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Political Ideology and Economic Freedom

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This paper examines the association between political ideology and the size of government and quality of the legal system and regulations. A cross-country indicator of government and citizen ideology is presented. Empirical results suggest that ideologically leftwing governments increase the size of government while the long-term ideological convictions of citizens affect the size of government and the quality of the legal system and regulations. These effects depend on the degree of political competition while ideology also affects countries’ institutional response to economic crisis.

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  • Bjørnskov, Christian, 2005. "Political Ideology and Economic Freedom," Working Papers 05-8, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:aareco:2005_008
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    2. Chortareas, Georgios & Logothetis, Vassilis & Papandreou, Andreas, 2018. "Public Opinion, Elections, and Environmental Fiscal Policy," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2018/9, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    3. Chang, Chun-Ping & Wen, Jun & Zheng, Mingbo & Dong, Minyi & Hao, Yu, 2018. "Is higher government efficiency conducive to improving energy use efficiency? Evidence from OECD countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 65-77.
    4. Imam, M. & Jamasb, T. & Llorca, M., 2019. "Political Economy of Reform and Regulation in the Electricity Sector of Sub-Saharan Africa," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1949, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    5. Danko Tarabar & Andrew T. Young, 2017. "Liberalizing Reforms and the European Union: Accession, Membership, and Convergence," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(4), pages 932-951, April.
    6. Chun-Ping Chang & Chien-Chiang Lee, 2017. "The Effect of Government Ideology on an Exchange Rate Regime: Some International Evidence," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 788-834, April.
    7. Niklas Potrafke, 2010. "Does government ideology influence deregulation of product markets? Empirical evidence from OECD countries," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 135-155, April.
    8. Chang, Chun Ping & Berdiev, Aziz N., 2011. "The political economy of energy regulation in OECD countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 816-825, September.
    9. Erdogdu, Erkan, 2013. "Essays on Electricity Market Reforms: A Cross-Country Applied Approach," MPRA Paper 47139, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political Economy; Institutional Quality; Ideology; Social Norms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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