Political Rights, Civil Liberties, and the Black Market Premium on Foreign Exchange : Evidence from Developing Countries

Investigating the impact of institutional factors on macroeconomic variables has gained momentum in recent years. In this paper we investigate the impact of political rights and civil liberties on the black market premium on foreign exchange. After taking account of other important determinants of the black market premium, we show that less political rights and less civil liberties result in a higher black market premium. The empirical results are based on cross-sectional and panel regressions using data from63 developing countries over the period 1972–1998