Stock market development and economic growth of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South African (BRICS) Nations: An empirical research

Abstract

BRICS connotes five main emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are particularly distinguished as nations experiencing expanded market opportunities and countries discovered to be at stages of newly advanced economic development. This paper assesses the stock market development and economic growth in these BRICS nations. In doing this, quarterly time series data from 1994 to 2014 was sourced from World Bank Indicators. The Panel Generalized method based on the fixed effect estimation was employed to determine how stock market development affects the economic growth of BRICS. Diagnostic tests were conducted to ascertain the robustness and stability of the regression results after carrying out the unit root calculations. The findings reveal that stock market development exerts significant impact on the economic growth. The study further reveals that there was a positive correlation between stock market development indicators and BRICS’s economic growth. It is therefore proposed that the weaknesses of each of the BRICS member countries should be taken as policy focus and strategies necessary to strengthen them should be swiftly applied by their respective governments.