PUBLICATIONS

@workingpaper{Asongu2013b_32,
title = {The ‘Knowledge Economy’-finance nexus in SSA and MENA countries},
author = {Simplice A Asongu},
editor = {African 2013 Governance and Development Institute WP/13/022},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/The-Knowledge-Economy-Finance-Nexus-in-SSA-and-MENA-countries.pdf},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-01-01},
abstract = {Purpose – This paper assesses dynamics of the knowledge economy (KE)-finance nexus
using the four variables identified under the World Bank’s knowledge economy index (KEI)
and seven financial intermediary dynamics of depth, efficiency, activity and size.
Design/methodology/approach – Principal Component Analysis is used to reduce the
dimensions of KE components before dynamic panel GMM estimation techniques are
employed to examine the nexuses.
Findings – Four main findings are established. (1) Education improves financial depth and
financial efficiency but mitigates financial size. (2) But for a thin exception (trade’s incidence
on money supply), economic incentives (credit facilities and trade) are not consistently
favorable to financial development. (3) ICT improves only financial size and has a negative
effect on other financial dynamics. (4) Proxies for innovation (journals and FDI) have a
positive effect on financial activity; journals (FDI) have (has) a negative (positive) effect on
liquid liabilities and; journals and FDI both have negative incidences on money supply and
banking system efficiency respectively.
Practical Implications – As a policy implication, the KE-finance nexus is a complex and
multidimensional relationship. Hence, blind and blanket policy formulation to achieve
positive linkages may not be successful unless policy-making strategy is contingent on the
prevailing ‘KE specific component’ trends and dynamics of financial development. Policy
makers should improve the economic incentive dimension of KE that overwhelmingly and
consistently deters financial development, owing to surplus liquidity issues.
Originality/value – As far as we have reviewed, this is the first paper to examine the KEfinance
nexus with the plethora of KE dimensions defined by the World Bank’s KEI and all
the dynamics identified by the Financial Development and Structure Database (FDSD).},
keywords = {Financial development; Knowledge Economy},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}

@workingpaper{Asongu2012bh,
title = {Financial sector competition and knowledge economy: evidence from SSA and MENA countries},
author = {Simplice A Asongu},
editor = {African 2012 Governance and Development Institute WP/12/021},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Financial-sector-competition-and-knowledge-economy.pdf},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-08-01},
abstract = {The goal of this paper is to assess how financial sector competition plays-out in the
development of knowledge economy (KE). It contributes at the same time to the
macroeconomic literature on measuring financial development and response to the growing
field of KE by means of informal sector promotion, micro finance and mobile banking. It
suggests a practicable way to disentangle the effects of various financial sectors on different
components of KE. The variables identified under the World Bank’s four knowledge
economy index (KEI) are employed. Three hypotheses based on seven propositions are tested.
Results show: (1) the informal financial sector, a previously missing component in the
definition of the financial system by the IMF significantly affects KE dimensions; (2)
disentangling different components of the existing measurement of the financial system
improves dynamics in the KE-finance nexus and; (3) introduction of measures of sector
importance provides relevant new insights into how financial sector competition affects KE.},
keywords = {Financial development; Knowledge Economy},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}