investigate the effects of corruption on economic growth and income distribution. I find that corruption decreases economic growth directly and indirectly through decreased investment in physical capital. A unit increase in corruption reduces the growth rates of GDP and per capita income by between 0.75 and 0.9 percentage points and between 0.39 and 0.41 percentage points per year respectively. The results also indicate that increased corruption is positively correlated with income inequality. The combined effects of decreased income growth and increased inequality suggests that corruption hurts the poor more than the rich in African countries. Received: March 19, 2001 / Accepted: December 14, 2001 RID="*" ID="*" An earlier version of this paper was presented at the first AmFiTan International Conference on Development Ethics in February 2000, Dar er Salaam, Tanzania. I thank two anonymous referees of this Journal for helpful suggestions. I am, however, solely responsible for any remaining errors.     

Interactions between financial constraints and economic growth

The financial economy and the real economy are interconnected through various, complex, and evolving transmission mechanisms, whose literary coverage is far from comprehensive. In this context, we wish to contribute to the literature on the interactions between financial constraints and economic growth. We introduce financial dynamics in the R&D-based growth literature, by bringing Bernanke, Gertler and Gilchrist’s (1999) informational asymmetries into Romer’s (1990) growth model. With the developed framework, our main goal is to examine if and how such asymmetries impact economic growth. We find that the overall impact of this form of financial constraints on long-term growth is negative.     

Exploring the linkage between human capital and economic growth: A look at 141 developing and developed countries

As a factor of production, human capital is defined both in its health and educational dimensions, incorporating qualitative and quantitative aspects. Using a panel of 141 countries (93 developing and 48 developed), we attempt to explore and compare the impact of human capital on economic growth at different development stages. For our estimation, we employ the System Generalized Methods of Moments (SGMM) for the period 1980–2008. Our findings reveal that all aspects of human capital positively influence growth in developing countries, especially life expectancy gain, which may be explained by the demographic transition these countries are going through. However, the scenario is different for developed countries, where increased life expectancy posits a drag on economic growth, probably because of the increasingly aging population and dependency ratio. Only when life expectancy is omitted does health expenditure, along with other educational measures of human capital, help sustain growth in developed countries.     

Re-examining the relationship between economic growth and inequality in the New Member States

The link between income inequality and economic growth has raised many debates in the literature and has generated a large spectrum of results over time. This paper aims at analyzing the relationship between economic growth and income inequality, as well as their macroeconomic and institutional determinants in the New Member States, between 2000 and 2009. In the presence of a set of explicative variables, the economic growth influences the social inequality through a U-shaped relationship. Health, education and gross capital formation generate different direct and indirect effects on income inequality as the per capita GDP growths, while the transition indicators are found to be either common or specific determinants of inequality and growth.     

家庭保险理财之浅见

随着我国经济的不断增长和居民储蓄余额的不断攀升,加之保险制度的不断完善,保险作为理财的一个重要组成部分在社会和经济发展过程中发挥着越来越重要的作用。文章通过对保险理财的介绍,使人们更充分的认识保险理财的功能;并在分析保险理财现状的基础上,指出存在的问题和不足,使人们合理安排和规划,防范和避免因疾病或灾难而带来的财务困难,同时又可以使资产获得理想的保值和增值。     

Risk aversion in a model of endogenous growth

Despite the evidence on incomplete financial markets and substantial risk being borne by innovators, current models of growth through creative destruction predominantly model innovators’ as risk neutral. Risk aversion is expected to reduce the incentive to innovate and we might fear that without insurance innovation completely disappears in the long run. The present paper introduces risk averse agents into an occupational choice model of endogenous growth in which insurance against failure to innovate is not available. We derive a clear negative relationship between the level of risk aversion and long run growth. Surprisingly, we show that in an equilibrium there exists a cut-off value of risk aversion below which the growth rate of the mass of innovators tends to a strictly positive constant. In this case, innovation persists on the long run and consumption per capita grows at a strictly positive rate. On the other hand, for levels of risk aversion above the cut-off value, the economy eventually stagnates.     

