Financial Crisis In Asia And The Pacific Region-Its Genesis, Severity And Impact On Poverty And Hunger

Building on a vast recent literature on finance, growth and hunger, the authors have examined the experience of 9 Asian countries over the period 1960-2006, using a state-of art-econometric methodology. Although the results are mixed depending on the specification and variables used, there is some evidence favouring a positive role of finance on GDP and agricultural value added growth. But there is also evidence of a reverse causality between GDP and agricultural growth on financial development. In fact, there are a few cases in which the causality runs both ways. In light of this complexity, the results of finance on inequality and hunger require cautious interpretation. Financial development reduces the Gini coefficient of income distribution.