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The Political Economy of Heterogeneous Development: Quartile Effects of Income and Education

Author

Listed:
  • Marcus Alexander

    (Harvard University)

  • Matthew Harding

    (Department of Economics, Stanford University)

  • Carlos Lamarche

    (Universidad Nacional de La Plata)

Abstract

Does development lead to the establishment of more democratic institutions? Over the past 50 years, the countries have illustratred two very distinct stages of political development—authoritarian states with low levels of freedom on one side and democracies with liberal institutions on the other. We develop a new empirical strategy that allows for the first time to estimate the effects of development as well as changing unobserved country effects in driving democracy at these different stages of political development. We find income and education have the least effect on democracy when authoritarian regimes are consolidated and only changing country effects can lead to political development. Ironically, it is in highly democratic and wealthy nations that income and education start to play a role; however greater wealth and better educated citizenry can both help and hurt democracy depending again on what the country’s institutional legacies are. Far from accepting the notion that much of the developing world is cursed by unchanging and poor long-run institutions, policy-makers should take note that with democratization we also see changing country-specific factors that in turn condition the difference income and education can make for democracy. Creation Date: 2008-08 Revision Date:

Suggested Citation

  • Marcus Alexander & Matthew Harding & Carlos Lamarche, "undated". "The Political Economy of Heterogeneous Development: Quartile Effects of Income and Education," Discussion Papers 07-052, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:sip:dpaper:07-052
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Joel L. Horowitz, 1998. "Bootstrap Methods for Median Regression Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 66(6), pages 1327-1352, November.
    2. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2001. "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1369-1401, December.
    3. James H. Stock & Mark W. Watson, 2003. "Has the Business Cycle Changed and Why?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2002, Volume 17, pages 159-230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Torsten Persson & Gérard Roland & Guido Tabellini, 1997. "Separation of Powers and Political Accountability," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1163-1202.
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    Cited by:

    1. Marcus Alexander & Matthew Harding & Carlos Lamarche, 2009. "The Human Cost of Economic Crises," Discussion Papers 08-029, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    2. Harding, Matthew & Lamarche, Carlos, 2009. "A quantile regression approach for estimating panel data models using instrumental variables," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 133-135, September.
    3. Natina Yaduma & Mika Kortelainen & Ada Wossink, 2015. "The environmental Kuznets curve at different levels of economic development: a counterfactual quantile regression analysis for CO 2 emissions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 278-303, November.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General

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