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The impact of government debt on economic growth: An empirical investigation of Namibia

This paper examines the impact of government debt on economic growth in Namibia with annual data spanning from 1980 to 2016. The paper investigates whether public debt spurs on or promotes economic growth. We employ an Autoregressive Distribution Lag (ARDL) model that serves as an analysis of the sh...

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Main Author: Kaune, Jaungura
Other Authors: Mateane, Lebogang
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: School of Economics 2019
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access_status_str Open Access
author Kaune, Jaungura
author2 Mateane, Lebogang
author_browse Kaune, Jaungura
Mateane, Lebogang
author_facet Mateane, Lebogang
Kaune, Jaungura
author_sort Kaune, Jaungura
collection Thesis
description This paper examines the impact of government debt on economic growth in Namibia with annual data spanning from 1980 to 2016. The paper investigates whether public debt spurs on or promotes economic growth. We employ an Autoregressive Distribution Lag (ARDL) model that serves as an analysis of the short and long run link between public debt and economic growth. In addition, we explore other possible indicators that are likely to affect economic growth such as government expenditure, inflation, gross fixed capital formation and openness. Our findings are consistent with the existing literature that finds a negative correlation between public debt and economic growth. The results of the long run relationship reveal that public debt has an insignificant negative effect on economic growth in Namibia, however, only government expenditure and openness have a negative effect on economic growth. In the short run, gross fixed capital formation and openness promote economic growth, whereas the effect of public debt on economic growth is negative. Following this set-up, we provide policy recommendations that future debt acquired should be for high priority projects and programs that are well reviewed, self-sustainable and can enhance the productive capacity of Namibia. Moreover, the government should take a firm stand on fiscal consolidation and policies that are pro-growth.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2019
publishDateRange 2019
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publisher School of Economics
publisherStr School of Economics
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/29741 The impact of government debt on economic growth: An empirical investigation of Namibia Kaune, Jaungura Mateane, Lebogang Economics This paper examines the impact of government debt on economic growth in Namibia with annual data spanning from 1980 to 2016. The paper investigates whether public debt spurs on or promotes economic growth. We employ an Autoregressive Distribution Lag (ARDL) model that serves as an analysis of the short and long run link between public debt and economic growth. In addition, we explore other possible indicators that are likely to affect economic growth such as government expenditure, inflation, gross fixed capital formation and openness. Our findings are consistent with the existing literature that finds a negative correlation between public debt and economic growth. The results of the long run relationship reveal that public debt has an insignificant negative effect on economic growth in Namibia, however, only government expenditure and openness have a negative effect on economic growth. In the short run, gross fixed capital formation and openness promote economic growth, whereas the effect of public debt on economic growth is negative. Following this set-up, we provide policy recommendations that future debt acquired should be for high priority projects and programs that are well reviewed, self-sustainable and can enhance the productive capacity of Namibia. Moreover, the government should take a firm stand on fiscal consolidation and policies that are pro-growth. 2019-02-22T10:51:35Z 2019-02-22T10:51:35Z 2018 2019-02-21T13:05:28Z Master Thesis Masters MCom http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29741 eng application/pdf School of Economics Faculty of Commerce University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Economics
Kaune, Jaungura
The impact of government debt on economic growth: An empirical investigation of Namibia
thesis_degree_str Master's
title The impact of government debt on economic growth: An empirical investigation of Namibia
title_full The impact of government debt on economic growth: An empirical investigation of Namibia
title_fullStr The impact of government debt on economic growth: An empirical investigation of Namibia
title_full_unstemmed The impact of government debt on economic growth: An empirical investigation of Namibia
title_short The impact of government debt on economic growth: An empirical investigation of Namibia
title_sort impact of government debt on economic growth an empirical investigation of namibia
topic Economics
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29741
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AT kaunejaungura impactofgovernmentdebtoneconomicgrowthanempiricalinvestigationofnamibia