Revisiting the Financial Development and Poverty Reduction Nexus for Sub-Saharan African Countries: Evidence from Causality Tests in the Time and Frequency Domains

This study reexamines the causal relationship between financial development and poverty reduction for six African countries. To that end, we employ the Granger causality tests in the time and frequency domains. The results from time domain causality analysis indicate that financial development does...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Yaya Keho
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: EconJournals 2016-10-01
Series:International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues
Online Access:https://www.econjournals.com/index.php/ijefi/article/view/2596
Description
Summary:This study reexamines the causal relationship between financial development and poverty reduction for six African countries. To that end, we employ the Granger causality tests in the time and frequency domains. The results from time domain causality analysis indicate that financial development does not causes poverty reduction directly, but poverty reduction causes financial deepening in Nigeria and South Africa. While the frequency domain analysis shows evidence of bidirectional causality between financial development and poverty reduction for Cameroon in long run, and causality from finance to poverty reduction for Gabon in long term. Furthermore, causality from poverty reduction to financial development exists for Nigeria both in short and medium terms and for South Africa over the short, medium and long terms. Keywords: Poverty reduction, financial development, frequency domain analysis, Sub-Saharan Africa JEL Classifications: C32, G21, I30, O55 
ISSN:2146-4138