No abstract

In the paper, we examine the causal relationship and the direction of causality between stock market development and economic growth in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria. In examining the causal relationship and the direction of causality, we used the Granger Causality test procedure as developed in Granger. The study regressed five indicators of stock market namely stock market capitalization (MC), stock turnover ratio (STO), stock traded value (TVL), number of listed securities (LS), and stock market index (MI) against the real gross domestic product (GDP) which is used as a proxy for economic growth.
Using the 1989 – 2009 data sets, the empirical findings of the study show that there is no causal relationship between stock market development and economic growth in Ghana and Nigeria, but revealed a bidirectional causal relationship between stock market development and economic growth in Kenya. When MC was used as a proxy for stock market development, MC and LS were found to Granger cause economic growth. Bidirectional causality was found between STO and GDP. TVL was found to have a strong negative effect on GDP. Based on the results of the study, we recommend that policy makers and regulatory bodies should formulate and implement policies that will attract investors and avail the real sector of the economy the much needed fund for production and encourage listing of companies that contribute largely to GDP in the nation stock exchange

The study examines Stock Market development and economic growth in BRICS, Quarterly time series data for the period 1994QI to 2015Q4 were sourced from World Bank Indicator. The Panel Least Squares based on the fixed effect estimation was employed to determine how stock market development impacts on the economic growth of BRICS. Diagnostics tests were conducted to ascertain the robustness and stability of the regression results. The findings reveal that stock market development exerts significant impact on the economic growth. The study revealed that there is a positive correlation between stock market development indicators and BRICS’s economic growth. The study recommends that the weakness of each of the BRICS member country should be taken as policy focus and strategies necessary to strengthen them should be swiftly applied by the governments.

This study seeks to investigate the effect of presidential elections on investors" portfolio selection in Nigeria from 2003 to 2011. The regression analysis was used to identify the effects that election could have on stock prices in the country, while event study was applied to investigate the focused effects of election event on portfolio selection in the Nigerian stock exchange. Price index for high and medium capitalization stocks were used in the analysis. The study showed that there were low returns performance in the stock market during elections and that elections events have strong (generally) negative effects on abnormal returns for the selected companies in the Nigerian Stock Exchange. In addition, the study showed a negative relationship between the return and risk behaviour of selected companies and election announcement in Nigeria. It is recommended that government and relevant authorities should increase the surveillance of both the market and political system prior to the presidential election in order to curtail the instability during this period.

This study examines the relationship between financial development and life insurance demand in Sub-Saharan Africa with a sample of fifteen countries. These countries are Nigeria, South Africa, Namibia, Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Togo, Benin, Senegal, Cape Verde and Zambia. The specific objectives are to determine the relative effect of financial depth, as well as major macroeconomic factors, preferences and life insurance demand in the sampled countries. It is argued in this study that the traditional textbook and theoretical factors driving demand for life insurance may not be extensively dominant in the case of Sub-Sahara Africa where low formal financial patronage are rife. Using annual data covering the period 1990 -2011 (22 years), the study applies the panel data estimation, which allows for endogenization of individual country characteristics in the analysis. The model adopted in this study categorises all the necessary macroeconomic factors in the study that seek to explain both insurance penetration and insurance density for the sampled countries. The results of the study show that financial development in African countries drives life insurance demand than major macroeconomic factors.