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Political Ideology and Economic Growth: Evidence from the French Democracy

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  • François Facchini

    (UP11 - Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Mickaël Melki

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

We provide a test of the impact of voters' political ideology on economic growth and of the role of preferences for government size as a transmission channel. We focus on France from the beginning of its stable democratic experience in 1871. A move of voters' ideology to the right increases economic growth over total observation period. However, the growth effect of ideology is mediated by voters' preferences for government size only during the post-World War II period. For reverse causality concerns, we use the political ideology of other historical democracies as an instrument variable for France's ideology.

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  • François Facchini & Mickaël Melki, 2013. "Political Ideology and Economic Growth: Evidence from the French Democracy," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00917617, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00917617
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00917617
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    Cited by:

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    5. Melki, Mickael & Pickering, Andrew, 2019. "New evidence on the historical growth of government in Europe: The role of labor costs," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 445-460.
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    9. Facchini, Francois & Couvreur, Stéphane, 2015. "Inequality: The original economic sin of capitalism? An Evaluation of Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the twenty-first century"," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 281-287.
    10. Pál Czeglédi & Carlos Newland, 2018. "How Is The Pro†Capitalist Mentality Globally Distributed?," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 240-256, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political ideology; economic growth; public spending; Idéologie politique; croissance économique; dépenses publiques;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E6 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth
    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government

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