This article assesses the effects of financial development on the external performance of WAEMU countries using an autoregressive model with staggered delays (ARDL) over the period 2000-2017. The model estimates reveal that in the long-term, financial development has a positive and significant effect on the external performance. In the short term, however, the results established a heterogeneity in the contribution of financial development to external performance across countries. This result would result from an imperfection in the financial system, which reduces the interactions between savings and investment and therefore the external performance of the Union economies. Thus, a substantial mobilization of credit from both banking and non-banking financial institutions and the development of the financial system constitute an economic policy of strengthening the role of financial development in the external performance of the Union.
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