Volume 13, Issue 1, September 2015, Pages 50–65
Siham Matallah1, Nouria Ghazi2, and Chaib Bounoua3
1 Department of Economics, University of Tlemcen, Tlemcen, Algeria
2 Department of Economics, University of Tlemcen, Tlemcen, Algeria
3 Department of Economics, University of Tlemcen, Tlemcen, Algeria
Original language: English
Copyright © 2015 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This study examines the impact of the triptych economic freedom-financial development-FDI on economic growth in 12 MENA countries (Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen) over the period 1995-2012, by using OLS, panel fixed effects (FE), panel random effects (RE) and generalized method of moments (GMM). The main findings indicate that economic freedom contributes positively and significantly to economic growth, because greater economic freedom fosters economic growth by inducing competition and steering resources to the most efficient use. Furthermore, financial development indicators exert a positive and significant impact on the growth of selected MENA economies, thus, it can be said that the financial development play a preponderant role in enhancing the MENA region's growth prospects by encouraging savings and investments, and allowing the efficient allocation of resources, it is also accountable for absorbing FDI benefits. As well as, the results show the positive growth effect of FDI. Based on these findings, it could be concluded that policy actions should be directed towards strengthening economic institutions, promoting access to finance and enhancing competition through the removal of stringent entry barriers and improvement of credit information. Further, MENA countries can improve their growth performance by opening their doors more widely to FDI inflows and enacting favorable investment policies. Additionally, policy makers in the MENA region should create the enabling environment conducive to financial development and implement far-reaching reforms in the financial area along with embarking on deeper and broader institutional reforms.
Author Keywords: Economic Freedom, Financial Development, FDI, Economic Growth, MENA region.
Siham Matallah1, Nouria Ghazi2, and Chaib Bounoua3
1 Department of Economics, University of Tlemcen, Tlemcen, Algeria
2 Department of Economics, University of Tlemcen, Tlemcen, Algeria
3 Department of Economics, University of Tlemcen, Tlemcen, Algeria
Original language: English
Copyright © 2015 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
This study examines the impact of the triptych economic freedom-financial development-FDI on economic growth in 12 MENA countries (Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen) over the period 1995-2012, by using OLS, panel fixed effects (FE), panel random effects (RE) and generalized method of moments (GMM). The main findings indicate that economic freedom contributes positively and significantly to economic growth, because greater economic freedom fosters economic growth by inducing competition and steering resources to the most efficient use. Furthermore, financial development indicators exert a positive and significant impact on the growth of selected MENA economies, thus, it can be said that the financial development play a preponderant role in enhancing the MENA region's growth prospects by encouraging savings and investments, and allowing the efficient allocation of resources, it is also accountable for absorbing FDI benefits. As well as, the results show the positive growth effect of FDI. Based on these findings, it could be concluded that policy actions should be directed towards strengthening economic institutions, promoting access to finance and enhancing competition through the removal of stringent entry barriers and improvement of credit information. Further, MENA countries can improve their growth performance by opening their doors more widely to FDI inflows and enacting favorable investment policies. Additionally, policy makers in the MENA region should create the enabling environment conducive to financial development and implement far-reaching reforms in the financial area along with embarking on deeper and broader institutional reforms.
Author Keywords: Economic Freedom, Financial Development, FDI, Economic Growth, MENA region.
How to Cite this Article
Siham Matallah, Nouria Ghazi, and Chaib Bounoua, “How the Triptych "Economic Freedom-Financial Development-FDI" Can Affect the MENA region's Economic Growth?,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 50–65, September 2015.