河北省城镇居民收入与经济增长的关系实证

运用协整理论,构建了改革开放以来河北省城镇居民收入与河北省生产总值的误差修正模型;并运用1978￣2003年的实际数据进行了实证分析。在此基础上,分析了城镇居民收入与经济增长的长期均衡关系,并提出政策性建议。     

Inflation and firm growth: A reassessment

Investigations into the impact of inflation on firm growth have resulted in ambiguous conclusions within the economic growth and financial management literature. This paper will attempt to clarify this situation and describe conditions under which firm growth will be helped or hindered by inflaction. This is accomplished by constructing a financial modelling framework which incorporates the findings of earlier research and allows the various effects to be contrasted and cumulatively assessed. Our findings suggest that conditions under which inflation may be beneficial to firm growth do exist but are realistically improbable.     

中国城市化与经济增长关系实证分析

利用中国1987-2008年的省际面板数据,结合联立方程和分布滞后模型,考察了中国城市化与经济增长之间的相互影响。研究发现:城市化与经济增长的相互促进作用在短期内存在;从累积效应来看,城市化对经济增长呈现显著的负面影响,同时经济增长对城市化也呈现显著的负面影响;从长期来看,中国的经济增长与城市化相互促进的良性循环机制并未形成。     

Economic development and growth in Colombia: An empirical analysis with super-efficiency DEA and panel data models

In this paper, we analyse economic development and growth through traditional measures (gross domestic product and human development index) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in Colombian departments over the period 1993–2007. We use a DEA model to measure and rank economic development and growth from different approaches such as poverty, equality and security. The results show considerable variation in efficiency scores across departments. A second-stage panel data analysis with fixed effects reveals that higher levels of economic activity, quality life, employment and security are associated with a higher efficiency score based on the standards of living, poverty, equality and security. All findings of this analysis should demonstrate that economic development and growth could be achieved most effectively through a decrease in poverty, an increase in equality, a reduction in violence, and improved security. This indicates the need to generate effective policies that guarantee the achievement of these elements in the interest of all members of society.     

Financial development and economic growth in a microfounded small open economy model

The global financial crisis since 2008 revived the debate on whether or not and to what extent financial development contributes to economic growth. This paper reviews different theoretical schools of thought and empirical findings on this nexus, building on which we aim to develop a unified, microfounded model in a small open economy setting to accommodate various theoretical possibilities and empirical observations. The model is then calibrated to match some well-documented stylized facts. Numerical simulations show that, in the long run, the welfare-maximizing level of financial develop is lower than the growth-maximizing level. In the short run, the price channel (through world interest rate) dominates the quantity-channel (through financial productivity), suggesting a vital role of international cooperation in tackling systemic risk of the global financial system.     

Structural prepayment risk behavior of the underlying mortgages for residential mortgage life insurance in a developing market

Since 1998 all residential mortgages in China have been adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs). However, the borrower’s motivation for prepayment is different from that in the US or other developed mortgage markets. In the US, mortgage insurance plays an imperative role in covering some of the risk typically faced by housing finance institutions. However, China’s residential mortgage life insurance (RMLI) market is in its infancy. It offers the insured mortgagor a life-insurance death benefit, arising from only illness or accident, settling the insured’s outstanding residential mortgage balance. Prepayments of some RMLIs’ underlying mortgages are observed, leading to a premature termination of both the residential mortgage and the insurance commitment to settle the outstanding mortgage balance even though the insured has not yet passed away. Because such prepayments significantly influence the pricing of the RMLI, it is imperative to know more about the prepayment rate of occurrence and the prepayment characteristics of the underlying residential mortgages in terms of observable macro economic factors, loan specific factors and borrower specific characteristics. Hence, this study investigates the prepayment risk behavior of the underlying mortgages for RMLIs, utilizing a pilot study of 1000 Shanghai residential mortgagors who took up RMLIs between January 1999 and December 2003. This study uses the Cox proportional hazard model to investigate RMLI-mortgage prepayment risk behavior. The resultant hazard rate is dependent on four primary factors: combined monthly income of the co-borrowers, growth in the gross domestic product, number of co-borrowers and initial loan-to-value ratio.     

