The microeconomic impact of political instability : firm-level evidence from Tunisia

Abstract EN

This paper explores the impact of political instability on firms.

The context of this paper is Tunisia, a country that saw a surge in political instability events after the 2011 Jasmine revolution.

Using a new dataset, we show that political instability was a major concern for small and exporting firms as well as for those that were operating in the tourism sector, those that have suffered from vandalism and those that were located in the interior region of Tunisia.

Most importantly, we find that political instability was the most damaging constraint to firm growth after the Arab Spring.