The effect of liquidity on the corruption in the selected countries of MENA region

Document Type : پژوهشی

Authors

• mohammad sharif karimi ¹
• Azadeh Shahab ²

¹ Assistant Professor in Economics, Faculty of Economics and Entrepreneur, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran.

² Ph.D. The student in Economics, Faculty of Economics and Entrepreneur, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22067/mfe.2021.39357

Abstract

Introduction
Corruption is very important issue because it affects all elements of society, economic, political or cultural. Corruption also causes a decline in human capital and the loss of individuals' innate talents in society, leading society to distribute rents. Corruption exists in all democracies and democracies, but the fight against it is more prominent in democracies. The nature of the MENA countries is oil-producing countries the economy relies on oil revenues, which are often run by relatively large and inefficient governments. In these societies, the distribution of rent and power to maintain power is almost common. Wherever there is talk of power and authority, there is also the phenomenon of corruption. The most influential and popular variable for corrupt transactions is cash.
On the other hand, developing countries, including the countries of MENA, have high liquidity and inflation, both of which strengthen each other. According to the quantity theory of money, the volume of money in society should be equal to the importance of goods and services in simple terms. When this alliance is not established, the greatest pressure is on the people; it becomes. If not entering the channel of GDP, high liquidity and inflation will reduce the welfare and dissatisfaction of people in society. Given the importance of these two variables to achieve economic and political stability and also to achieve the goal of sustainable development this study seeks to answer the question: Is the amount of liquidity is affected on the corruption in selected countries in the MENA region during the period 2005-2018?
 
Theoretical framework
Efforts to achieve sustainable development in the form of good governance indicators and development goals by the World Bank and the United Nations have been main duty by developing countries in recent years. One of the important variables of these goals is the corruption control index. Corruption has a negative consequences at the economic, political, and human and social levels of societies. Through the harm it creates, it has become one of the main obstacles to development. The growth of liquidity, depending on the degree of corruption control in society, can have two opposite effects on the economy. On the other hand, in an economy with a low degree of corruption, liquidity is considered one of the indicators of financial development and it increases economic growth, on the other hand, in an economy with a high degree of corruption, the balance of speculative funds increases and reduces economic growth as well.
Methodology
Model variables and data  has been extracted  from the World Bank website  and covers the period 2005-2018 for selected MENA countries which are including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, #United Arab Emirates and Turkey. This paper uses an alternative measure of corruption which is the Control of Corruption Index (CC) published by the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators. Other data and variables such as: liquidity, GDP per capita, government size, economic openness, inflation and internet Extracted from the World Bank website and the Press Freedom Index extracted from the annual reports of the Freedom House. The functional form of the panel data model is as follows:
Corruption _it= α_i+ ρ Corruption_i,t-1+ β₁ BM_it+ β₂ GDp < sub>it+ β₃ GOV_it+ β₄ OPENNESS_it + β₅ INFLATION_it + β₆ PRESS_it + β₇ INTERNET_it +ε_it
To estimate the model we have applied the two-step system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) method.
Results & Discussion
According to the results of the model estimate, it can be seen that the rate of corruption in the previous year and also the current liquidity on the corruption of the countries of MENA region is statistically positive and significant and a one percent increase in corruption in the previous period led to increase 0.56 percent corruption and one percent increase in liquidity of the current period increases the rate of corruption of the current period by 0.001 percent. It can be said that in the selected countries of MENA during the period 2005-2018, the corruption variable of the previous period has a greater impact on the level of corruption in these countries than the current liquidity variable. The most influential variable on corruption in the countries of the MENA region in both methods is GDP per capita. So that one percent increase in GDP per capita reduces the rate of corruption by 2.47 percent. Among the controls variables the effect of government size, openness, freedom of the press and the Internet on corruption in the MENA countries during 2005-2018 is negligible and statistically significant, while the effect of inflation on corruption is statistically insignificant.
 
Conclusions & Suggestions
In this paper, we examine whether liquidity affects the level of corruption in a MENA countries? According to the results the effect of the past level of corruption and the current liquidity on the corruption of the countries of the MENA region are statistically positive and significant. The existence of corruption in the country in previous years leads to the institutionalization of corrupt practices in the country; High liquidity also facilitates money laundering and corrupt transactions. In fact, the ease with which transactions can be made will strengthen corrupt groups and their actions over the years. To reduce the existing liquidity in society and subsequently try to reduce corruption in the countries of the MENA region, the following solutions are proposed: Apply high opportunity cost to use less transactions in the traditional way with high liquidity, such as accruing interest on current accounts and electronic payment cards to the extent that new payment tools are cost-effective for consumers. Apply discounts on financial transactions above a specific limit per day or month for online purchases or e-card purchases. Use new payment methods for labour services. Also we suggest that governments should evolve laws to prohibit cash transactions beyond a threshold level.

Keywords

• Corruption
• Liquidity
• Generalized Method of Moments
• GDP

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