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The corruption-inflation nexus: evidence from developed and developing countries

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  • Ben Ali Mohamed Sami

    (College of Business and Economics, Department of Finance and Economics, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar)

  • Sassi Seifallah

    (Laboratory of Applied Economics and Finance, University of Carthage, Tunis, Tunisia)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the relationship between corruption and inflation for a sample of 100 developing and developed countries representing five regions (Americas, Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia Pacific) over the period 2000–2012. Various model estimations are carried out using alternative techniques and two indicators of corruption. Our findings provide evidence of a significant and positive relationship between all country corruption measures and inflation. Countries with a corrupted environment and bad governance use seigniorage as a source of revenue which induces higher monetary expansion and therefore higher inflation rates. After controlling for money supply, our results suggest that corruption is affecting inflation via other channels. Our results show also that the negative effect of corruption on inflation is different across subsample countries. The lack of sound and committed institutions in developing and emerging is a key point in explaining these disparities.

Suggested Citation

  • Ben Ali Mohamed Sami & Sassi Seifallah, 2016. "The corruption-inflation nexus: evidence from developed and developing countries," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 125-144, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejmac:v:16:y:2016:i:1:p:125-144:n:3
    DOI: 10.1515/bejm-2014-0080
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    Cited by:

    1. Réda Marakbi & Patrick Villieu, 2020. "Corruption, tax evasion, and seigniorage in a monetary endogenous growth model," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(6), pages 2019-2050, December.
    2. Saha, Shrabani & Ben Ali, Mohamed Sami, 2017. "Corruption and Economic Development: New Evidence from the Middle Eastern and North African Countries," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 83-95.
    3. Sassi, Seifallah & Ben Ali, Mohamed Sami, 2017. "Corruption in Africa: What role does ICT diffusion play," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(7), pages 662-669.
    4. Şerife Özşahin & Gülbahar Üçler, 2017. "The Consequences of Corruption on Inflation in Developing Countries: Evidence from Panel Cointegration and Causality Tests," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Ren, Yi-Shuai & Ma, Chao-Qun & Apergis, Nicholas & Sharp, Basil, 2021. "Responses of carbon emissions to corruption across Chinese provinces," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    6. Parra, Daniel & Muñoz-Herrera, Manuel & Palacio, Luis A., 2021. "The limits of transparency in reducing corruption," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    7. Jean‐Claude Kouladoum, 2023. "Technology and control of corruption in Africa," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(6), pages 1163-1180, August.
    8. Lee, Daeyong & Lee, Ju-Yeon & Josephson, Brett W., 2024. "Effects of bid protests against government agencies on firm performance: Role of interorganisational relationship," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 520-540.
    9. Ella Hugo & David A. Savage & Friedrich Schneider & Benno Torgler, 2021. "Two sides of the same coin or two different coins? Exploring the duality of corruption in Latin America," CREMA Working Paper Series 2021-26, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    10. Haiqing Hu & Di Chen & Chun‐Ping Chang & Yin Chu, 2021. "The Political Economy Of Environmental Consequences: A Review Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 250-306, February.
    11. Ben Ali, Mohamed Sami & Fhima, Fredj & Nouira, Ridha, 2020. "How does corruption undermine banking stability? A threshold nonlinear framework," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).
    12. Daniel Parra & Manuel Munoz-Herrera & Luis Palacio, 2019. "The limits of transparency as a means of reducing corruption," Working Papers 20190026, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised May 2019.
    13. Ben Ali, Mohamed Sami, 2022. "Credit bureaus, corruption and banking stability," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 46(3).
    14. Syed Jaffar Abbas & Noman Arshed, 2023. "Examining Determinants of Regional Inflation Heterogeneity — A Robust Panel Data Analysis," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    15. Mohamed Sami Ben Ali & Sami Ben Mim, 2023. "Democracy and Banking Stability: Is the Relationship U-Shaped?," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(4), pages 4426-4448, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    corruption; inflation; seigniorage; developed countries; developing countries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • E3 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles
    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • P44 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - National Income, Product, and Expenditure; Money; Inflation

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