How Financial Development Affects Economic Growth: Evidence from some SAARC Countries

According to Joseph Schumpeter (1911), services provided by financial intermediaries are essential for technical innovation and economic growth. Later, empirical work by Goldsmith (1969) and McKinnon (1973) supported that there were close ties between financial and economic development for a few countries. But numerous other economists, including Robinson (1952) believed that finance was not so important for economic growth; financial development simply follows economic growth. Despite this debate, Levine (1993), among others suggests a positive relationship between financial sector development and economic growth. Moreover, there remains further debate whether the country's financial structure exerts differential impact on economic growth. Empirical studies across the countries (Rajan and Zingales, 1999) suggest that banking sector plays a key role in some countries. In this paper, I intend to investigate whether higher levels of financial development are positively correlated with economic growth using empirical evidence from five South Asian countries namely Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. I have used Panel data analysis, Linear regression model, Levin-Lin-Chu unit root test, Covariance, Correlation and VIF test based on aggregate annual data from 1993 to 2016. My analysis suggests that development in banking sector has a moderately strong tie to promoting economic growth. The result implies that the policy should focus on banking sector development by enhancing its quality of credit products and offers to private sector as it is the main stimulator for growth in these five South Asian countries.