Share:


The impact of governance structures on economic growth in Africa: a panel data analysis of 47 African countries

    Seth Nana Kwame Appiah-Kubi Affiliation
    ; Karel Malec Affiliation
    ; Joseph Phiri Affiliation
    ; Mansoor Maitah Affiliation
    ; Sylvie Kobzev Kotaskova Affiliation
    ; Jiri Mach Affiliation
    ; Jitka Sirohi Affiliation

Abstract

Major international institutions like the World Bank, African Union, and International Monetary Fund have made the development of robust governance systems a “sacred utterance” since the 1990s. Our study aimed to refute this common thinking by examining how governance structures have affected the expansion of the financial market in 47 African countries from 2008 to 2019. Using the availability of venture capital as a proxy for financial market development, our article departed from existing literature which used stock exchange characteristics as benchmarks for growth in the financial market. The governance variables comprise the six global governance indices: control of corruption, government effectiveness, political stability, regulatory quality, the rule of law, and voice and accountability. The model’s control variables include GDP per capita, inflation, and trade openness. Our finding suggests that a great quality governance climate is significant in explaining the growth of the financial market in Africa using the generalized method of moments (GMM) methodological approach with corrected standard errors. Considering these findings, our research makes the case that solid institutional frameworks might encourage the degree of financial systems growth in Africa. Therefore, the financial development rate in the African region will be significantly influenced by improving the quality of governance through strengthening legal and institutional frameworks to facilitate financial inclusion.

Keyword : governance structures, financial market, Africa, corruption, political stability, rule of law, control of corruption, financial market development, voice and accountability

How to Cite
Appiah-Kubi, S. N. K., Malec, K., Phiri, J., Maitah, M., Kotaskova, S. K., Mach, J., & Sirohi, J. (2023). The impact of governance structures on economic growth in Africa: a panel data analysis of 47 African countries. Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 29(6), 1708–1727. https://doi.org/10.3846/tede.2023.20394
Published in Issue
Dec 7, 2023
Abstract Views
348
PDF Downloads
238
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

References

Abdelbary, I., & Benhin, J. (2019). Governance, capital and economic growth in the Arab Region. The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 73, 184–191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.qref.2018.04.007

Abubakar, Y. I., Mustapha, R. A., & Ajiboye, E. S. (2020). Impact of governance on financial development: Evidence from West Africa. Hasanuddin Economics and Business Review, 3(3), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.26487/hebr.v3i3.2055

Adams, D., Adams, K., Ullah, S., & Ullah, F. (2019a). Globalisation, governance, accountability and the natural resource ‘curse’: Implications for socio-economic growth of oil-rich developing countries. Resources Policy, 61, 128–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2019.02.009

Adams, D., Ullah, S., Akhtar, P., Adams, K., & Saidi, S. (2019b). The role of country-level institutional factors in escaping the natural resource curse: Insights from Ghana. Resources Policy, 61, 433–440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2018.03.005

Agyemang, O. S., Gatsi, J. G., & Ansong, A. (2018). Institutional structures and financial market development in Africa. Cogent Economics & Finance, 6(1), Article 1488342. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322039.2018.1488342

Agyemang, O. S., Gbettey, C., Gatsi, J. G., & Acquah, I. S. K. (2019). Country-level corporate governance and foreign direct investment in Africa. Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society, 19(5), 1133–1152. https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-07-2018-0259

Alexiou, C., Vogiazas, S., & Nellis, J. G. (2018). Reassessing the relationship between the financial sector and economic growth: Dynamic panel evidence. International Journal of Finance & Economics, 23(2), 155–173. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijfe.1609.

Al-Naser, M. H. (2019). Public governance and economic growth: Conceptual framework. International Journal of Business Ethics and Governance, 2(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.51325/ijbeg.v2i2.21

Altunbaş, Y., & Thornton, J. (2019). The impact of financial development on income inequality: A quantile regression approach. Economics Letters, 175, 51–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2018.12.030

Amusa, K., & Oyinlola, M. A. (2019). The effectiveness of government expenditure on economic growth in Botswana. African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, 10(3), 368–384. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJEMS-03-2018-0081

Antonio, M. S., Laela, S. F., & Darmawan, R. R. (2019). Corporate governance, earnings quality and market response: Comparison of Islamic and non-Islamic stock in the Indonesian Capital Market. Academy of Accounting and Financial Studies Journal, 23, 1–22.

