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This study used a threshold regression model to examine the existence of real sector threshold effects in the relationship between financial development and economic development in 38 sub-Saharan African countries from the period 1986–2015. The study identified threshold values of 31.1860, 33.8982% and 1.2241% for industrial value-added, agricultural value-added and total factor productivity respectively in sub-Saharan Africa. The study found that only when the real sector is proxied by industrial value-added that financial development has a significant impact on economic growth. The conclusion drawn from this empirical study is that financial development will only have a positive and significant impact on economic development when the growth in the real sector accompanies the growth in the financial sector. This study, therefore, recommended that the government of sub-Saharan African countries should ensure that the real sector is not below the threshold value so that financial development can bring development to the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the question of aid's effects on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by disaggregating aid into grants and loans during 1994–2015. The estimation results indicate that grants have a positive and statistically significant effect on economic growth, while loans have a negative but insignificant effect on it. When we break down the panel data into Low Income Countries (LICs) and Middle Income Countries (MICs) in order to gain further insight, grants have been effective in spurring growth in both LICs and MICs, while loans have had positive and significant impact on economic growth in neither LICs nor MICs. Accordingly, the main findings of this study provide a consistent evidence in support of the grants-effectiveness on growth in both MICs and LICs, contrary to the ineffectiveness of loans. The other supplementary results show that the domestic investment (GCF) and education (SEC) which are basically public policy variables have significantly positive impacts on economic growth in MICs, while they are not statistically significant in LICs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]