Using currency iconography to measure institutional quality

Kerianne Lawson

The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 2019, vol. 72, issue C, 73-79

Abstract: The images on a country’s currency are purposefully chosen by the people or government to be representative of that country. Potentially, one could learn a lot about the economic and political climate of a country by simply looking at the pictures on its money. This paper reports indexes measuring the political, religious, and cultural/scientific content as well as the representation of women on currency notes. The analysis suggests that we can look to the iconography in currency as an indication of the quality of the institutions or socio-economic outcomes in that country.

Keywords: Currency; Iconography; Economic freedom; Political freedom; Gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 E02 E5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:quaeco:v:72:y:2019:i:c:p:73-79

DOI: 10.1016/j.qref.2018.10.006

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