IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v241y2026ics0167268125005074.html

The invisible hand meets the raised fist: Social movements and market legitimacy

Author

Listed:
  • Shakya, Shishir
  • Ammons, Joshua D.

Abstract

We examine the long-run institutional and economic effects of successful one-time nonviolent campaigns. Using an event study on panel data (1950–2022) from the NAVCO and V-Dem datasets, we compare countries with successful one-time nonviolent campaigns to politically stable counterparts without any campaigns. This design plausibly mitigates concerns about selection bias, simultaneity, and timing endogeneity. Pre-treatment trends support the assumption of parallel trends. We find that nonviolent campaigns are associated with lasting improvements in liberal democracy, rule of law, civil liberties, and government accountability, alongside reduced state ownership of the economy. These results suggest that collective action can strengthen market-supporting institutions and reinforce the perceived legitimacy of liberal market systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Shakya, Shishir & Ammons, Joshua D., 2026. "The invisible hand meets the raised fist: Social movements and market legitimacy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:241:y:2026:i:c:s0167268125005074
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107390
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268125005074
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107390?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:241:y:2026:i:c:s0167268125005074. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.