Financial development and productivity a panel data approach

Much ink has been spilled over the relation of financial market development and economic growth. Productivity growth is one of the main sources of economic growth. In this study we empirically examine the role of financial sector development in enhancing productivity growth, in a group of industrial and developing countries using panel data from 1965 to 1990. The productivity is measured by Malmquist index, introduced by Fare et al. (1994). This measure of productivity change index computes the productivity change from one year to another and furthermore it is possible to decompose the productivity change into efficiency change (diffusion) and technical change (innovation) components. Generalized Method of Moments techniques are applied where the results indicate that there is a significant effect of some financial development not only on Malmquist index but also on its components.