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This paper aims to examine the factors that contribute to the external debt growth in Ghana.

The study adopts the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and the error correction model (ECM) to establish the short-run and long-run relationships between the dependent variable (external debt) and the independent variables (debt service, exchange rate, gross domestic product, government expenditure, import and trade openness), using a time series data spanning from 1990 to 2019.

The results indicate that debt service, GDP, government expenditure and trade openness have a positive and significant relationship with external debt, while import and exchange rates have a negative relationship with external debt in the long run. In the short run, debt service, import, exchange rate and trade openness have a positive and significant relationship with external debt, while GDP has a negative relationship with external debt.

The study found that variables such as government expenditure, debt service and import contribute significantly to the nation’s external debt stock. These findings suggest that policymakers should focus on prioritising and cutting down expenditure in their quest to curtail the debt menace facing the nation. Since existing debt service has the tendency of influencing debt stock, it is recommended that government should reduce borrowing in order avoid debt trap. Home-grown policies to reduce imports must also be encouraged. As these drivers of external debt are tackled head-on, Ghana can be rightly positioned to record lower levels of public debt and subsequently reap the benefits of economic growth.

The study adds to the public debt literature, specifically addressing the idiosyncratic determinants of external debt within the Ghanaian context.

Most empirical papers on threshold effects between debt and growth focus on developed countries or a mix of developing and developed economies, often using public debt. Evidence for developing economies is inconclusive, as is the analysis of other threshold effects such as those probably caused by the level of relative development or the repayment capacity. The objective of this study was to examine threshold effects for developing economies, including external and total debt, and identify them in the debt-growth relation considering three determinants: debt itself, initial real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita and debt to exports ratio.

We used a panel threshold regression model (PTRM) and a dynamic panel threshold model (DPTM) for a sample of 47 developing countries from 1970 to 2019.

We found (1) no evidence of threshold effects applying total debt as a threshold variable; (2) one critical value for external debt of 42.32% (using PTRM) and 67.11% (using DPTM), above which this factor is detrimental to growth; (3) two turning points for initial GDP as a threshold variable, where total and external debt positively affects growth at a very low initial GDP, it becomes nonsignificant between critical values, and it negatively influences growth above the second threshold; (4) one critical value for external debt to exports using PTRM and DPTM, below which external debt positively affects growth and negatively above it.

The outcome suggests that only poorer economies can leverage credits. The level of the threshold for the debt to exports ratio is higher than that found in previous literature, implying that the external restriction could be less relevant in recent periods. However, the threshold for the external debt-to-GDP ratio is lower compared to previous evidence.

Debt sustainability and the growing level of external debt in sub-Saharan African (SSA) continue to be significant research priorities. This study aims to examine the corruption-external debt nexus in SSA economies and whether different levels of corruption better explain this relationship.

The panel quantile regression approach was applied to account for the heterogeneous effect of the exogenous variables on external debts. The research covers 30 years of panel data from 30 selected SSA economies for the period spanning from 2000 to 2021.

The empirical findings of the regression analysis demonstrate the heterogeneous influences of the exogenous variables on external debt. While there was a positive impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on external debts, corruption established a negative relationship with external debt from the 10th to the 80th quantile. The findings showed a positive link between trade openness and external debt, while they also showed a negative relationship between gross fixed capital formation and external debt.

It is implied that corruption “sands the wheels” of external debts in the selected SSA countries. Therefore, the amount of external debt that flows into SSA is inversely correlated with corruption activity.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to use panel quantile regression to analyze how corruption affects debt dynamics across different levels of debt, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of how corruption affects debt dynamics. Based on the findings of this study, SSA countries should create enabling environments to attract FDI inflows and to continue to drive domestic revenue mobilization and capital so as to be less dependent on external debts.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether external debt procurements during the military and civilian regimes had a correlation with infrastructural developments using available data from Nigeria.

The sample period covering 41 years, was divided into two periods representing the military and civilian regimes with respective secondary data secured from the World Bank Group online database. The study employed robust least square regression, autoregressive distributed lag and the error correction term to test the variables at the 0.05 significance level.

The results affirmed that external debts shows positive and significant relationship with infrastructural developments proxy for capital investments during the short-run for both military and civilian regimes in Nigeria, while the outcome was only significant and negatively signed for the civilian regime in the long-run with 52.28% speed of convergence to long-run. This study concludes that external debt showed significant correlation with infrastructural development during the civilian regime better than the military regime in Nigeria and this conclusion applies globally.

Research period covered only 41 years, between 1979 and 2020 and focused on sub-Saharan African country – Nigeria.

The research encourages civilian administration in governments and urged them to carefully appraise and contract external debts to finance self-liquidating priority projects.

The national economy and the masses suffer during military regime but are better off during civilian regime.

Apart from adding to current literature, the work focused on a coverage period that comprehensively compares two different regimes of government – military and civilian administrations.

The management of external debt among highly indebted poor countries (HIPCs) in Africa still remains a challenge despite numerous packages and attempts to ameliorate the consequences of such odious debt. The purpose of this paper is to establish the factors that contribute to the growth rate of external debt and how these factors respond to shocks to external debt growth rate in Africa.

