IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/osfxxx/ghfdb_v1.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Nexus among External Debt and Economic Growth: Evidence from South Asia

Author

Listed:
  • Wanniarachchi, Sasindu Lakruwan

    (Central Bank of Sri Lanka)

Abstract

Over the past few years, external debt positions of South Asian economies have increased to alarming levels, indicating that those countries are more likely to be exposed to a debt crisis. Given the low domestic savings rate of these economies, they are increasingly compelled to invest significant resources in public infrastructure in order to maintain sustainable growth momentum. At the same time, those countries are invited to enrich by integrating with global synergies in the fields of maritime, trade, and financial initiatives. However, as the recent controversy over the debt-growth association is inconclusive to date; preserving the external debt exposures at an optimal level is incumbent. Consequently, this study reviews annual observations of independent cross-sections of South Asia during the period 1981-2017 in order to find the external debt-growth relationship. In addition, the quantitative research strategy used to measure the expected outcomes primarily consists of panel ARDL specifications. On aggregate levels of data, the results suggest that there is a statistically significant negative association between external debt and economic growth. Also, it has been observed that a significant nonlinear relationship exists in relation to lower-middle income countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Wanniarachchi, Sasindu Lakruwan, 2020. "The Nexus among External Debt and Economic Growth: Evidence from South Asia," OSF Preprints ghfdb_v1, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:ghfdb_v1
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/ghfdb_v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/600e69db327cbe01b17b9dc4/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/ghfdb_v1?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert J Barro, 1999. "Determinants of Economic Growth: Implications of the Global Evidence for Chile," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 36(107), pages 443-478.
    2. Nijkamp, Peter & Poot, Jacques, 2004. "Meta-analysis of the effect of fiscal policies on long-run growth," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 91-124, March.
    3. Robert C. Feenstra & Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer, 2015. "The Next Generation of the Penn World Table," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3150-3182, October.
    4. Jaejoon Woo & Manmohan S. Kumar, 2015. "Public Debt and Growth," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82(328), pages 705-739, October.
    5. William Easterly & Ross Levine, 1997. "Africa's Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1203-1250.
    6. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Smith, Ron, 1995. "Estimating long-run relationships from dynamic heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 79-113, July.
    7. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2010. "Growth in a Time of Debt," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 573-578, May.
    8. Balẳ Égert, 2015. "The 90% public debt threshold: the rise and fall of a stylized fact," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(34-35), pages 3756-3770, July.
    9. Frederic S. Mishkin, 2011. "Over the Cliff: From the Subprime to the Global Financial Crisis," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 49-70, Winter.
    10. Tang, Chor Foon, 2008. "A re-examination of the relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth in Malaysia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 3067-3075, August.
    11. Cohen, Daniel, 1993. "Low Investment and Large LDC Debt in the 1980's," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(3), pages 437-449, June.
    12. Syed Ali Raza & Muhammad Shahbaz & Sudharshan Reddy Paramati, 2017. "Dynamics of Military Expenditure and Income Inequality in Pakistan," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 1035-1055, April.
    13. Debi Prasad Bal & Badri Narayan Rath, 2014. "Public debt and economic growth in India: A reassessment," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 292-300.
    14. Andrew M. Warner, 1992. "Did the Debt Crisis Cause the Investment Crisis?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(4), pages 1161-1186.
    15. Catherine Pattillo & Hélène Poirson & Luca Antonio Ricci, 2011. "External Debt and Growth," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 2(3).
    16. Athina Kanioura & Paul Turner, 2005. "Critical values for an F-test for cointegration in a multivariate model," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 265-270.
    17. Edward F. Blackburne III & Mark W. Frank, 2007. "Estimation of nonstationary heterogeneous panels," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 7(2), pages 197-208, June.
    18. John C. Anyanwu, 2014. "Factors Affecting Economic Growth in Africa: Are There any Lessons from China?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 26(3), pages 468-493, September.
    19. Robert J. Barro, 2003. "Determinants of Economic Growth in a Panel of Countries," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 4(2), pages 231-274, November.
