Corruption and Ease of Doing Business: Evidence from ECOWAS

Corruption has a major impact on growth in low-income economies, while ease of doing business has a major impact on growth in developed countries. The study empirically examines the effect of corruption on ease of doing business. The study analyses unbalanced panel data of corruption rank, corruption score, control of corruption, and inflation, together with other economic and financial institutional factors and ease of doing business score for the period of 2004–2017. Results indicate that: corruption rank, inflation, and import have negative and significant effect on ease of doing business; corruption score, control of corruption, lending rate spread, and education (skill level) have positive and significant effect on ease of doing business; gross capital formation and population have insignificant negative effect on ease of doing business; export and gross domestic product have insignificant positive effect on ease of doing business. The random effect model is a consistent and most efficient model, indicating common mean value for ease of doing business for the dataset. The study recommends improved corruption scores, control of corruption, and ranks to encourage ease of doing business through monetary policy and infrastructural facilities.