Apergis, E., & Apergis, N. (2019). New evidence on corruption and government debt from a global country panel: A non-linear panel long-run approach. Journal of Economic Studies, 46(5), 1009–1027. https://doi.org/10.1108/JES-03-2018-0088

Appiah-Kubi, S. N. K., Malec, K., Kutin, S. B., Maitah, M., Chiseni, M. C., Phiri, J., Gebeltová, Z., Kotásková, S. K., & Maitah, K. (2020a). Foreign ownership in Sub-Saharan Africa: Do governance structures matter? Sustainability, 12(18), Article 7698. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187698

Appiah-Kubi, S. N. K., Malec, K., Maitah, M., Kutin, S. B., Pánková, L., Phiri, J., & Zaganjori, O. (2020b). The impact of corporate governance structures on foreign direct investment: A case study of West African Countries. Sustainability, 12(9), Article 3715. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093715

Appiah-Kubi, S. N. K., Malec, K., Phiri, J., Krivko, M., Maitah, K., Maitah, M., & Smutka, L. (2022). Key drivers of public debt levels: Empirical evidence from Africa. Sustainability, 14(3), Article 1220. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031220

Appiah-Kubi, S. N. K., Malec, K., Phiri, J., Maitah, M., Gebeltová, Z., Smutka, L., Blazek, V., Maitah, K., & Sirohi, J. (2021). Impact of tax incentives on foreign direct investment: Evidence from Africa. Sustainability, 13(15), Article 8661. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158661

Arellano, M., & Bond, S. (1991). Some tests of specification for panel data: Monte Carlo evidence and an application to employment equations. The Review of Economic Studies, 58(2), Article 277. https://doi.org/10.2307/2297968

Arellano, M., & Bover, O. (1995). Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models. Journal of Econometrics, 68(1), 29–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-4076(94)01642-D

Asamoah, L. A., Mensah, E. K., & Bondzie, E. A. (2019). Trade openness, FDI and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa: Do institutions matter?. Transnational Corporations Review, 11(1), 65–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/19186444.2019.1578156

Azam, M. (2022). Governance and economic growth: evidence from 14 Latin America and Caribbean countries. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 13(2), 1470–1495. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-021-00781-2

Badeeb, R. A., & Lean, H. H. (2017). Financial development, oil dependence and economic growth: Evidence from the Republic of Yemen. Studies in Economics and Finance, 34(2), 281–298. https://doi.org/10.1108/SEF-07-2014-0137

Bajaher, M., Habbash, M., & Alborr, A. (2022). Board governance, ownership structure and foreign investment in the Saudi capital market. Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, 20(2), 261–278. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFRA-11-2020-0329

Balachandran, B., & Williams, B. (2018). Effective governance, financial markets, financial institutions & crises. Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 50, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pacfin.2018.07.006

Blundell, R., & Bond, S. (1998). Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models. Journal of Econometrics, 87(1), 115–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-4076(98)00009-8

Blundell, R., & Bond, S. (2000). GMM estimation with persistent panel data: An application to production functions. Econometric Reviews, 19(3), 321–340. https://doi.org/10.1080/07474930008800475

Boateng, R. N., Tawiah, V., & Tackie, G. (2022). Corporate governance and voluntary disclosures in annual reports: a post-International Financial Reporting Standard adoption evidence from an emerging capital market. International Journal of Accounting & Information Management, 30(2), 252–276. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJAIM-10-2021-0220

Chinoda, T., & Kapingura, F. M. (2023). The impact of digital financial inclusion and bank competition on bank stability in sub-Saharan Africa. Economies, 11(1), Article 15. https://doi.org/10.3390/economies11010015

Cooray, A., Dzhumashev, R., & Schneider, F. (2017). How does corruption affect public debt? An empirical analysis. World Development, 90, 115–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2016.08.020

Cormier, D., Dufour, D., Luu, P., Teller, P., & Teller, R. (2019). The relevance of XBRL voluntary disclosure for stock market valuation: The role of corporate governance. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences/Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l’Administration, 36(1), 113–127. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1483

Croissant, A., & Pelke, L. (2022). Measuring policy performance, democracy, and governance capacities: A conceptual and methodological assessment of the sustainable governance indicators. European Policy Analysis, 63(2), 337–358. https://doi.org/10.1002/epa2.1141

Cumming, D., Johan, S., & Peter, R. (2018). Developments in financial institutions, governance, agency costs, and misconduct. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, 54, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intfin.2017.06.004

Dalwai, T., & Mohammadi, S. S. (2020). Intellectual capital and corporate governance: an evaluation of Oman’s financial sector companies. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 21(6), 1125–1152. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-09-2018-0151

De Haan, J., & Sturm, J.-E. (2017). Finance and income inequality: A review and new evidence. European Journal of Political Economy, 50, 171–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2017.04.007

Demir, A., Pesqué-Cela, V., Altunbas, Y., & Murinde, V. (2022). Fintech, financial inclusion and income inequality: A quantile regression approach. The European Journal of Finance, 28(1), 86–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/1351847X.2020.1772335

