@workingpaper{Asongu2014bx,
title = {Knowledge Economy and Financial Sector Competition in African Countries},
author = {Simplice A Asongu},
editor = {African 2014 Governance and Development Institute WP/14/006},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Knowledge-economy-and-financial-sector-competition-in-African-countries.pdf},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-01-01},
abstract = {The goal of this paper is to assess how knowledge economy (KE) plays out in
financial sector competition. It suggests a practicable way to disentangle the effects of
different components of KE on various financial sectors. The variables identified under the
World Bank’s four knowledge economy index (KEI) are employed. An endogeneity robust
panel instrumental variable fixed-effects estimation strategy is employed on data from 53
African countries for the period 1996-2010. The following findings are established. First,
education and innovation in terms of scientific and technical publications broadly bear an
inverse nexus with financial development. Second, the incidence of information and
communication technologies is positive on all financial sectors but increases the non-formal
sectors to the detriment of the formal sector. Third, economic incentives have positive
implications for all sectors though the formal financial sector benefits most. Fourth,
institutional regime is positive (negative) for the semi-formal (informal) financial sector. The
findings contribute at the same time to the macroeconomic literature on measuring financial
development and respond to the growing fields of informal sector importance, microfinance
and mobile banking by means of KE promotion. Policy implications and future research
directions are discussed.},
keywords = {Financial development; Knowledge Economy; Africa},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}