The controversy surrounding the actual impact of institutional quality and economic openness on economic growth is among the motivating factors for this study. The study seeks to investi- gate this relationship in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) by using the panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) test with annual series covering the period from 2000 to 2020. Findings indicate that in the short-run, regulatory quality and FDI outflows had an adverse impact on the economic performance of the ECOWAS bloc. Furthermore, the long-run results show that trade openness, political stability and FDI outflows had an adverse impact on the economy of the bloc, while regulatory quality positively affected the economy. Consequently, the paper recommends that member countries in the ECOWAS bloc should put in place effective regulatory framework in the short and medium term to attract FDI inflows, while building a strong and stable political environment in the long term.

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of financial liberalization and institutional quality on the economic performance of the Asian Tigers and the SANE countries. The study used annual series that spanned the period from 1996-2020 under the framework of FMOLS. Findings of the study revealed that in the Asian Tigers, FDI inflows, FDI outflows, capital account openness and governance effectiveness had a positive and significant impact on the GDP per capita, but the impact of political stability was negative and significant. Results for the SANE countries indicated that both FDI inflows and trade openness impacted positively and significantly on the GDP per capita, while the impact of capital account openness was negative and significant. Consequently, the study is of the view that while it will be necessary for the SANE countries to upgrade their institutions in order to reap the benefits of financial openness, the Asian Tigers should stabilize their polity to improve their economy. Keywords: Institutional quality, FDI, GDP per capita, Financial development, Trade openness, Asian Tigers. JEL Classification: E02, F21, F43