How Corruption affect Growth in MENA region? Fresh Evidence from a Panel Cointegration Analysis

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing the effects of corruption on investment and growth in 15 Middle East and North African (MENA) countries during the period 1985-2013. We used the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) corruption index and we conducted a panel cointegration analysis and Granger causality procedure to detect the dynamic relationships between the variables. The main findings of this paper show that corruption is a serious hurdle to economic growth in MENA countries since it affects investment activities and foreign direct investment inflows. In this case, policymakers have to implement effective anticorruption strategies to avoid the epidemic of corruption