Does Corruption Matter for Unemployment in SADC Countries?

Abstract Is corruption, the main source of unemployment in the SADC countries? Do the effects of corruption outweigh those of income inequalities, human capital and government revenues in explaining the unemployment rate within the SADC area? Through these questions, the objective of our paper is to propose targeted policies that can enable decision-makers to reduce the unemployment rate within the SADC area. Through a panel vector autoregressive model, our empirical investigation on a sample of nine (09) SADC countries reveals that the education level and income inequalities contribute the most to explain the total unemployment rate. However, for the youth unemployment, corruption is the main factor followed by the level of education. To reduce total unemployment in the area, SADC countries need to reduce income inequalities and the mismatch between education and the labour market needs and/or countries’ development programs. For the youth unemployment, the reduction of corruption to all its forms should be the priority of political and economic decisionmakers.