The Relatonship between Financial Development and Economic Growth: The Case of West African Countries

This study examines the relationship between financial development and economic growth in seven countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) from 1970 to 2018. Vector autoregression and the Granger causality method were employed in this study to reveal the impact of financial development on investment, which is essential for long-term economic growth. In our study, investment, credit to the private sector, broad money, foreign direct investment, general government final expenditures, foreign trade, and savings are used as variables. The results of the analysis reveal that financial development indicators have a positive effect on investment. However, the degree of this effect differs from country to country. Credit to the private sector and broad money, which are indicators of financial development in some countries, have a low impact on investment, while in other countries, the impact is strong. Regarding Granger causality, four different results were found across the countries: a bidirectional causality between financial development and investment, a unidirectional causal flow from investment to financial development, a unidirectional causal flow from financial development indicators to investment, and no causality between financial development and investment.