Democracy Does Cause Growth
Name
700936.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
541.59 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
9460997a66dff8456877a05edc7ecf12
Author(s)
Acemoglu, K. Daron
Naidu, Suresh
Restrepo, Pascual
Robinson, James A.
Date Issued
January 19, 2019
Journal
Journal of Political Economy
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Citation
Daron Acemoglu, Suresh Naidu, Pascual Restrepo, and James A. Robinson, "Democracy Does Cause Growth," Journal of Political Economy 127, 1 (February 2019): 47-100. © 2019 The University of Chicago
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We provide evidence that democracy has a positive effect on GDP per capita. Our dynamic panel strategy controls for country fixed effects and the rich dynamics of GDP, which otherwise confound the effect of democracy. To reduce measurement error, we introduce a new indicator of democracy that consolidates previous measures. Our baseline results show that democratizations increase GDP per capita by about 20 percent in the long run. We find similar effects using a propensity score reweighting strategy as well as an instrumental-variables strategy using regional waves of democratization. The effects are similar across different levels of development and appear to be driven by greater investments in capital, schooling, and health.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1086/700936
