The Dynamics of Financial Development, Government Quality, and Economic Growth in Different Groups of Economies
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Overall, I found the article interesting. The object of research is relevant and provides valuable evidence. Apart from some formal issues (e. g., the acronyms used in Figure 01 are not explained at any point, so one has to "imagine" their meaning), what I miss most is that no possible explanations are provided for the results obtained. That is, why does a given shock affect high-income countries more and low-income countries less, or vice versa?
I also consider that the conclusions are not properly substantiated. In particular, the fact that FD has a positive impact does not automatically result in the policy recommendation of "regulatory relaxation to the financial sector". One can conclude that FD should be promoted, but this may not necessarily be the best policy, there may be others. This recommendation ignores, for example, all the academic literature on the effects of financial deregulation on the instability and depth of economic crises, beyond the expansionary phases. I think this aspect should be improved.
In short: the authors should provide explanations for the results (why do they think they are those, and not others?) and provide more justification for the conclusions (or be more cautious in them).
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper examines the causal relationship between economic growth, financial development, and national governance. To analyze the three-way link of the stated variables, the Panel Vector Auto-Regressive (PVAR) model is applied to 115 economies between 1996 to 2018.
The paper is rather concise and concise, lacking a clear and in-depth description of the economies, a preliminary comparison with them. The targets are too vague and generic, plus the data is from three years ago, and there is no trend mention related to the COVID pandemic. The study appears to be of little scientific interest as it is structured. It appears to be a slightly expanded conference paper, but certainly not adequate for a scientific journal.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Here's is a good summary of the paper:
"This study analyzed the three-way link of economic growth, national governance, and financial development for 115 economies around the world, mainly divided into three groups i.e. developed, emerging, and low-income economies. The Panel VAR model has been applied to data from 1996 to 2018 and the results of impulse response function and variance decomposition are summarized. The outcomes indicate that a positive FD shock increases economic growth through the flow of funds mainly from the banking sector and financial market to the economy and remains more significant for low-income economies than others. Similarly, national governance remained a more effective tool for economic growth and had prolonged impact in low income economies. However, it has a less and ignorable role in promoting financial development. While on the other side, economic growth increases financial development through the accelerator effect that ultimately expands the banking sector and financial market activities. This relation is more significant in developed economies and transitory in other groups. Likewise, the growth shocks also influence national governance in a monotonic pattern of low-income economies. Therefore, based on the above results, it is suggested for low-income economies to mainly focus on national governance and accountability for better economic growth."
I don't have any suggestions to improve the paper other than a minor syntax/grammar check. The paper should be accepted.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Unfortunately, the paper has not undergone significant improvements since the previous round of review.
