Regional Impact of Cote D'Ivoire'S Sociopolitical Crisis : An Assessment

This paper evaluates the impact of the sociopolitical crisis in Côte d'Ivoire on the economies of its neighbors. Using a nonsubjective weighted index of regional instability in cross-country time-series regressions, it shows that the increase in regional instability caused by domestic instability in Côte d'Ivoire had a negative effect on the growth performance of its most direct neighbors, but no significant effect on the subregion as a whole including the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). The paper also examines the channels through which such spillover effects took place.