    20. Rifaqat Ali & Usman Mustafa, 2012. "External Debt Accumulation and Its Impact on Economic Growth in Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 51(4), pages 79-96.
    21. B. Bhaskara Rao & Gazi Hassan, 2011. "Determinants of the long-run growth rate of Bangladesh," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(7), pages 655-658.
    22. Nelson, Charles R. & Plosser, Charles I., 1982. "Trends and random walks in macroeconmic time series : Some evidence and implications," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 139-162.
    23. Siddique, Abu & Selvanathan, E.A. & Selvanathan, Saroja, 2016. "The impact of external debt on growth: Evidence from highly indebted poor countries," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 874-894.
    24. Lefteris Tsoulfidis, 2007. "Classical economists and public debt," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 54(1), pages 1-12, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wanniarachchi, Sasindu Lakruwan, 2020. "The Nexus among External Debt and Economic Growth: Evidence from South Asia," OSF Preprints ghfdb, Center for Open Science.
    2. Gómez-Puig, Marta & Sosvilla-Rivero, Simón, 2017. "Heterogeneity in the debt-growth nexus: Evidence from EMU countries," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 470-486.
    3. Chirwa Themba G. & Odhiambo Nicholas M., 2016. "Macroeconomic Determinants of Economic Growth: A Review of International Literature," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 11(2), pages 33-47, December.
    4. Taner Turan & Halit Yanıkkaya, 2021. "External debt, growth and investment for developing countries: some evidence for the debt overhang hypothesis," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 20(3), pages 319-341, September.
    5. Jos Mauricio Gil Le n & John William Rosso Murillo & Edgar Alonso Ramirez Hern ndez, 2019. "Public Debt and Stability in Economic Growth: Evidence for Latin America," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 9(4), pages 137-147.
    6. Ehigiamusoe, Kizito Uyi & Lean, Hooi Hooi, 2020. "The role of deficit and debt in financing growth in West Africa," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 216-234.
    7. Taner Turan & Halit Yanikkaya, 2019. "External Debt, Growth and Investment for Developing Countries: The Role of Government Effectiveness," Working Papers 2019-03, Gebze Technical University, Department of Economics.
    8. Chirwa, Themba G & Odhiambo, Nicholas M., 2018. "Electricity consumption and economic growth: New evidence from twelve countries," Working Papers 23508, University of South Africa, Department of Economics.
    9. İbrahim ÖZMEN, 2022. "New Evidence from Government Debt and Economic Growth in Core and Periphery European Union Countries : Asymmetric Panel Causality," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(3), pages 167-187, October.
    10. Mduduzi Biyase & September Rooderick, 2017. "Determinants of Growth in SADC Countries: A Fixed Effect Vector Decomposition Approach," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 7(4), pages 746-751.
    11. Chirwa, Themba G & Odhiambo, Nicholas M, 2016. "The drivers of real sector growth in Malawi: an empirical investigation," Working Papers 20037, University of South Africa, Department of Economics.
    12. Doğan, İbrahim & Bilgili, Faik, 2014. "The non-linear impact of high and growing government external debt on economic growth: A Markov Regime-switching approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 213-220.
    13. Muhammad Dawood & Zhao Rui Feng & Muhammad Ilyas & Ghulam Abbas, 2024. "External Debt, Transmission Channels, and Economic Growth: Evidence of Debt Overhang and Crowding-Out Effect," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(3), pages 21582440241, July.
    14. Bernardin Senadza & Agbemavor Korsi Fiagbe & Peter Quartey, 2017. "The Effect of External Debt on Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH), Kavala Campus, Greece, vol. 11(1), pages 61-69, December.
    15. Andrea F Presbitero, 2012. "Total Public Debt and Growth in Developing Countries," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 24(4), pages 606-626, September.
    16. Bitar, Nicholas & Chakrabarti, Avik & Zeaiter, Hussein, 2018. "Were Reinhart and Rogoff right?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 614-620.
    17. Markus Eberhardt & Andrea Filippo Presbitero, 2013. "This Time They're Different: Heterogeneity;and Nonlinearity in the Relationship;between Debt and Growth," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 92, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    18. Mushtaq Ahmad Malik & Tariq Masood, 2022. "Dynamics of Output Growth and Convergence in the Middle East and North African Countries: Heterogeneous Panel ARDL Approach," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(2), pages 1444-1469, June.
    19. Besnik Fetai & Kestrim Avdimetaj & Abdylmenaf Bexheti & Arben Malaj, 2020. "Threshold effect of public debt on economic growth: An empirical analysis in the European transition countries," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 38(2), pages 381-406.
    20. Brian Tavonga Mazorodze, 2020. "Re-visiting the External Debt-Economic Growth Question in Zimbabwe," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 12(2), pages 1-8.

    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:osf:osfxxx:ghfdb_v1. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://osf.io/preprints/ .

    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.