The Effect of Tax Burden and Corruption Perceptions Index on the Total Factor Productivity in the Countries of the MENA Region

The main objective of this article is to investigate the effect of the tax burden and corruption perceptions index, as well as the interactive effect of these two variables on the total factors of productivity, using the panel data of 18 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) during 2002 - 2020 and Pooled Mean Group (PMG) method. The results of the study showed that increasing the tax burden without the corruption perceptions index reduces the productivity of the production factors in both the short and long term, While the increase of the corruption perceptions index  and the joint effects of the corruption perception index and the tax burden have a positive and significant effect on the productivity of all production factors. The positive interaction effect of the tax burden and the corruption perceptions index on the productivity of the total production factors indicates that the increase in the corruption perception index reduces the negative effect of the tax burden on the productivity of the total production factors. An increase of one unit of the tax burden has had a negative and significant impact of 0.027 and 0.019 units on the productivity of all production factors in the short and long term, respectively, While the increase of the corruption perception index and the interactive effects of the corruption perceptions index and the tax burden are 0.022, 0.041 a and in the long term, 0.048 and 0.069 units have had a positive and significant effect on it.