Data were obtained from 24 African countries and analyzed using a panel vector autoregression estimation methodology.

The study found that external debt growth rates respond positively to unit shock or changes in government investment spending, consumption spending, and domestic borrowings over a long period of time. In the medium term, external debt growth rates respond negatively to shocks in tax revenue, inflation, and output growth rates. The paper also provides empirical support that external debt may be consumed rather than invested among HIPCs in Africa.

The findings of this paper are limited to only HIPCs in Africa.

This study has some few debilitating implications for external debt management among HIPCs in Africa. First, the paper suggests that debt repayment may be a problem. This is largely because external debt is consumed rather than invested. External debt sustainability needs a holistic approach in less developed countries. The findings place much emphasis on improvements in gross domestic product and tax revenues as the principal routes out of the debt doldrums. However, this option must be exploited with great caution as there is ample evidence that these poor countries increase their external borrowing capacities with improvements in economic outlook.

This paper fills a research gap that identifies specific components of government deficit budgets that may be contributing to the growth rate of external debts among HIPCs.

Within a multivariate framework, this study examines the asymmetric and threshold impact of external debt on economic growth in Egypt during the period 1980–2019.

The paper uses a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration and a vector error-correction model to estimate the short- and long-run parameters of equilibrium dynamics. A multiple structural breaks model is estimated to test nonlinearity in the relationship between external debt and economic growth.

Results of the NARDL model show a robust statistically significant negative long-run impact on economic growth stemming from both positive and negative external-debt-induced shocks. In terms of magnitude, on the one hand, the impact of external-debt-induced negative shocks exceeds that of the positive. In the short and long run, on the other hand, the growth impact of external debt in Egypt is symmetric. There is also support for the nonlinearity hypothesis in which a negative impact on growth of external debt obtains once the threshold level of external debt-to-GDP ratio equals or exceeds 96.7%.

Identifying the threshold level after which external debt becomes harmful to economic growth would help inform policymakers in Egypt about maximum external debt levels that can be sustained without impairing economic growth.

The current study makes a substantial contribution to the extant literature on the debt-growth tradeoffs. It breaks ground by being the first tract that examines, using a NARDL model, asymmetry and nonlinearity of debt-growth tradeoffs in Egypt.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of huge external debt with its servicing requirements on economic growth of the Nigerian economy so as to make meaningful inference on the impact of the debt relief which was granted to the country in 2006.

The neoclassical growth model which incorporates external sector, debt indicators and some macroeconomic variables was employed in this study. The paper investigates the linear and nonlinear effect of debt on growth and investment utilizing the ordinary least squares and the generalized least squares.

Among other things, the negative impact of debt (and its servicing requirements) on growth is confirmed in Nigeria. In addition, external debt contributes positively to growth up to a point after which its contributions become negative reflecting the presence of nonlinearity in effects.

Nigeria's external debt is analyzed in a new context utilizing a different but innovative model and econometric techniques. It is of tremendous value to researchers on related topic and an effective policy guide to policymakers in Nigeria and other countries with similar characteristics.

This chapter examines the influence of external public borrowing resources on economic progress in Tunisia. The study focuses on two stages: First, the influence is studied in a direct sense and then in an indirect sense, i.e., through a transmission channel of this influence. By applying the autoregressive distributed technique with staggered lags (ARDL), over a period ranging from 1986 to 2019, the results showed that the influence of external borrowing resources on growth seems to be unfavorable in the short term but positive in the long term, hence the importance of the empirical technique chosen. Second, three interaction variables were tested, namely total government expenditure, government investment expenditure, and the real effective exchange rate. The results obtained call for better attention to the channels identified to maximize the positive influence of external public debt on the country's economic progress.

The paper aims to study the importance of financial market development and financial structure in explaining the financial policies of firms in emerging market countries.

The paper uses a panel data of 32 countries and the system generalized method of moments approach.

The analysis shows that stock market development is associated with higher use of external finance relative to internal finance, while bond market development is associated with lower use of external finance relative to internal finance. The findings of this study also indicate that stock market development tends to shift the policies of firms towards less debt and more equity, and bond market development is associated with higher debt and less equity in emerging economies.

The value of this study is in respect of its contribution to the extant literature on corporate financial policies in emerging market economies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role external debt and foreign direct investment play in influencing financial development in Africa.

Annual data on external debt, foreign direct investment and financial development were extracted from the World Bank World Development Indicators from 2002 to 2015. The data employed were analysed within causal research design and the dynamic panel using generalized method of moment estimation approach.

The findings revealed that external debt and foreign direct investment have a significant positive relationship with financial development in African economies. Governments of the sampled economies should enact policies that would help attract high level of foreign direct investment as it contributes positively to financial development. Finally, governments of the sampled African economies should ensure foreign direct investment and external funds borrowed are channelled to productive sectors.

The paper analysed the relationship between external debt, FDI inflows and financial sector development. The paper is the first in terms of such analysis within the framework of the dual-gap framework, which is the first time in these kinds of studies. Previous studies have concentrated on the effect of financial sector on FDI and not the other way around.