Moroccan Cronyism and Economic Growth

This research studies the severity of crony capitalism in Morocco, using the “Crony Capitalism Index” set up by the Economist – an Index of the total wealth of billionaires involved in rent-heavy industries to GDP, to analyze the impacts of political connectedness on firm performance. The study will focus on regulated and rent-seeking industries (banking and finance, telecommunications, real estate, retail sector, etc…); evaluating the weight of politically connected (turnover and profits) firms within the private sector. It then draws a mapping of privileges (favors) by sectors and finally analyzes Connected Firms and Non Connected Firms’ performances and their impact on growth, but only for the manufacturing sector.