Stock Market in Economic Growth: The Case of MENA Countries

According to the relationship between financial development and economic growth, the question is whether the type of financial structure (bank-based or market-based financial system) can affect the economic growth? This paper attempts to find an answer to the above mentioned question by surviving the effect of financial development of banks and stock markets in some MENA countries.The Principal components analysis is used to derive a multilateral index for financial development. Moreover, using panel data econometrics, the role of banking system and stock market in encouraging economic growth in the studied countries is investigated.The results indicate that the effect of banking system development on the economic growth in these countries is significantly negative while the effect of stock market development in spite of being positive is not statistically significant. These results are contrary to the observed empirical evidences in developed countries which are due to the specific and different characteristics of financial markets in developing countries. Therefore, in the case of these countries, it seems that the planning for “financial development” is essential before any controversy over the type of “financial structure”.