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Industrialization constitutes one of the strategies of structural transformation in many sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries. In this paper, we re‐examine the effect of financial development on the industrialization of 35 SSA countries over the period 1996–2018. Contrary to previous work, we formulate the hypothesis that there exists a threshold of financial development beyond which financial development positively influences industrialization. Using the dynamic panel threshold regression model, and system generalized methods of moment models, we find two main results. First, financial development has a negative and significant impact on the development of industrialization. Secondly, the findings show the existence of a nonlinear relationship between financial development and industrialization development. Thus, we find that financial development has a negative effect on industrialization below the threshold while the effect is significantly positive on industrialization in countries whose financial development is above the threshold. The results are stable to the different robustness tests used. These findings highlight the need for SSA countries to develop better financial institutions if they hope to boost the manufacturing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the impact of insurance development on international trade for a sample of 52 developing countries over the period of 1990 to 2014. The results from the pooled mean group estimator indicate that the countries with a better developed insurance sector have a comparative advantage in international trade in the long term. The sample is then divided into low- and lower-middle-income countries and upper-middle-income countries. For the upper-middle-income countries, the development of non-life insurance plays a much more important role than it does for low- and lower-middle-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relation between the development of life insurance sector and economic growth, for a sample of 86 developing countries over the period 1996-2011. We also examine the heterogeneous effect of life insurance on growth. The results show on the one hand that the development of life insurance has a positive effect on economic growth per capita and, on the other hand, that this effect varies according to the structural characteristics of countries. Thus, the marginal positive impact of the development of life insurance decreases with the levels of deposit interest rate, bank credit and stock market value traded, while the effect is greater in low and middle-income countries and in countries with high-quality institutions. Finally, life insurance effect on growth is less for SSA countries and British legal system countries. These results provide important policy implications for developing countries. Thus, countries will benefit from strengthening their regulatory framework by creating a sound environment that facilitates insurance markets' development, which further stimulates economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]