The Impact of Political Instability Indicators on the Economic Growth of Mesopotamian Countries

The statistical analysis of political instability indicators among the Mesopotamian countries shows that most of the countries in this region are in an unfavorable situation. This is while political instability directly and indirectly affects economic growth through various channels. Based on this, the main purpose of the current study is to investigate the impact of various indicators of political instability on the economic growth of the Mesopotamian countries during the years 2002-2021. For this purpose, four indicators of political instability including ICRG political risk, armed conflict, political stability and the absence of violence and the number of terrorist attacks have been used in the form of an economic growth model. Also, the estimation of the model has been done using the panel data analysis method and the Fixed Effects (FE) estimator. The results show that, according to the theoretical expectation, political instability has a negative and significant impact on the economic growth of the Mesopotamian countries, which emphasizes the necessity of creating a stable political environment in these countries in order to achieve continuous and sustainable economic growth. Based on other results, the impact of physical capital and human capital indicators on economic growth has been positive and significant; while the impact of inflation, military expenditure, rent of natural resources and population growth on the economic growth of the studied countries is negative and significant.