IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/reroxx/v29y2016i1p746-757.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public debt and pro-poor economic growth evidence from South Asian countries

Author

Listed:
  • Naeem Akram

Abstract

Over the years, most developing countries have failed to collect enough revenues to finance their budgets. As a result, they face the problem of twin deficits and are relying on public external and domestic debt to finance their developmental activities. NGOs and anti-globalisation movements have propagated the view that instead of reducing poverty public debt has increased the miseries of the poor. The current study examines the consequences of public debt for economic growth and poverty regarding selected South Asian countries, i.e., Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, for the period 1975–2010. It develops an empirical model that incorporates the role of public debt into growth equations and the model is extended to incorporate the effects of debt on poverty. The model is estimated by using standard panel data estimation methodologies. The results shows that although public debt has a negative impact on economic growth, neither public external debt nor external debt servicing has a significant relationship with income inequality, suggesting that public external debt is as good/bad for poor as it is for rich. However, domestic debt has a positive relationship with economic growth and a negative relationship with the GINI coefficient, indicating that domestic debt is pro-poor.

Suggested Citation

  • Naeem Akram, 2016. "Public debt and pro-poor economic growth evidence from South Asian countries," Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 746-757, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:reroxx:v:29:y:2016:i:1:p:746-757
    DOI: 10.1080/1331677X.2016.1197550
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/1331677X.2016.1197550
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/1331677X.2016.1197550?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thaveesha Jayawardhana & Ruwan Jayathilaka & Sachini Anuththara & Thamasha Nimnadi & Ridhmi Karadanaarachchi & Kethaka Galappaththi, 2024. "Exploring the Dynamics of the Elderly Population and Economic Growth: A Comparative Analysis Across Continents," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 173(3), pages 543-568, July.
    2. Olumide Olusegun Olaoye & Phillip A. Olomola, 2023. "Sub‐Saharan Africa's rising public debt stock: Is there a cause for concern?," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 91(1), pages 85-115, March.
    3. Naeem Akram, 2023. "Household’s Saving Behaviour in Pakistan: A Micro-Data Analysis," Studies in Microeconomics, , vol. 11(2), pages 139-156, August.
    4. Ekpe, John Polycarp & Ogbuabor, Jonathan E., 2023. "Foreign Debt, Institutional Quality and Economic Performance in Nigeria: An Experimental Evaluation," MPRA Paper 119735, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 31 Aug 2023.
    5. Olumide Olusegun Olaoye & Mosab I. Tabash & Olatunde Julius Omokanmi & Rotimi Ayoade Ogunjumo & Matthew Oyeleke Ojelade & James A. Ishola, 2022. "Macroeconomic implications of escalating stock of public debt: Evidence from sub‐Saharan African economies," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(4), pages 527-540, December.
    6. MT Musakwa & N.M. Odhiambo, 2021. "The Impact of Foreign Capital Inflows on Poverty in Vietnam: An Empirical Investigation," Working Papers AESRI-2021-10, African Economic and Social Research Institute (AESRI), revised Oct 2021.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:reroxx:v:29:y:2016:i:1:p:746-757. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rero .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.