Régimes de change et désajustements des taux de change réels en Afrique subsaharienne : le niveau de démocratie importe-t-il ?

This article focuses on the relationship between exchange rate regimes and the real exchange rate misalignments associated with them, depending on the level of democratization. As far as we know, this is the first analysis on this topic, particularly for African countries, whose exchange rate regimes and governance are usually held responsible for sluggish growth. The results show that the fixed exchange rate regime per se does not generate more misalignments than intermediate and flexible regimes. The level of democratization instead determines the effect of the exchange rate regime, since better institutions combined with flexible regimes can reduce the extent of misalignments. This effect is even more noticeable for autocratic and relatively autocratic countries engaged in improving their democratization score.