What are the determinants of Passport Powers

The Henley's Passport Index (HPI) ranks extensively all the passports of the world according to the number of visa free or free visa on arrival access each passport grants the holder. This thesis investigates the determinants of countries' passport power by using a panel dataset of 195 countries and years from 2006 to 2015. HPI is a proxy of countries international networks. It tests the relationships between HPI and GDP per Capita, natural resources, population, political regimes, corruption, political instability, health expenditure, religion, trade openness, oil producers and world regions. Data were analysed using the econometric software GRETL. Results from the pooled Ordinary Least Squares regressions (OLS) indicated that, corruption, health expenditure, religion (Christian, Jews), OECD and GDP per Capita are significantly correlated with countries' HPI. Specifically, a decrease of one point in the country's level of corruption (over a scale of 10) increases the score of HPI by 5%; an increase of 1% in trade openness and health expenditure increases HPI by 0.11% and 0.16% respectively. On the other hand, being former communist countries and war-torn countries negatively correlate with HPI.