Financial Development and Poverty, a Panel Data Analysis

58 Pages Posted: 7 Oct 2012

Date Written: September 1, 2012

Abstract

The relationship between financial development and poverty is one that has not been extensively explored in the literature. This is the main objective of this paper. With a panel dataset of 147 countries between 1960 and 2008, and using infant mortality as a proxy indicator of poverty, the results show that the relationship between financial development and infant mortality is negative. This means that higher levels of financial development are associated with lower levels of poverty. The result is important since it already controls for the effect that economic growth has on poverty reduction, given the well documented fact that financial development has a positive effect on economic growth. The results are robust to the use of other variables as indicators of financial development, as the long-run relationship is still negative. The findings in this paper highlight the importance of financial development in poverty reduction, and suggest that future research could try and explain what are the mechanisms behind this relationship.

Keywords: Financial Development, Poverty Alleviation, Infant Mortality, GDP Growth

JEL Classification: G00, I32, I15, O11, O16

Suggested Citation

Ordoñez, Pablo, Financial Development and Poverty, a Panel Data Analysis (September 1, 2012). Universidad Icesi School of Management and Economics Research Paper No. 31, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2158045 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2158045

Pablo Ordoñez (Contact Author)

Icesi University ( email )

Calle 18 #122-135
A.A. 25608
Cali
Colombia

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