Crypto, Corruption, and Capital Controls: Cross-Country Correlations

By Marwa Alnasaa, Nikolay Gueorguiev, Jiro Honda, Eslem Imamoglu, Paolo Mauro, Keyra Primus, Dmitriy L Rozhkov

March 25, 2022

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Marwa Alnasaa, Nikolay Gueorguiev, Jiro Honda, Eslem Imamoglu, Paolo Mauro, Keyra Primus, and Dmitriy L Rozhkov. Crypto, Corruption, and Capital Controls: Cross-Country Correlations, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2022) accessed December 21, 2024

Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

Summary

Empirical investigation of the factors underlying the growing usage of crypto-assets is in its infancy, owing to data limitations. In this paper, we present a simple cross-country analysis drawing on recently released survey-based data. We explore the correlation of crypto-asset usage with indicators of corruption, capital controls, a history of high inflation, and other factors. We find that crypto-asset usage is significantly and positively associated with higher perception of corruption and more intensive capital controls. Notwithstanding the data limitations, the results support the case for regulating crypto-assets, including know-your-customer approaches, as opposed to taking a laissez-faire stance.

Subject: Balance of payments, Capital controls, Corruption, Crime, Technology, Virtual currencies

Keywords: Capital control, Capital controls, Capital controls, Capital openness, Corruption, Corruption, Crypto-asset adoption, Crypto-asset usage, Cryptocurrency, Cypto-assets, Data limitation, Global, Pairwise correlation, Virtual currencies

Publication Details

Pages:

19
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2022/060
Stock No:

WPIEA2022060
ISBN:

9798400204005
ISSN:

1018-5941

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