This paper examines the relationship between current account and financial development, while taking into account institutional quality in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region over the period 1990–2018. By applying various measures of the quality of institutions and two indices representing financial development, we found that, while most financial development indices have a significant positive effect on the current account, the coefficients of the interaction term are significantly negative. This clearly shows that institutional quality mitigates the positive effect of financial development on the current account. Our empirical results allow us to conclude that the level of financial development in a country with a high level of corruption increases the current account deficit. These results suggest that, in order to benefit from financial development, financial systems in MENA countries must be embedded within a sound institutional framework.

本文研究了经常账户与金融发展之间的关系，同时考虑了1990-2018年期间中东和北非（MENA）地区的机构质量。通过采用各种衡量机构质量的指标和代表金融发展的两个指数，我们发现，尽管大多数金融发展指数对经常账户产生显着的正效应，但相互作用项的系数却显着为负。这清楚地表明，机构质量减轻了金融发展对经常账户的积极影响。我们的经验结果使我们得出结论，一个腐败程度很高的国家的金融发展水平会增加经常账户赤字。这些结果表明，