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Has Democracy Slowed Growth in Asia?

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  • Rock, Michael T.

Abstract

Summary Has democracy slowed growth in Asia? While there are a number of reasons to suggest that it has, no one has tested this hypothesis. Hypotheses linking Asia's democracies and autocracies to growth are tested in a within panel regression framework that controls for country fixed effects, global time fixed effects, the other major variables affecting growth, and for endogeneity between the right-hand side regressors. The democracy slows growth hypothesis is tested against the toughest counterfactual--the bureaucratically capable authoritarian regimes of East Asia's developmentally minded governments. Findings reject the democracy slows growth hypothesis and show that democracy causes growth and investment to rise.

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  • Rock, Michael T., 2009. "Has Democracy Slowed Growth in Asia?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 941-952, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:37:y:2009:i:5:p:941-952
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    3. Madsen, Jakob B. & Raschky, Paul A. & Skali, Ahmed, 2015. "Does democracy drive income in the world, 1500–2000?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 175-195.
    4. Knutsen, Carl Henrik, 2013. "Democracy, State Capacity, and Economic Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-18.
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    6. Mishra, SK, 2017. "Are Democratic Regimes Antithetical to Globalization?," MPRA Paper 83321, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Zhenxiong Li & Hilary Ingham, 2020. "Financial Development, Economic Performance and Democracy," Working Papers 291296033, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    8. Joao Tovar Jalles, 2010. "Does democracy foster or hinder growth? Extreme-type political regimes in a large panel," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 30(2), pages 1359-1372.
    9. Bill Francis & Eric Ofori, 2015. "Political regimes and stock market development," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 5(1), pages 111-137, June.
    10. Jeffry A. Jacob & Thomas Osang, 2018. "Democracy And Growth: A Dynamic Panel Data Study," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 65(01), pages 41-80, August.
    11. Javier Mejía Cubillos, 2011. "Reflexión Sobre Los Sistemas Partidistas, La Estabilidad De Las Políticas Y El Desarrollo Económico," Contribuciones a las Ciencias Sociales, Servicios Académicos Intercontinentales SL. Hasta 31/12/2022, issue 2011-11, november.
    12. Sujarwoto Sujarwoto & Gindo Tampubolon & Adi Cilik Pierewan, 2018. "Individual and Contextual Factors of Happiness and Life Satisfaction in a Low Middle Income Country," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 13(4), pages 927-945, December.
    13. Davide Luca, 2016. "Do bureaucracies enhance or constrain policy effectiveness? Evidence from Turkey’s central management of public investment," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 109, European Institute, LSE.

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