Financial development, trade openness and economic growth in African countries: New insights from a panel causality approach

This paper examines the causal relationship between financial development and economic growth for 21 African countries within a framework which also accounts for international trade. We develop a financial development index based on four different financial development indicators and apply the panel bootstrapped approach to Granger causality. The empirical results show limited support for the finance-led growth and the trade-led growth hypotheses. The results imply that recent attempts at financial development and trade liberalization do not seem to have made a significant impact on growth. •Examine causal linkages between financial development, trade openness and economic growth•Develop the financial development index based on four different financial development indicators•Test for causality using a systematic modeling approach within the framework of panel data analysis•Limited support for the finance-led growth and the trade-led growth hypotheses