Author

Bishnu Prasad Gautam, Ph.D.

Abstract

Economic growth and financial development are closely related. The interaction between them is
crucial and has attracted great attention of researchers. This study attempts to examine the
relationship between economic growth and financial development in Nepal between 1975 and
2012. The paper has used Augmented Dickey-Fuller and Philips-Perron tests to test for the
existence of unit root, Co-integration test to examine long run relationship and Granger Causality
test to find out causal relationship. In addition, vector error correction method has been applied to
find out the speed of adjustment and the dynamics of relationship. The empirical evidence
confirms that the financial development causes economic growth. In fact, financial development is
the cause for economic growth in terms of short-term dynamics, while economic growth sustains
financial development in the long-run. Based on the empirical findings, this study recommends
that it is necessary to launch the reform programs in the financial system to consolidate and
improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the financial system as well as to cope with the
emerging changes. Thus, it asks for the consolidation of the system not only for the positive
reinforcement between economic growth and financial development but also for the post crisis
resilience and sustainability.