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State provision of constitutional goods

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  • Romain Espinosa

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of constitutional rights on the level of public expenditure in a large sample of countries. To do so, we construct a panel of 73 countries from 1960 to 2011. We first investigate factors that drive constitutional changes regarding constitutional rights. To address potential endogeneity concerns in the choice of constitutional rules, we rely on an instrumental variable within estimation (country and time fixed effects) to estimate the impact of constitutional rights on government size. We find that larger governments tend to inscribe fewer rights in their constitutions, but we do not detect any impact of constitutional rights on the government size. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016

Suggested Citation

  • Romain Espinosa, 2016. "State provision of constitutional goods," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 1-40, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:copoec:v:27:y:2016:i:1:p:1-40
    DOI: 10.1007/s10602-015-9198-y
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Christian Bjørnskov & Jacob Mchangama, 2019. "Do Social Rights Affect Social Outcomes?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 63(2), pages 452-466, April.
    2. Benarroch, Michael & Pandey, Manish, 2008. "Trade openness and government size," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 157-159, December.
    3. David L. Epstein & Robert Bates & Jack Goldstone & Ida Kristensen & Sharyn O'Halloran, 2006. "Democratic Transitions," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(3), pages 551-569, July.
      • David Epstein & Robert H. Bates & Jack Goldstone & Ida Kristensen & Sharyn O'Halloran, 2004. "Democratic Transitions," CID Working Papers 101, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Constitutional rights; Constitutional economics; Government expenditure; Government size; Endogenous constitutions; E60; H50; K10;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E60 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - General
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
    • K10 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - General (Constitutional Law)

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