Articles

Effect of Stock Market Development on Financial Savings in Tanzania: An Empirical Investigation (1999-2023)

The performance of the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) since its inception in 1998 followed liberalization of the financial sector in 1991 has been very positive and has also demonstrated that there is huge untapped potential financial capital within the country.  For this reason, this study aimed at investigating the impact of stock market development on financial savings in Tanzania from 1999 to 2023 period using quarterly time series data. The study employs econometric analysis in which the error correction model (ECM) is applied to analyze the financial savings function. The overall significant determinants of financial savings included in the model were statistically significant. The results indicated that real GDP in both long run and short run estimation is relevant variable for explaining the variations in the financial savings in Tanzania whereas stock market in terms market capitalization is relevant variable both in the short-run and long run estimation. There is significant evidence that stock market development in Tanzania has negative effect and that it reduces financial savings function in both short run and long-run via market capitalization. The negative effect of stock market development on financial savings might poses problems to the conduct of monetary policy in Tanzania, by failing to correctly target monetary growth in the economy.

Drivers of Stock Market Development in Nigeria: Does Openness Matter?

The stock market represents a major source of long-term funds. However, the Nigerian stock market lacks depth due to the weak regulatory system and legal framework. Extant studies have shown that both institutional quality and openness are enablers of the stock market. An analysis of the effects of institutional quality and openness on the development of the Nigerian stock market from 1996 to 2021 is therefore crucial. The Auto Regressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) method is used to analyze data from World Bank databases and the Lane-Milesi Ferreti index, with results showing that institutional quality has a positive and significant impact on stock market development in Nigeria. Meanwhile, development of the stock market, institutional quality, and openness are related over the long term based on the ARDL bounds test. A further finding revealed that the development of Nigeria’s banking sector and the exchange rate had positive (negative) effects on the development of the stock market, respectively. Additionally, stock market liquidity contributed to development of the market. This study came to the conclusion that an enabling stock market in Nigeria could be strengthened by the interaction of institutional quality and openness. The study concludes that strengthening Nigeria’s governance institutions through the creation of an appropriate legal framework is necessary to ensure political stability and the absence of violence in the country’s political system. Besides, the government really needs to grant autonomy to agencies in charge of tackling corruption to enable them to enjoy simultaneous openness. Monetary authorities should also ensure exchange rate stability and improved credit for domestic investment activities.