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Owing to the significant role of financial sector reforms in economic growth, several studies have examined its transmission channels. This paper focuses on the stock market channel by investigating the impact of financial sector reforms on stock market growth in Ghana from 1990 to 2019. A multidimensional index was constructed to measure the financial sector reforms. Employing fully modified least squares (FMOLS) and error-correction models, the findings reveal that financial sector reforms promote stock market growth in Ghana in the long run. By disaggregating the financial sector reforms, the findings reveal that competitive reform has the highest impact followed by behavioural and privatisation reforms respectively. Finally, the findings reveal a bi-causal relationship between financial sector reforms and stock market growth. The paper thus implores the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reinforce its supervisory role, policy implementation, and investor protection laws to ensure greater compliance with the reforms. In addition, macroeconomic policies that are helpful to the growth of the capital market must be deepened to stimulate expected growth in the Ghanaian stock market.

This book's prime audience is government policy-makers. It provides a policy framework for governments to increase micro, small and medium enterprises' access to financial services?one which is based on empirical evidence from around the world. Financial sector policies in many developing countries often work against the ability of commercial financial institutions to serve this market segment, albeit, often unintentionally. The framework guides governments on how to best focus scarce resources on three things: ? developing an inclusive financial sector policy; ? building healthy financial institutions; and ? investing in information infrastructure such as credit bureaus and accounting standards. The book provides examples and case studies of how such a strategy has helped to build more inclusive financial institutions and systems in many countries.

This study examines the impact of bank corporate governance reforms in the wake of the financial crisis. These reforms correspond to criticism of shareholder-focused agency-based corporate governance practices and a renewed focus on the stakeholder impact of corporate governance lapses in the financial sector. This study differs from previous studies of corporate governance in the financial sector in using performance indicators that proxy the interests of customers and the community. Drawing on data from 134 countries over an eight-year period from 2004 to 2011, we find that the post-crisis corporate governance reforms in the banking sector appear to be effective in promoting greater bank attention to nonshareholder stakeholders' interests. This study provides a means to conceptualize measures of bank performance from a stakeholder perspective in order to test emerging ideas about governance effectiveness in the financial sector.

This report reviews World Bank support to Egypt from fiscal 1999 through fiscal 2007. It analyzes the objectives and content of the Bank’s assistance program during this period. The Bank’s assistance program largely met its objectives and contributed significantly to policy and institutional changes, especially in the financial sector, privatization, pension system, and private sector development. From FY99 to FY07, the Bank committed just 2.1 billion for 18 investment projects and one policy-based loan. Bank analytical work has helped in the design of recent economic reforms and in monitoring poverty. The Bank’s long-term partnership in irrigation and water management has contributed to recent increases in agriculture productivity and exports. Bank efforts in rural finance have been less successful. The Bank has also contributed to improvements in Egypt’s human development indicators. Future Bank strategy needs to reflect Egypt’s middle-income status by including a flexible lending program and an emphasis on knowledge services, including reimbursable technical assistance. The Bank can further strengthen the partnership by focusing on (i) poverty and inequality; (ii) analytic work on macroeconomic analysis and income disparities and its improved dissemination; (iii) further financial sector reforms and indirectly combating corruption; and (iv) sectoral strategies and policy and institutional reforms in infrastructure and energy.

Various reforms have been brought to bear on the financial system ostensibly to improve the country’s macroeconomic variables and the standard of living of the people, among which are the financial reforms that were implemented in recent times. This study examines the impact of financial sector reform on the Human Development Index (HDI) following the recent statistics that show improvement in the HDI of Nigeria since 2005. The study employed several variables as a proxy for financial reforms and adopted the Granger causality test and vector error correction model to analyse the impact of the relationship for the period between 1980 and 2017. The findings revealed a negative long-run relationship between financial sector reform variables and HDI, except for owners’ equity. The study also showed positive short-run dynamics between total savings to GDP and HDI. The study concluded that the recent improvements in HDI, which is the proxy for economic development, are not due to the financial sector’s reforms; rather, some other influences in the economy could be responsible. The study, therefore, recommends a more inclusive reform agenda that will focus on economic development rather than economic growth.

