Financial System Development and Economic Growth: A Critical Analysis of the Literature

Abstract

Any developing countries (DCs) want to achieve strong, sustained growth to ensure their sustainable development by 2030. Indeed, promoting economic growth is one of the targets of the majority of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by United Nations member countries. In their agenda, financial system development cited as an effective means of enabling developing countries to achieve high rates economic growth. However, research into the relationship between finance and growth has produced controversial results, showing that financial development is not always conducive to economic growth. These non-consensual findings call for further research into the subject. With this in mind, the aim of this paper is to critically analyze the literature on the subject with reference to the characteristics of developing countries. We have used the stylistic facts observed in these countries to see whether the way in which studies are conducted is in line with reality. These facts revealed that, as conducted, theoretical and empirical work does not really illustrate the nature of this relationship in the case of developing countries. The authors do not take into account certain specificities of these countries. The studies focus mainly on the formal financial sector, whereas in developing countries, the majority of the population is unbanked, so they tend to turn to the informal financial sector for savings and credit. In Pagano's theoretical model, on which most empirical work is based, the efficiency of financial intermediation is assumed to be an exogenous variable. However, in developing countries, many factors influence this function: poor governance, prevailing corruption, inefficiency of the legal system, government intervention in the financial sector, culture of non-repayment. Banking sector development is generally captured by credit to the private sector. However, in developing countries, the majority of bank credit is allocated to large commercial enterprises that sell mainly imported products. The indicators generally used to capture financial markets development do not reflect the amount of financing actually obtained by listed companies. Rather, they measure the level of secondary market activity, whose mission is to ensure the liquidity of securities and determine their prices. Taking account of financial dualism and integrating factors linked to the institutional environment, borrower behavior and financial intermediaries into the resource allocation function would be a significant advance in the literature.