Sources of economic growth: Bankerteers or marketeers or both? An auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL) evidence from Ghana

The study seeks to find out whether financial structure matters in economic development. Using quarterly data from 1998 to 2018 from Ghana and with auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL)-bound testing technique in the study found that financial structure is irrelevant for long-term economic growth in Ghana. The finding of concurs with the complementarity view between the banks and the exchange and rejects that both subsectors are substitutes since financial services indicators were significance in influencing economic growth. In this vein the study concludes on the importance of financial services rather than structure. Based on these observations, the study recommends that policymakers should grow the synergy between the banks and the markets.

Automated summary

This study finds that financial structure does not matter for economic growth in Ghana, while financial service indicators have a significant impact. Therefore, policymakers are recommended to enhance the synergy between banks and markets.