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More Finance or Better Finance in Feldstein–Horioka Puzzle: Evidence from SSA Countries

This study examined the role of financial development in the Feldstein–Horioka (FH) puzzle for 31 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries for the period 1999–2011. Unlike previous studies that used traditional measures of finance (‘more finance’), we advocated for superior measures of financial development (‘better finance’). The baseline regression shows that ‘more finance’ increases the FH estimate, while ‘better finance’ serves as drag to the same retention coefficients. The reverse of these results was obtained when the baseline regression was extended to account for the interaction between savings and proxies for finance. The results obtained show a considerable improvement in the saving retention coefficient when ‘better finance’ was used as against ‘more finance’. This concretely reinforces the superior role of ‘better finance’ in mobilizing, distributing and utilizing savings for investment within these economies. Based on these findings, domestic resource mobilization can be a veritable vehicle for plugging the substantial investment gap in these SSA economies. However, such policy thrust must be complemented by far-reaching financial reforms.