De Economist

, Volume 140, Issue 4, pp 515–530 | Cite as

The magnitude and determinants of capital flight: The case for six sub-Saharan African countries

  • Niels Hermes
  • Robert Lensink
Article

Summary

Most studies treat capital flight as an exclusively Latin American problem. This paper estimates capital flight for six African countries and shows that the emphasis on Latin American capital flight is not correct. It appears that the burden of capital flight is also important for many African countries. Moreover, this paper tries to find some determinants for the African countries' capital flight. The increase of government and government-guaranteed foreign debt and the overvaluation of the real exchange rate appear to be the most important explanatory factors of capital flight for the African countries in this study.

Keywords

Exchange Rate International Economic African Country Public Finance Real Exchange Rate 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Copyright information

© Stenfert Kroese Uitgevers 1992

Authors and Affiliations

  • Niels Hermes
    • 1
  • Robert Lensink
    • 1
  1. 1.University of GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands

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