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Democracy and Development: The Devil in the Details

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Torsten Persson
Guido Tabellini

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Abstract

Does democracy promote economic development? We review recent attempts to address this question, which exploit the within-country variation associated with historical transitions in and out of democracy. The answer is positive, but depends %u2013 in a subtle way %u2013 on the details of democratic reforms. First, democratizations and economic liberalizations in isolation each induce growth accelerations, but countries liberalizing their economy before extending political rights do better than those carrying out the opposite sequence. Second, different forms of democratic government and different electoral systems lead to different fiscal trade policies: this might explain why new presidential democracies grow faster than new parliamentary democracies. Third, it is important to distinguish between expected and actual political reforms: expectations of regime change have an independent effect on growth, and taking expectations into account helps identify a stronger growth effect of democracy.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 11993.

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Date of creation: Feb 2006
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11993

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
P0 - Economic Systems - - General
O1 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
E0 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General

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  1. Dani Rodrik & Romain Wacziarg, 2005. "Do Democratic Transitions Produce Bad Economic Outcomes?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 50-55, May. [Downloadable!]
  2. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew Warner, 1995. "Economic Reform and the Process of Global Integration," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 26(1995-1), pages 1-118. [Downloadable!]
  3. Persson, Torsten, 2005. "Forms of Democracy, Policy and Economic Development," CEPR Discussion Papers 4938, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Torsten Persson & Guido Tabellini, 2004. "Constitutional Rules and Fiscal Policy Outcomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 25-45, March. [Downloadable!]
  5. Giavazzi, Francesco & Tabellini, Guido, 2005. "Economic and political liberalizations," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(7), pages 1297-1330, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Torsten Persson & Guido Tabellini, 2006. "Democratic capital: The nexus of political and economic change," Working Papers 308, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Elias Papaioannou & Gregorios Siourounis, 2007. "Democratization And Growth," CEDI Discussion Paper Series 07-13, Centre for Economic Development and Institutions(CEDI), Brunel University. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Jeffrey Sachs & Andrew Warner, 1995. "Economic Reform and the Progress of Global Integration," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1733, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
  9. Torsten Persson & Guido Tabellini, 2005. "The Economic Effects of Constitutions," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262661926.
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  1. Pauline Grosjean & Claudia Senik, 2007. "Should market liberalization precede democracy? Causal relations between political preferences and development," PSE Working Papers 2007-17, PSE (Ecole normale supérieure). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Nadia Fiorino & Roberto Ricciuti, 2007. "Determinants of Direct Democracy," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  3. Stephen Coate & Brian Knight, 2009. "Government Form and Public Spending: Theory and Evidence from U.S. Municipalities," NBER Working Papers 14857, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Olper, Alessandro & Raimondi, Valentina, 2009. "Constitutional Rules and Agricultural Policy Outcomes," Agricultural Distortions Working Paper 50304, World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Masayuki Kudamatsu, 2007. "Has Democratization Reduced Infant Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa? Evidence from Micro Data," ISER Discussion Paper 0685, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University. [Downloadable!]
  6. Sambit Bhattacharyya, 2008. "Unbundled Institutions, Human Capital and Growth," Departmental Working Papers 2008-14, Australian National University, Economics RSPAS. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Pereira, Carlos & Kuhl Teles, Vladimir, 2009. "Political Institutions As Substitute For Democracy: A Political Economy Analysis Of Economic Growth," Textos para discussão 196, Escola de Economia de São Paulo, Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil). [Downloadable!]
  8. Torsten Persson & Guido Tabellini, 2007. "The Growth Effect of Democracy: Is it Heterogenous and how can it be Estimated?," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Markus Brückner & Antonio Ciccone, 2008. "Rain and the Democratic Window of Opportunity," Economics Working Papers 1114, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Oct 2009. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. Aidt, T.S. & Eterovic, D.S., 2007. "Give and Take: Political Competition, Participation and Public Finance in 20th Century Latin America," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0714, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge. [Downloadable!]
  11. Georgy Egorov & Sergei Guriev & Konstantin Sonin, 2006. "Media Freedom, Bureaucratic Incentives, and the Resource Curse," Working Papers w0063, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR), revised Jun 2006. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Graziella Bertocchi & Chiara Strozzi, 2006. "The Age of Mass Migration: Economic and Institutional Determinants," IZA Discussion Papers 2499, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  13. Olper, Alessandro & Falkowski, Jan & Swinnen, Jo, 2009. "Democracy and Agricultural Protection: Parametric and Semi-parametric Matching Estimates," 2009 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, 2009, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 49313, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. [Downloadable!]
  14. Graziella Bertocchi & Chiara Strozzi, 2008. "International Migration and the Role of Institutions," Center for Economic Research (RECent) 012, University of Modena and Reggio E., Dept. of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  15. Jessica Henson Decker & Jamus Jerome Lim, 2008. "What fundamentally drives growth? Revisiting the institutions and economic performance debate," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(5), pages 698-725. [Downloadable!]
  16. Vladimir Kühl Teles & Carlos Pereira, 2008. "Political institutions matter for incipient but not for consolidated democracies: a political economy analysis of economic growth," Anais do XXXVI Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 36th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 200807211539390, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pósgraduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics]. [Downloadable!]
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