| Kharusi and Ada (2018) | Oman | 1990–2015 | ARDL approach | Negative and significant influence of external debt on economic growth |
| Korkmaz (2015) | Turkey | 2003:01–2014:03 | VAR | External debt was found unidirectional causality from economic growth |
| Ramzan and Ahmad (2014) | Pakistan | 1970–2009 | ARDL approach | External debt has a negative impact on growth and considering the external debt composition, it is the bilateral part of the total external debt that retards growth |
| Ali and Mustafa (2012) | Pakistan | 1970–2010 | Vector error correction modelling | External debt exerts a negative impact on economic growth; clearly indicate that higher external debt discourages economic growth |
| Atique and Malik (2012) | Pakistan | 1980 – 2010 | Ordinary least squares (OLS) | External debt amount slows down economic growth more as compared to domestic debt amount and mentioned debt servicing of external debt as the reason behind |
| Choong et al. (2010) | Malaysia | 1970–2006 | Cointegration test and Granger causality test | External debt has a negative effect on Malaysia long-run economic growth. Furthermore, the Granger causality test also reveals the existence of short-run causality linkages between external debt and economic growth |
| Sen et al. (2007) | Asian and the Latin American | 1982–2002 | GMM method | Debt overhang impeded growth in Latin American economies severely and the impact was moderately negative in the Asian region |
| Boopen et al. (2007) | Mauritius | 1960–2004 | VECM approach | External debt and economic performance of Mauritius are negatively associated in short run, as well as in the long run |
| Mohamed (2005) | Sudan | 1978– 2001 | OLS | External debt deters economic growth |
| Wijeweera et al. (2005) | Sri Lanka | 1950–2002 | Error correction formulation | The study investigates whether Sri Lanka faces a debt overhang problem or not and the study result found it wrong in this case |
| Nguyen et al. (2003) | Low Income countries | 1970–1999 | Fixed effect and GMM method | External debt also has indirect and adverse effects on growth through its effects on public investment |
| Easterly (2002) | Highly indebted poor countries (HIPCs) | 1980–1997 | Regression analysis | Macroeconomic policies of the HIPCs are the main causes of their high indebtedness |
| Were (2001) | Kenya | 1970–1995 | Error correction formulation | External debt accumulation has a negative impact on economic growth and private investment. This confirms the existence of a debt overhang problem |
| Chowdhury (2001) | Developing countries | 1982–1999 | Extreme bounds analysis | Extreme bounds analysis shows that the relationship between a debt measure and economic growth is robust to changes in the conditioning set of information. The mixed, fixed and random coefficient approach shows a statistically significant negative causal impact running from debt measures to economic growth |
| Fosu (1999) | Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) | 1980–1990 | OLS | Negative impact of external debt on economic growth and asserted that this negative impact may be due to poor performance of the debt-receiving countries |
| Empirical studies on Bangladesh |
| Saifuddin (2016) | Bangladesh | 1974–2014 | Two stage least squares | Public debt has an indirect positive effect on growth through its positive influence on investment |
| Yeasmin et al. (2015) | Bangladesh | 1972–2012 | ARDL approach | Significant adverse effect of debt on growth in Bangladesh |
| Farhana and Chowdhury (2014) | Bangladesh | 1972–2010 | ARDL approach | External debt stock adversely affects the GDP growth |
| Shah and Pervin (2012) | Bangladesh | 1974–2010 | Error correction formulation | Long run significant negative effect of external public debt service and positive effect of external public debt stock on GDP growth |
| Rahman et al. (2012) | Bangladesh | 1972–2010 | OLS | Significant positive correlation exists between external debt and GDP |