Does Financial Globalization Enhance Economic Growth in Egypt

Abstract

This paper aims to estimate the impact of financial globalization on economic growth in Egypt, in the long and short runs during the period (1980-1980). In order to estimate this relationship, the study used five different variables to express the level of financial globalization, which is the KAOPEN index as a de jure indicator for financial globalization, that is the officially announced restrictions and laws, the two indicators of foreign direct investment (inflows and outflows) and foreign indirect investment (assets and liabilities of financial portfolios) were also used as de facto indicators for financial globalization, that is, actual capital flows. The study also used the most important controlling variables affecting the relationship of financial globalization with economic growth, namely, the terms of trade exchange, trade openness, the level of human capital accumulation, government spending, and finally the level of financial development. The study relied on the estimation on the co-integration using the boundary test method, which is based on the use of Autoregressive Distributed Delays (ARDL) model which is the most appropriate in this case based on the results of the stationary variables. Before adopting the results, it was first ascertained that there is a co-integration relationship between the study variables, in addition to confirming that the estimated models are free from various measurement problems based on the results of diagnostic or confirmatory tests, and also the high explanatory power of the estimated models. The final results showed the fulfillment of the hypothesis of the study that financial globalization enhances economic growth in Egypt as we find a positive impact of de jure indicator of financial globalization on long-run economic growth. De facto indicators of financial globalization have confirmed the same result as we find a positive impact of foreign investment inflows on the long-run economic growth while the relationship between foreign investment outflows and economic growth takes the form of an inverted U-shaped as the inflection point is equal to 0.563 percent of GDP. For indirect foreign investments (foreign portfolios), we find a significant positive impact of foreign portfolio assets on long-run Egyptian economic growth although, these portfolios' liabilities had no impact on Egyptian economic growth despite their positive indication.