Intégration financière internationale et croissance économique dans les pays émergents et en développement : le canal du développement financier

In this paper, we test the empirical implications of financial openness on long-term growth through the financial development channel. Our work differs from the existing literature on a number of issues, the most important of them lies in the study of the relationship between financial openness, financial development and growth through the estimation of a simultaneous equations model. Estimates are performed with GMM dynamic panel data techniques for 112 emerging and developing countries from 1975 to 2007. The results confirm the presence of a significant positive relationship between financial development and long term growth. Unlike the results of an extensive empirical literature supporting a significant positive impact of financial openness on financial development, we get a more nuanced conclusion. Such conclusion is robust to the inclusion of the financial crises variable. Indeed, the nature of this impact varies depending on whether we study the implications on the size, on the efficiency or on the activity of financial system. Our estimates suggest however significant adverse effects of financial openness on the financial intermediaries activity and the stock market development in emerging and developing countries. The results for the subgroup of emerging and frontier countries proved more successful and more conclusive. They unambiguously defend a positive and significant link between financial openness and financial development. Finally, the results show that financial development is an indirect transmission channel through which financial openness may impact long-term growth in emerging and developing countries.