What conditions determine the success of Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks (MDTFs)? How should the implementation of MTEFs be sequenced and coordinated with other budget reforms? What role should organizations such as the World Bank, bilateral development partners, and other international agencies play in supporting MTEF adoption? How can country authorities implement a new MTEF or strengthen an existing one?Beyond the Annual Budget provides a comprehensive review of global experience with Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks (MTEFs). Looking at countries both with and without MTEFs over the period 1990 to 2008, the authors adopt a systematic methodological approach and rely on multiple analytical techniques—including event studies and econometric analysis—to obtain results about the impact of MTEFs on fiscal performance. The authors then draw on case studies and other material to determine whether MTEFs should be a common element of public financial management systems given differences in country circumstances. Guidance is also provided on the design and implementation of MTEFs in the context of broader public financial management systems reform.This volume will be of interest to multilateral and bilateral providers of technical assistance in the public financial management area, and to country authorities seeking to introduce or strengthen MTEFs.

Access to financial services varies sharply around the world. In many developing countries less than half the population has an account with a financial institution, and in most of Africa less than one in five households do. Lack of access to finance is often the critical mechanism for generating persistent income inequality, as well as slower growth. 'Finance for All?: Policies and Pitfalls in Expanding Access' documents the extent of financial exclusion around the world; addresses the importance of access to financial services for growth, equity and poverty reduction; and discusses policy interventions and institutional reforms that can improve access for underserved groups. The report is a broad ranging review of the work already completed or in progress, drawing on research utilizing data at the country, firm and household level. Given that financial systems in many developing countries serve only a small part of the population, expanding access remains an important challenge across the world, leaving much for governments to do. However, not all government actions are equally effective and some policies can be counterproductive. The report sets out principles for effective government policy on broadening access, drawing on the available evidence and illustrating with examples.

PurposeThis paper aims to empirically investigate the impact that financial sector reforms have on foreign direct investment (FDI) in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachComposite financial sector reform index was constructed, which was made up of various forms of reform policies that were implemented from 1987 to 2016. The auto regressive distributed lag bounds test was used to establish cointegration between variables. Having controlled for other covariates that affect FDI such as trade openness, exchange rate, gross domestic product per capita, inflation and by using the fully modified ordinary least squares method, the estimations are robust as it uses a semi-parametric correction to avoid for any possible issues of endogeneity and serial correlation.FindingsResults from the paper reveal that financial sector reform deepening boost FDI with a 2.167% increase in FDI following from a unit percentage improvement of the financial sector reforms. Considering the various categories of reforms, the results reveal that competitive reforms have the highest impact on FDI followed by privatization reforms with positive and significant elasticity coefficients of 2.174% and 0.726%, respectively. Behavioral reforms revealed a positive effect on FDI, albeit insignificant.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to policy by providing empirical evidence on the effect of financial sector reform on FDI inflows in Ghana. As far as the review of literature is concerned, this paper provides the foremost empirical evidence on the subject with sole emphasis on Ghana. Thus, this paper suggests the deepening of the financial sector reforms, improving competition and maintaining macroeconomic stability.

During past two decades government of Pakistan has made prominent attempts to transform its financial system through various reforms. Being chief element of macroeconomic policy, financial reforms are anticipated to fetch considerable economic benefits mostly through efficient utilization of resources and recruitment of national savings. Analyzing the effectiveness of financial sector reforms the findings of this investigation demonstrates considerable and noteworthy effect on the economy of Pakistan, however still the gap of improvement exits. From the analysis it can be suggested that to make the financial sector reforms in more effective way, the information gap between micro-macro prudential should be bridged to ensure the safety and soundness of individual institutions that encompasses all activities aimed at monitoring the exposure of systemic risk and identifying potential threats to financial stability arising from macroeconomic and financial sector reforms.

This paper examines the relationship between financial sector reforms and sustainable economic growth in Ghana. Employing the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach and using GDP per capita as a growth indicator, this paper establishes a long-run relationship between economic growth and financial reforms, which is represented by an index calculated using principal component analysis (PCA). The paper finds that in the long run, financial sector reforms have an insignificant impact on economic growth in Ghana. This supports numerous past studies that have reported mixed or inconclusive results on the effects of financial reforms on economic growth. The paper concludes that increase in capital stock, not financial sector policy reforms, affects economic growth in Ghana. This paper therefore recommends an increase and modernization of capital stock in order to promote real sector growth in Ghana.