Suchergebnisse

Countries around the world are announcing stimulus packages in response to the COVID 19 pandemic. This research attempts to measure the extent and progress of stimulus packages by proposing a multidimensional index that standardizes governments' economic responses and allows us to examine the differences in economic policies from country to country. We apply the Euclidean distance formula to develop the new index and then identify the determinants of the economic stimulation of COVID-19 through beta-regression. The results show that Chile, Switzerland, Croatia, Sweden and the Netherlands responded more strongly to the COVID-19 pandemic, while the remaining countries responded slightly to the pandemic. Empirical results also indicate that most countries increased COVID-19 economic support, although not significantly. Finally, the results of the beta regression show that the median age of the population, the number of hospitals, beds per capita, the number of total COVID-19 cases, GDP, health care expenditure and the index of the severity of the government's response is significantly related to the level of the countries' stimulus packages.

In recent times, financial inclusion and financial stability issue have become a priority on policy agendas across the world. However, there is relative dearth of empirical studies addressing and establishing the link between the same. This study fills this gap. Using panel data of 2001-2013, this study empirically investigated whether financial inclusion contributes to country's financial stability, measured by Z-score. Robust results from GMM dynamic panel data estimator show that financial inclusion variables as measured by number of SME borrowers to total borrowers and ratio of outstanding SME loans to total loans have significant positive contributions to financial stability. Findings also indicate that GDP per capita, liquidity, proportion of private credit to GDP are positively and proportion of domestic credit provided to private sector and financial crisis are negatively associated with financial stability. Empirical findings of this study is of greater significance to the policymakers as it will invoke the attention of governments and policymakers to undertake such policies to accelerate financial inclusion of their countries which in turn will lead to country's greater financial stability. This study also contributes to empirical literatures of the issue of financial inclusion and financial stability by reconfirming (or otherwise) findings of previous studies.

This study endeavors to explore whether financial permeation stimulates economic growth in Asian region. To answer this, we collect data of 24 Asian economies for the duration of 2004 to 2016 and apply panel unit root, Granger causality, and regression techniques. The regression results controlled for country and time effects reveal that various indicators of financial permeation have substantial positive impact on the economic growth of Asian economies. Based on the findings of Granger causality, we find that financial permeation as well as economic openness has mutual causalities with economic growth. Therefore, it seems rational to conclude that financial permeation has positive impact on the economic growth in Asian economies. We also find a negative impact of financial crisis (2007-2008) on economic growth of Asian countries.