Financial Depth in the WAEMU: Benchmarking Against Frontier SSA Countries
July 3, 2013
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Summary
Financial depth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been uneven over the last two decades. The WAEMU countries are lagging behind other regions, particularly the High Growth Non-oil Exporters (HGNOEs) group. We use two complementary methodologies to compare the two groups of countries. In a panel of 16 countries over 1997–2009, we find that the financial gap between the two groups of countries can be explained by institutional factors. In a benchmarking exercise comparing the major economy in the WAEMU (Côte d’Ivoire) with the most structurally similar in the control group (Mozambique), we show that Côte d’Ivoire underperformed relative to Mozambique and to its estimated potential. We then identify policy and institutional asymmetries between the two countries that could explain the gap in performance.
Subject: Bank credit, Banking, Credit, Financial markets, Financial sector development, Infrastructure, Legal support in revenue administration, Money, National accounts, Revenue administration
Keywords: Bank credit, Benchmarking, contract enforcement, Credit, credit coverage, credit information collection, Financial development, Financial possibility frontier, Financial sector development, GDP, Global, Infrastructure, Legal support in revenue administration, Sub-Saharan Africa, WAEMU, WAEMU control variable, WAEMU region, WP
Pages:
23
Volume:
2013
DOI:
Issue:
161
Series:
Working Paper No. 2013/161
Stock No:
WPIEA2013161
ISBN:
9781484309391
ISSN:
1018-5941
