Title
Financial Crisis in Asia: Its Genesis, Severity and Impact on Poverty and Hunger
Abstract
Building on the recent literature on finance, growth and hunger, we have examined the experience of Asian countries over the period 1960-2010 by dynamic and static panel data models. We have found evidence favouring a positive role of finance - defined as private credit by banks - on growth of GDP and agricultural value added. Private credit as well as loans from the World Bank significantly reduces undernourishment, while remittances and loans from microfinance institutions appear to have a negative impact on poverty. Our empirical evidence shows that growth performance was significantly lower during the recent global financial crisis than non-crisis periods, though the severity is much smaller during the recent financial crisis than Asian financial crisis.
Keywords
Finance, Economic Development, Agriculture, Inequality, Poverty, Asia
JEL Classification
C33, E44, G01, I32, O15
Inquiries
School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
and
Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration
Kobe University
Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe
657-8501 Japan
Phone: +81-78-803-7036
FAX: +81-78-803-7059
Raghav GAIHA
Department of Urban Studies and Regional Planning, MIT, Cambridge, MA
Ganesh THAPA
International Fund for Agricultural Development, Rome
Samuel Kobina ANNIM
University of Manchester, United Kingdom