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Corruption and Economic Growth: A Comparative Analysis of the Case of African Commonwealth and Franc Zone Countries

Received: 30 June 2022     Accepted: 26 September 2022     Published: 24 October 2022
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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of corruption on economic growth by considering two groups of African countries for comparison: the Franc zone countries on the one hand and the 19 Commonwealth countries on the other. The analysis shows that the Franc zone countries, which are more corrupt than the Commonwealth countries, have lower economic growth than the countries in the second group. In the Franc zone, the level of corruption of CEMAC countries is most often 3 times higher than that of the WAEMU and 1.5 times higher than that of the Franc zone as a whole. It is therefore the CEMAC zone that widens the large corruption gap between the Franc zone and the Commonwealth. The econometric estimation of a static panel specified growth model revealed that corruption is negatively and significantly correlated with real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita growth in the Franc zone while this impact is insignificant for the Commonwealth countries. For example, a decrease in corruption (increase of one unit in the corruption index) leads to an increase of 3.38 units in the growth rate. This impact comes before the effects of inflation (0.58%), public expenditure (-0.56), trade openness (0.068) and private investment (0.066). The reduction of corruption thus has a very important impact on economic growth in the Franc zone. In this direction, Franc zone countries should seek to copy and apply the experience of African Commonwealth countries, especially in governance and more particularly in the fight against corruption. Rather than looking to Asia experience, let us first look to our closest neighbours who are ahead of us in terms of economic growth.

Published in Journal of World Economic Research (Volume 11, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.jwer.20221102.13
Page(s) 87-97
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Corruption, Economic Growth, Franc Zone, Commonwealth, Real GDP

References
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    Dontsi. (2022). Corruption and Economic Growth: A Comparative Analysis of the Case of African Commonwealth and Franc Zone Countries. Journal of World Economic Research, 11(2), 87-97. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jwer.20221102.13

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    Dontsi. Corruption and Economic Growth: A Comparative Analysis of the Case of African Commonwealth and Franc Zone Countries. J. World Econ. Res. 2022, 11(2), 87-97. doi: 10.11648/j.jwer.20221102.13

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    AMA Style

    Dontsi. Corruption and Economic Growth: A Comparative Analysis of the Case of African Commonwealth and Franc Zone Countries. J World Econ Res. 2022;11(2):87-97. doi: 10.11648/j.jwer.20221102.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jwer.20221102.13,
      author = {Dontsi},
      title = {Corruption and Economic Growth: A Comparative Analysis of the Case of African Commonwealth and Franc Zone Countries},
      journal = {Journal of World Economic Research},
      volume = {11},
      number = {2},
      pages = {87-97},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jwer.20221102.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jwer.20221102.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jwer.20221102.13},
      abstract = {The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of corruption on economic growth by considering two groups of African countries for comparison: the Franc zone countries on the one hand and the 19 Commonwealth countries on the other. The analysis shows that the Franc zone countries, which are more corrupt than the Commonwealth countries, have lower economic growth than the countries in the second group. In the Franc zone, the level of corruption of CEMAC countries is most often 3 times higher than that of the WAEMU and 1.5 times higher than that of the Franc zone as a whole. It is therefore the CEMAC zone that widens the large corruption gap between the Franc zone and the Commonwealth. The econometric estimation of a static panel specified growth model revealed that corruption is negatively and significantly correlated with real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita growth in the Franc zone while this impact is insignificant for the Commonwealth countries. For example, a decrease in corruption (increase of one unit in the corruption index) leads to an increase of 3.38 units in the growth rate. This impact comes before the effects of inflation (0.58%), public expenditure (-0.56), trade openness (0.068) and private investment (0.066). The reduction of corruption thus has a very important impact on economic growth in the Franc zone. In this direction, Franc zone countries should seek to copy and apply the experience of African Commonwealth countries, especially in governance and more particularly in the fight against corruption. Rather than looking to Asia experience, let us first look to our closest neighbours who are ahead of us in terms of economic growth.},
     year = {2022}
    }
    

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    AB  - The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of corruption on economic growth by considering two groups of African countries for comparison: the Franc zone countries on the one hand and the 19 Commonwealth countries on the other. The analysis shows that the Franc zone countries, which are more corrupt than the Commonwealth countries, have lower economic growth than the countries in the second group. In the Franc zone, the level of corruption of CEMAC countries is most often 3 times higher than that of the WAEMU and 1.5 times higher than that of the Franc zone as a whole. It is therefore the CEMAC zone that widens the large corruption gap between the Franc zone and the Commonwealth. The econometric estimation of a static panel specified growth model revealed that corruption is negatively and significantly correlated with real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita growth in the Franc zone while this impact is insignificant for the Commonwealth countries. For example, a decrease in corruption (increase of one unit in the corruption index) leads to an increase of 3.38 units in the growth rate. This impact comes before the effects of inflation (0.58%), public expenditure (-0.56), trade openness (0.068) and private investment (0.066). The reduction of corruption thus has a very important impact on economic growth in the Franc zone. In this direction, Franc zone countries should seek to copy and apply the experience of African Commonwealth countries, especially in governance and more particularly in the fight against corruption. Rather than looking to Asia experience, let us first look to our closest neighbours who are ahead of us in terms of economic growth.
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Author Information
  • Economic Policy Analysis Department, University of Yaounde II, Yaoundé, Cameroon

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