Forecasting GDP growth with NIPA aggregates: In search of core GDP

In addition to GDP, which is measured using expenditure data, the U.S. national income and product accounts (NIPAs) provide a variety of measures of economic activity, including gross domestic income and other aggregates that exclude one or more of the components that make up GDP. Similarly to the way in which economists have attempted to use core inflation—which excludes volatile energy and food prices—to predict headline inflation, the omission of GDP components may be useful in extracting a signal as to where GDP is going. We investigate the extent to which these NIPA aggregates constitute “core GDP.” In an out-of-sample forecasting exercise using a novel real-time dataset of NIPA aggregates, we find that consumption growth and the growth of GDP excluding inventories and trade have historically outperformed a canonical univariate benchmark for forecasting GDP growth, suggesting that these are promising measures of core GDP growth.     

The linkages among energy consumption,economic growth,relative price,foreign direct investment,and financial development in Malaysia

The aim of this study is to analyse the causal relationship among energy consumption, economic growth, relative price, financial development (FD) and foreign direct investment in Malaysia using a multivariate framework. This study covers a sample from 1972 to 2009. Both the Johansen–Juselius cointegration test and bounds testing approach to cointegration consistently suggest that the variables are cointegrated. We find that energy consumption and economic growth Granger causes each other in the short and long run. In addition, both FDI-led growth and finance-led growth hypotheses are also supported by the findings from this study. Ultimately, energy is a prominent resource for financial sector development in Malaysia because we find that energy consumption Granger causes FD. Policymakers should implement a dual strategy that, on one hand, increases investment in energy infrastructure to ensure that the supply of energy is sufficient for the financial sector and economic development, while, on the other, encourages R&D in green technology such as exercising proper soil conservation techniques and sustainable farming practices in order to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels. By doing so, environmental problems such as carbon dioxide emissions can be minimised without affecting economic growth and financial sector development in Malaysia.     

Addressing the growth failure of the oil economies: The role of financial development

The oil exporting countries have experienced a relatively continuous fall in GDP per capita over the last 30 years. This is in spite of benefiting from a more than average of the rest of the world investment rate. The findings of this paper, report a lower level of financial development for the oil economies when compared with the rest of the world. We will show in this paper that the higher rate of investment of the oil economies can be explained mainly by the oil revenues and surprisingly, financial development has a net dampening effect on investment for these economies. The paper also shows that the weakness of financial institutions, contributes to the poor performance of economic growth of the oil economies and the weakness of financial institutions might be associated with the dominant role of government in total investment and the weakness of private sector.     

普惠保险、家庭创业与贫富差距

尝试构建了包含家庭创业决策的产出模型,系统分析了普惠保险推动家庭创业进而缓解家庭贫富差距的作用机制;基于CHFS数据结合中介效应模型,实证考察了普惠保险、家庭创业与贫富差距的相互关系。研究发现：普惠保险推动家庭创业是缓解贫富差距的重要机制;普惠保险通过其渗透性和可得性,发挥广泛的保障作用,通过简化赔付流程及时展开赔付的使用性,减小家庭面临的不确定性风险损失,激励家庭创业,进而扩大家庭收入,缓解贫富差距;家庭创业进一步促进了普惠保险缩小贫富差距作用的发挥;普惠保险通过减轻家庭创业风险厌恶提高家庭创业意愿;普惠保险推动家庭创业和缓解贫富差距的作用在城镇和农村家庭表现不同。进一步扩展研究发现：普惠保险通过促进家庭创业缓解贫富差距的作用具有区域异质性、家庭收入异质性和经济发展水平异质性。在东部地区具有显著正向促进作用,在西部地区作用不显著,在中部地区则有较大的反向作用;在高收入家庭中,普惠保险会进一步显著扩大贫富差距;在低收入家庭中,普惠保险具有促进家庭创业、缩小贫富差距的作用,但作用效果有限;经济发展水平较高时,普惠保险显著缓解贫富差距,经济发展水平较低时,普惠保险的作用效果减小且不显著。通...