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Public external debt, informality and production efficiency in developing countries

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  • Drine, Imed
  • Nabi, M. Sami
Abstract
This paper proposes an alternative approach to investigate the non-linear effect of external debt on growth. In the theoretical part, we develop an endogenous growth model with formal and informal sectors to analyse the effect of the public external debt on the production efficiency. We show that an increase of the public external debt share increases the production efficiency through a positive externality effect. However, it generates an opposite effect via the reduction of the formal sector's size in favour of a less efficient informal sector. The resultant effect becomes negative beyond an optimal level. Besides, we show that a large stock of public external debt reduces the production efficiency when it leads to a tight fiscal policy which reduces the formal sector size. Empirically, using a stochastic frontier technique with unobserved heterogeneity, for a panel of 27 developing countries for the period of 1970-2005, we confirm that the turning point associated to the effect of the share external public debt is apparent at 84%.

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  • Drine, Imed & Nabi, M. Sami, 2010. "Public external debt, informality and production efficiency in developing countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 487-495, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:27:y:2010:i:2:p:487-495
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    2. Panagiotis Pegkas & Christos Staikouras & Constantinos Tsamadias, 2020. "On the determinants of economic growth: Empirical evidence from the Eurozone countries," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 23(2), pages 210-229, June.
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    5. Gebs, Mehdi & Nabi, Mahmoud Sami, 2021. "The economic impacts of digitalization through an extended input-output model: theory and application to Tunisia," MPRA Paper 113299, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Hailu, Kidanemariam Berhe & Tanaka, Makoto, 2015. "A “true” random effects stochastic frontier analysis for technical efficiency and heterogeneity: Evidence from manufacturing firms in Ethiopia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 179-192.
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    8. Dimitris K Christopoulos & Gregorios Siourounis & Irene Vlachaki, 2016. "Democratic Reforms, Foreign Aid and Production Inefficiency," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 84(3), pages 363-389, June.
    9. Adewale Hassan & Daniel Meyer, 2021. "Exploring the Channels of Transmission between External Debt and Economic Growth: Evidence from Sub-Saharan African Countries," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-16, April.

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