This paper examines the impact of institutional quality on economic growth in West Africa after the Great Recession using a panel of 13 countries. In addition to the traditional institutional variables documented in the Worldwide Governance Indicators, such as government effectiveness, control of corruption, rule of law, regulatory quality, political stability, voice and accountability, and absence of violence/terrorism, the paper also derived an institutional-quality variable from the Freedom House database. To address the methodological shortcomings in the extant literature, the study used region-specific variables and adopted both the system generalized method of moments and the panel two-stage least squares estimation techniques under the framework of a cross-country growth model. The results predominantly showed a significant negative relationship between institutional quality and growth in West Africa. Specifically, corruption, government ineffectiveness, weak regulatory quality, political instability, lack of rule of law and absence of accountability were found to hinder growth in the sub-region. However, the empirical findings also showed an initial level of gross domestic product per capita, capital, labour and foreign direct investment as important drivers of growth in the sub-region. Therefore, the study concludes that the sub-region needs improved institutions that can attract higher levels of investment to promote sustained economic growth and development.

中文翻译：

---

西非的制度质量和增长：大衰退之后发生了什么？

本文使用由 13 个国家组成的小组，研究了大萧条后制度质量对西非经济增长的影响。除了《全球治理指标》中记录的传统制度变量，例如政府效率、腐败控制、法治、监管质量、政治稳定性、发言权和问责制以及没有暴力/恐怖主义，本文还推导出了一个制度变量。 -来自自由之家数据库的质量变量。针对现有文献中方法论上的不足，本研究在跨国增长模型的框架下，采用了区域特定变量，并采用了系统广义矩法和面板两阶段最小二乘估计技术。结果主要显示西非的制度质量与增长之间存在显着的负相关关系。具体而言，腐败、政府效率低下、监管质量薄弱、政治不稳定、缺乏法治和缺乏问责制被发现阻碍了该次区域的增长。然而，实证结果也表明，人均国内生产总值、资本、劳动力和外国直接投资的初始水平是该次区域增长的重要驱动力。因此，该研究得出的结论是，该次区域需要改进的制度来吸引更高水平的投资，以促进持续的经济增长和发展。发现政治不稳定、缺乏法治和缺乏问责制阻碍了该次区域的增长。然而，实证结果也表明，人均国内生产总值、资本、劳动力和外国直接投资的初始水平是该次区域增长的重要驱动力。因此，该研究得出的结论是，该次区域需要改进的制度来吸引更高水平的投资，以促进持续的经济增长和发展。发现政治不稳定、缺乏法治和缺乏问责制阻碍了该次区域的增长。然而，实证结果也表明，人均国内生产总值、资本、劳动力和外国直接投资的初始水平是该次区域增长的重要驱动力。因此，该研究得出的结论是，该次区域需要改进的制度来吸引更高水平的投资，以促进持续的经济增长和发展。