Guha, S. K., Samanta, N., Majumdar, A., Singh, M., & Bharadwaj, A. (2020). Evolution of corporate governance in India and its impact on the growth of the financial market: An empirical analysis (1995–2014). Corporate Governance, 19(5), 945–984. https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-07-2018-0255

Hamdan, A. M., Khamis, R., Al Hawaj, A. A., & Barone, E. (2020). The mediation role of public governance in the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth. International Journal of Managerial Finance, 16(3), 316–333. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMF-04-2018-0111

Holtz-Eakin, D., & Rosen, H. (1990). Federal deductibility and local property tax rates. Journal of Urban Economics, 27(3), 269–284. https://doi.org/10.1016/0094-1190(90)90001-4

Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A., & Mastruzzi, M. (2011). The worldwide governance indicators: Methodology and analytical issues. Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, 3(2), 220–246. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1876404511200046

Khalid, F., Razzaq, A., Ming, J., & Razi, U. (2022). Firm characteristics, governance mechanisms, and ESG disclosure: How caring about sustainable concerns?. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 29, 82064–82077. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21489-z

Khan, M. A., Kong, D., Xiang, J., & Zhang, J. (2020). Impact of institutional quality on financial development: Cross-country evidence based on emerging and growth-leading economies. Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, 56(15), 3829–3845. https://doi.org/10.1080/1540496X.2019.1588725

Liu, J., Tang, J., Zhou, B., & Liang, Z. (2018). The effect of governance quality on economic growth: Based on China’s provincial panel data. Economies, 6(4), Article 56. https://doi.org/10.3390/economies6040056

Mahran, H. A. (2023). The impact of governance on economic growth: spatial econometric approach. Review of Economics and Political Science, 8(1), 37–53. https://doi.org/10.1108/REPS-06-2021-0058

Mira, R., & Hammadache, A. (2017). Good governance and economic growth: A contribution to the institutional debate about state failure in Middle East and North Africa. Asian Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, 11(3), 107–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/25765949.2017.12023313

Modugu, K. P., & Dempere, J. (2020). Country-level governance quality and stock market performance of GCC countries. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 7(8), 185–195. https://doi.org/10.13106/jafeb.2020.vol7.no8.185

Muktadir-Al-Mukit, D., & Keyamoni, T. J. (2019). Corporate governance and earnings management practices among listed firms: A study on post stock market crisis period in Bangladesh. Journal of Asian Business Strategy, 9(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.1006.2019.91.1.9

Nawaz, T. (2019). Exploring the nexus between human capital, corporate governance and performance: Evidence from Islamic banks. Journal of Business Ethics, 15(7), 567–587. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3694-0

Onifade, S. T., Çevik, S., Erdoğan, S., Asongu, S., & Bekun, F. V. (2020). An empirical retrospect of the impacts of government expenditures on economic growth: New evidence from the Nigerian economy. Journal of Economic Structures, 9(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40008-020-0186-7

Park, D., & Shin, K. (2017). Economic growth, financial development, and income inequality. Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, 53(12), 2794–2825. https://doi.org/10.1080/1540496X.2017.1333958

Pegkas, P. (2019). Government debt and economic growth. A threshold analysis for Greece. Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy, 25(1). https://doi.org/10.1515/peps-2018-0003

Phiri, J., Malec, K., Majune, S. K., Appiah-Kubi, S. N. K., Gebeltová, Z., Maitah, M., Maitah, K., & Abdullahi, K. T. (2020). Agriculture as a determinant of Zambian economic sustainability. Sustainability, 12(11), Article 4559. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114559

Ramadhan, M. (2019). Assessing of the impact of good governance and institutions on economic growth in Indonesia. International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research, 8(11), 2594–2598.

Samanta, N., & Johnston, A. (2020). Shareholder primacy corporate governance and financial market growth. Corporate Governance, 19(5), 845–848. https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-10-2019-385

Sayılır, Ö., Doğan, M., & Soud, N. S. (2018). Financial development and governance relationships. Applied Economics Letters, 25(20), 1466–1470. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2018.1430311

Shittu, W. O., Yusuf, H. A., El Houssein, A. E. M., & Hassan, S. (2020). The impacts of foreign direct investment and globalisation on economic growth in West Africa: Examining the role of political governance. Journal of Economic Studies, 47(7), 1733–1755. https://doi.org/10.1108/JES-09-2019-0446

Singh, B. P. (2022). Does governance matter? Evidence from BRICS. Global Business Review, 23(2), 408–425. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150919861222

Singh, B. P., & Pradhan, K. C. (2022). Institutional quality and economic performance in South Asia. Journal of Public Affairs, 22(1), Article e2401. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2401