The Impact of the Arab Spring on the Tunisian Economy

We use Synthetic Control Methodology to estimate the output loss in Tunisia as a result of the “Arab Spring.” Our results suggest that the loss was 5.5 percent, 5.1 percent, and 6.4 percent of GDP in 2011, 2012, and 2013 respectively. These findings are robust to a series of tests, including placebo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Matta, Samer, Appleton, Simon, Bleaney, Michael
Format: Journal Article
Published: Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34296
Description
Summary:We use Synthetic Control Methodology to estimate the output loss in Tunisia as a result of the “Arab Spring.” Our results suggest that the loss was 5.5 percent, 5.1 percent, and 6.4 percent of GDP in 2011, 2012, and 2013 respectively. These findings are robust to a series of tests, including placebo tests, and are consistent with those from an Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model of Tunisia’s economic growth. Moreover, we find that investment was the main channel through which the economy was adversely impacted by the Arab Spring.