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Using a dynamic system GMM estimate, this study analyzed the impact of services trade on the development of infrastructure in 38 African countries over the period 2000–2020. Telecommunications, trade/transport-related, and port infrastructures were modelled as the dependent variables on services trade openness. Other sets of control variables include real GDP, financial development, gross fixed capital formation, external debt, population density, urbanization, exchange rate, and services value-added. Our empirical strategy revealed that regardless of the infrastructure indicator used in the estimate, services trade, GDP, financial development, external debt, and services value-added significantly promote the development of infrastructure in the continent. Capital formation increases trade/transport-related and reduces port infrastructure while population density increases trade/transport-related and port infrastructure. The finding further indicates that urbanization increases telecommunications and reduces trade/transport-related infrastructure. The exchange rate reduces the development of telecommunications and port infrastructure. The findings are therefore vital to present policies related to services trade and infrastructure development in African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of financial inclusiveness on economic growth in selected developed and developing countries (63 countries) for the years of 2014 and 2017. The level of financial inclusiveness for each country is calculated using a new construction of the financial inclusion index. The role of financial inclusiveness on economic growth is subsequently estimated using a cross-sectional threshold regression technique. The main findings revealed that there is a threshold effect of the financial inclusiveness-growth nexus, which means that financial inclusiveness exhibits a non-monotonic positive relation with economic growth. The positive effect is more pronounced at a high level than in the low level of financial inclusion index. These new findings should motivate policymakers and the banking sector in each country to exert greater effort in raising the level of financial inclusion in stimulating sustainable economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to provide a probable answer to a longstanding resource curse puzzle; i.e., why resource-rich nations grow at a slower rate compared with less fortunate ones. Using an innovative threshold estimation technique, the empirical results reveal that there is a threshold effect in the natural resources–economic growth relationship. We find that the impact of natural resources is meaningful to economic growth only after a certain threshold point of institutional quality has been attained. The results also shed light on the fact that the nations that have low institutional quality depend heavily on natural resources while countries with high quality institutions are relatively less dependent on natural resources to generate growth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines the dynamic interrelationship among the major stock markets and in the four Asian markets (Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea), both in the short run and in the long run. To investigate the impact of financial reforms and the Asian financial crisis on these markets, we split the sample into three sub-periods: pre-liberalization (1988-91), post-liberalization (1992-96) and post-crisis (1997-99) periods. The empirical results suggest that all the Asian markets are closely linked with each other and with the world capital markets, namely those of the US and Japan, over the post-liberalization era. Overall, the evidence shows that the degree of integration between the Asian emerging markets and the US increased following the deregulation period, and that the relationship has intensified since the onset of the Asian crisis. There is no evidence to show that Japan has overtaken the US in dominating the Asian equity markets. In addition, our results show that the interrelationship among the Asian national markets has been affected by the crisis. Specifically, the crisis-affected countries of Malaysia and Thailand are increasingly interrelated with South Korea and Taiwan in the post-crash period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]