CAPITAL MOBILITY AND GROWTH IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD : An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

This paper investigates the link between financial liberalisation and growth for a cross – section of seventeen developing countries, including India, both theoretically and empirically. It also explores the different measures of capital account openness and the empirical evidence on the association between financial openness and growth. Theoretically capital account openness leads to growth through two main channels: increase in aggregate investment and an improvement in productivity and efficiency. Existing empirical evidence however suggests that the link between capital account openness and economic growth is weak. The paper uses a de jure measure of capital account convertibility, calculated as the proportion of capital flows to total flow of funds. The results find a positive association between financial openness and growth for some countries in the sample. However the investment effect is found to be weak or of no significance for the majority of the sample.