Financial inclusion, institutional quality, and economic growth in MENA countries: some evidence from panel cointegration

The purpose of this paper is to examine financial inclusion indicators with some institutional quality indicators to better understand their combined effect on economic growth in the context of MENA region using panel cointegration tests. The study covers a sample of 16 countries during the 1997–2018 period. The main findings show a positive connection between economic growth and institutional quality in the long run. Moreover, institutional quality negatively affects financial inclusion while no effect of financial inclusion on economic growth was found. These results show that the most of MENA countries have not reached the level of institutional quality, beyond which the financial inclusion can act as a growth factor.