Social Fractionalization, Political Instability, and the Size of Government
Abstract
This paper explores the relationship between the degree of division or fractionalization of a country's population (along ethnolinguistic and religious dimensions) and both political instability and government consumption, using a neoclassical growth model. The principal idea is that greater fractionalization, proxying for the degree of conflict in society, leads to political instability, which in turn leads to higher government consumption aimed at placating the opposition. There is also a feedback mechanism whereby the higher consumption leads to less instability as government consumption reduces the risk of losing office. Empirical evidence based on panel estimation supports this hypothesis. Copyright 2002, International Monetary FundDownload Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Palgrave Macmillan in its journal IMF Staff Papers.
Volume (Year): 48 (2001)
Issue (Month): 3 ()
Pages: 7
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Related research
Keywords:Find related papers by JEL classification:
- E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy
- O23 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Fiscal and Monetary Policy in Development
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Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Anoop Singh, 2006. "Macroeconomic Volatility: The Policy Lessons from Latin America," IMF Working Papers 06/166, International Monetary Fund.
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