TITLE:
Political Regime and Economic Growth in Côte d’Ivoire: A Complex Relationship between Institutions and Economic Performance
AUTHORS:
Yao Jean Eudes Koffi, Bi Goli Jean Jacques Iritié
KEYWORDS:
Economic Growth, Gross Domestic Product, Political Regime, Single-Party System, Multiparty System, Alternation of Power, Côte d’Ivoire
JOURNAL NAME:
Theoretical Economics Letters,
Vol.15 No.6,
December
3,
2025
ABSTRACT: From 1960 to the present day, Côte d’Ivoire has experienced two political systems: the single-party system from 1960 to 1989, and the multi-party system from 1990 onward. In light of this rich experience under both of these systems, the present study aims to conduit a comparative analysis of the relationship between political regime and economic growth. It uses four models from the Generalized Linear Models class, each based on one of the following distributions: Normal, Inverse Normal, Gamma, and Exponential mean. The main results are presented in several points. First, the transition from a single-party system to a multiparty system led to an increase in real GDP of between 16% and 18%, depending on the model. However, alternation, which remains an important feature of multiparty systems, has a significant negative effect on economic growth. Indeed, the transition to a new alternation leads to a decline in GDP of 9.4 to 10.5% depending on the model for the period 1960-2021 and a 13% decline in GDP for the multiparty period alone. Thus, all other things being equal, the strong economic performance of multiparty systems compared to single-party systems can be explained solely by the contributions of the factors labor (elasticity of GDP compared to labor equal to 1) and trade openness (elasticity of GDP compared openness to equal to 0.57) during this period. Over the same period, the capital factor was found to be insignificant, and official development assistance had a significant negative effect on GDP formation. Furthermore, although economic performance was lower under a single-party system than under a multi-party system, the elasticities of capital, labor, trade openness, and official development assistance in relation to GDP were all significant for this period. One explanation could be the political instability that arises around election periods. Therefore, in order to take full advantage of the democratic process that began in 1990, democratic institutions need to be improved and consolidated with a view to creating an economic environment conducive to economic growth.