Financial development and TFP growth: cross-country and industry-level evidence

Abstract

This article estimates the impact of financial development on industry-level Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth using a largely unexploited panel of 77 countries with data for 26 manufacturing industries for the years 1965 to 2003. A significant relationship is found between financial development and industry-level TFP growth when controlling for country-time and industry-time fixed effects. The results are both statistically and economically significant. TFP growth can accelerate up to 0.6% per year, depending on the external finance requirement of industries, following a one SD increase in financial development. The results are robust to different samples and specifications.