Effects of stock market development on economic growth in ECOWAS: does institutional quality matter?

This study aims to establish whether the effect of stock market development on the growth of economies in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is conditioned by institutional quality threshold. To this end, we used the Hansen threshold estimation approach to assess any discontinuities in this relationship. Data are sourced from the World Development Indicators of the World Bank and cover the period from 2000–2020. We significantly contribute to the literature by examining the nonlinearities in the stock market development-growth nexus when institutional quality is the mediating variable. We established that, as long as institutional quality is below the threshold level, it serves as an impediment for financial markets to drive growth in the West African sub-region. A key implication is that the relationship between stock market development and economic growth in the West African sub-region is contemporaneous, and that the development of the stock market is relevant in the developmental agenda in the sub-region. Therefore, we recommend that at the policy level, countries in West Africa should design strategies that can improve their institutional structures in the areas of allocation of credit, increasing competition, and the implementation of proper regulations that will make it possible for financial markets to stimulate economic growth, as these seem to be important condition to drive growth in the long run.