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Political Instability and Growth in Dictatorships

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Author Info
Jody Overland, Kenneth Simons and Michael Spagat () (Department of Economics, Royal Holloway, University of London)

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Abstract

We model growth in dictatorships facing each period an endogenous probaibility of "political catastrophe" that would extinguish the regime's wealth ability. Domestic capital exhibits a bifurcation point determining economic growth or shrinkage. With low initial domestic capital the dictator plunders the country's resources and the economy shrinks. With high initial domestic capital the economy eventually grows faster than is socially optimal.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Department of Economics, Royal Holloway University of London in its series Royal Holloway, University of London: Discussion Papers in Economics with number 03/11.

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Length: 25 pages
Date of creation: Dec 2003
Date of revision: Dec 2003
Handle: RePEc:hol:holodi:0311

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Keywords: Dictatorship; Growth; Political stability; Plunder;

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  5. Roberts, Bryan W. & Rodriguez, Alvaro, 1997. "Economic Growth under a Self-Interested Central Planner and Transition to a Market Economy," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 121-139, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  24. Mankiw, N Gregory & Romer, David & Weil, David N, 1992. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 107(2), pages 407-37, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Temple, Jonathan, 2001. "Growing into Trouble: Indonesia After 1966," CEPR Discussion Papers 2932, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Christopher J. Ellis & John Fender, 2008. "Democratic Errors," University of Oregon Economics Department Working Papers 2008-2, University of Oregon Economics Department. [Downloadable!]
  3. Besley, Timothy J. & Kudamatsu, Masayuki, 2007. "Making Autocracy Work," CEPR Discussion Papers 6371, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Lazarev, Valery, 2007. "Political labor market, government policy, and stability of a non-democratic regime," MPRA Paper 2352, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Christopher J. Ellis & John Fender, 2007. "Public Sector Capital and the Transition from Dictatorship to Democracy," Discussion Papers 07-14, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham. [Downloadable!]
  6. Giuriato, Luisa, 2008. "Combining autocracy and majority voting: the canonical succession rules of the Latin Church," MPRA Paper 15164, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  7. Paul R. Gregory & Philipp J.H. Schr oder & Konstantin Sonin, 2006. "Dictators, Repression and the Median Citizen: An “Eliminations Model” of Stalin’s Terror (Data from the NKVD Archives)," Working Papers w0091, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR). [Downloadable!]
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  8. Ronen Bar-El, 2009. "Dictators, development, and the virtue of political instability," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 138(1), pages 29-44, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Georgy Egorov & Konstantin Sonin, 2005. "Dictators and Their Viziers: Agency Problems in Dictatorships," Economics Working Papers 0053, Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Yuan K. Chou & Hayat Khan, 2004. "Explaining Africa's Growth Tragedy: A Theoretical Model of Dictatorship and Kleptocracy," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 922, The University of Melbourne. [Downloadable!]
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