IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/trr/wpaper/202414.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Western Sanctions and Coups d’État

Author

Listed:
  • Pascal Langer

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between Western sanctions and coups d’état in targeted countries. Employing a panel logit model and utilizing data from 1972 to 2013 drawn from the Global Sanctions Database and the Coup Leaders Dataset, we analyze the effects of Western sanctions on both occurrence of coups and successful coups. Western sanctions are found to initially increase the likelihood of coups by more than 4.0 pp with a diminishing impact over time. In the post-Cold War era, Western sanctions raise the probability of coups by 1.7 pp and successful coups by even 2.1 pp. The effects are particularly pronounced in non-democratic regimes, especially in personalist authoritarian regimes.

Suggested Citation

  • Pascal Langer, 2024. "Western Sanctions and Coups d’État," Research Papers in Economics 2024-14, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:trr:wpaper:202414
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.uni-trier.de/fileadmin/fb4/prof/VWL/EWF/Research_Papers/2024-14.pdf
    File Function: Third version, 2025
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:cup:apsrev:v:113:y:2019:i:03:p:868-881_00 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Jerg Gutmann & Matthias Neuenkirch & Florian Neumeier, 2021. "Sanctioned to Death? The Impact of Economic Sanctions on Life Expectancy and its Gender Gap," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(1), pages 139-162, January.
    3. Matthieu Crozet & Julian Hinz, 2020. "Friendly fire: the trade impact of the Russia sanctions and counter-sanctions," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 35(101), pages 97-146.
    4. Afesorgbor, Sylvanus Kwaku, 2019. "The impact of economic sanctions on international trade: How do threatened sanctions compare with imposed sanctions?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 11-26.
    5. Berger, Daniel & Corvalan, Alejandro & Easterly, William & Satyanath, Shanker, 2013. "Do superpower interventions have short and long term consequences for democracy?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 22-34.
    6. Ryan Yu-Lin Liou & Amanda Murdie & Dursun Peksen, 2023. "Pressures From Home and Abroad: Economic Sanctions and Target Government Response to Domestic Campaigns," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 67(2-3), pages 297-325, February.
    7. Fariss, Christopher J., 2019. "Yes, Human Rights Practices Are Improving Over Time," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 113(3), pages 868-881, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gutmann, Jerg & Langer, Pascal & Neuenkirch, Matthias, 2024. "International sanctions and emigration," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    2. Gutmann, Jerg & Neuenkirch, Matthias & Neumeier, Florian, 2023. "The economic effects of international sanctions: An event study," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 1214-1231.
    3. Jerg Gutmann & Matthias Neuenkirch & Florian Neumeier, 2024. "Do China and Russia undermine Western sanctions? Evidence from DiD and event study estimation," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 132-160, February.
    4. Jerg Gutmann & Matthias Neuenkirch & Florian Neumeier, 2024. "Political Economy of International Sanctions," Research Papers in Economics 2024-07, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    5. Toke S. Aidt & Facundo Albornoz & Esther Hauk, 2019. "Foreign in influence and domestic policy: A survey," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1928, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    6. Toke S. Aidt & Facundo Albornoz & Esther Hauk, 2021. "Foreign Influence and Domestic Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 426-487, June.
    7. Fatemeh Rahimzadeh & Hamed Pirpour & Bahman P. Ebrahimi, 2022. "The impact of economic sanctions on the efficiency of bilateral energy exports: the case of Iran," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(9), pages 1-18, September.
    8. Firat Demir & Saleh S. Tabrizy, 2022. "Gendered effects of sanctions on manufacturing employment: Evidence from Iran," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 2040-2069, November.
    9. Kazunobu HAYAKAWA & Keiko ITO, 2025. "The Collateral Damage of US Export Control Regulations on Japanese Suppliers’ Exports to China," Discussion papers 25061, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    10. Tibor Besedeš & Stefan Goldbach & Volker Nitsch, 2024. "Smart or smash? The effect of financial sanctions on trade in goods and services," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 223-251, February.
    11. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan & Jerg Gutmann, 2024. "International Sanctions and Internal Conflict: The Case of Iran," CESifo Working Paper Series 11578, CESifo.
    12. Devasmita Jena & C. Akash & Prachi Gupta, 2024. "Deflecting economic sanctions: do trade and political alliances matter?," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 543-567, July.
    13. Jochen Güntner & Michael Irlacher & Peter Öhlinger, 2023. "Not All Oil Types Are Alike," CESifo Working Paper Series 10652, CESifo.
    14. Vincenzo Bove & Jessica Di Salvatore & Roberto Nisticò, 2023. "Economic Sanctions and Trade Flows in the Neighborhood," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66(4), pages 671-697.
    15. Aldunate, Felipe & Gonzalez, Felipe & Prem, Mounu, 2021. "Make the Economy Scream? U.S. Banks and Foreign Firms During the Cold War," SocArXiv bhwk7, Center for Open Science.
    16. Apeti, Ablam Estel & Edoh, Eyah Denise, 2024. "Economic sanctions and sovereign debt default," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    17. Tran Manh Ha & Doan Ngoc Thang, 2023. "Economic sanction and global sourcing complexity: A cross‐country analysis," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 1017-1050, April.
    18. Xiao Wang & Jun Nagayasu, 2025. "Analyzing the Effect of the Unfriendly Countries List of Russia on Global Trade through the Staggered Diference-in-Diferences Design in the Gravity Model," TUPD Discussion Papers 69, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University.
    19. Görg, Holger & Jacobs, Anna & Meuchelböck, Saskia, 2024. "Who is to suffer? Quantifying the impact of sanctions on German firms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    20. Sun, Chengjiu & Wang, Shanshan, 2025. "Collateral damage: The environmental consequences of US sanctions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • F51 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Conflicts; Negotiations; Sanctions
    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:trr:wpaper:202414. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Matthias Neuenkirch (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/petride.html .

    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.