ECONOMIC GROWTH AND PUBLIC DEBT IN THE ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION ERA: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Abstract This paper empirically examines the causal relationship between public debt and economic growth in a sample of the 72 countries consisting of less developed and developing, country-by-country, in the period of 1970–2015. I apply the Toda-Yamamoto augmented Granger non-causality testing procedure. I observe a significant causality from economic growth to the public debt of a country in twenty-one countries. In fifteen countries, there is a unidirectional causality running from the public debt to economic growth. I find bi-directional causality in only nine countries and no causal relation in twenty-seven economies