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Democracy and Reforms: Evidence from a New Dataset

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  • Paola Giuliano
  • Prachi Mishra
  • Antonio Spilimbergo

Abstract

Empirical evidence on the relationship between democracy and economic reforms is limited to few reforms, countries, and periods. This paper studies the effect of democracy on the adoption of economic reforms using a new dataset on reforms in the financial, capital and banking sectors, product markets, agriculture, and trade for 150 countries over the period 1960-2004. Democracy has a positive and significant impact on the adoption of economic reforms but there is scarce evidence that economic reforms foster democracy. Our results are robust to the inclusion of a large variety of controls and estimation strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Paola Giuliano & Prachi Mishra & Antonio Spilimbergo, 2012. "Democracy and Reforms: Evidence from a New Dataset," NBER Working Papers 18117, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18117
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    JEL classification:

    • E6 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries

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