IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/uitjxx/v29y2015i5p376-396.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Evolutionary Effects of Democracy: In the Long Run, We are All Trading?

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher J. Boudreaux

Abstract

It is well established that democracy affects trade, but how does this relationship change over time? The results suggest that democracy increases trade openness both in the short and long run. However, democracy only leads to a reduction in trade restrictions in the short term. In addition, the durability of a polity is employed as an instrument in order to consider the possibility that democracy and trade are endogenously related. This method helps to isolate a causal effect of democracy on trade, and the results suggest that the economic effect of democracy is 2-3 times larger than under OLS.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher J. Boudreaux, 2015. "The Evolutionary Effects of Democracy: In the Long Run, We are All Trading?," The International Trade Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(5), pages 376-396, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:uitjxx:v:29:y:2015:i:5:p:376-396
    DOI: 10.1080/08853908.2015.1073127
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08853908.2015.1073127
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/08853908.2015.1073127?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chinn, Menzie D. & Ito, Hiro, 2006. "What matters for financial development? Capital controls, institutions, and interactions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 163-192, October.
    2. Peter J. Boettke & Christopher J. Coyne & Peter T. Leeson, 2015. "Institutional stickiness and the New Development Economics," Chapters, in: Laura E. Grube & Virgil Henry Storr (ed.), Culture and Economic Action, chapter 6, pages 123-146, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Barry Eichengreen & David Leblang, 2008. "Democracy And Globalization," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 289-334, November.
    4. Giavazzi, Francesco & Tabellini, Guido, 2005. "Economic and political liberalizations," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(7), pages 1297-1330, October.
    5. Edward D. Mansfield & Helen V. Milner & B. Peter Rosendorff, 2015. "Free to Trade: Democracies, Autocracies, and International Trade," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Edward D Mansfield (ed.), THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE, chapter 7, pages 127-143, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    6. Fidrmuc, Jan, 2003. "Economic reform, democracy and growth during post-communist transition," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 583-604, September.
    7. Kevin H. O'Rourke & Alan M. Taylor, 2006. "Democracy and Protectionism," NBER Working Papers 12250, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
    9. Pushan Dutt & Devashish Mitra, 2016. "Endogenous trade policy through majority voting: an empirical investigation," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: The Political Economy of Trade Policy Theory, Evidence and Applications, chapter 4, pages 67-93, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. Mayer, Wolfgang, 1984. "Endogenous Tariff Formation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(5), pages 970-985, December.
    11. Galiani, Sebastian & Torrens, Gustavo, 2014. "Autocracy, democracy and trade policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 173-193.
    12. Rode, Martin & Gwartney, James D., 2012. "Does democratization facilitate economic liberalization?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 607-619.
    13. Acemoglu,Daron & Robinson,James A., 2009. "Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521671422, September.
    14. José Tavares, 2008. "Trade, Factor Proportions, and Political Rights," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(1), pages 163-168, February.
    15. Harrigan, James, 1993. "OECD imports and trade barriers in 1983," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1-2), pages 91-111, August.
    16. A. Colin Cameron & Pravin K. Trivedi, 2010. "Microeconometrics Using Stata, Revised Edition," Stata Press books, StataCorp LP, number musr, March.
    17. Frey, Bruno S, et al, 1984. "Consensus and Dissension among Economists: An Empirical Inquiry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(5), pages 986-994, December.
    18. Kono, Daniel Y., 2006. "Optimal Obfuscation: Democracy and Trade Policy Transparency," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 100(3), pages 369-384, August.
    19. Krugman, Paul R, 1987. "Is Free Trade Passe?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 131-144, Fall.
    20. Michael Rock, 2009. "Corruption and Democracy," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 55-75.
    21. Ina Jäkel & Marcel Smolka, 2013. "Individual Attitudes Towards Trade: Stolper-Samuelson Revisited," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 731-761, September.
    22. Adserà, Alícia & Boix, Carles, 2002. "Trade, Democracy, and the Size of the Public Sector: The Political Underpinnings of Openness," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(2), pages 229-262, April.
    23. Frey, Bruno S., 1984. "The public choice view of international political economy," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 199-223, January.
    24. Yang, C C, 1995. "Endogenous Tariff Formation under Representative Democracy: A Probabilistic Voting Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(4), pages 956-963, September.
    25. Yu, Miaojie, 2010. "Trade, democracy, and the gravity equation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 289-300, March.
    26. Milner, Helen V. & Kubota, Keiko, 2005. "Why the Move to Free Trade? Democracy and Trade Policy in the Developing Countries," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 59(1), pages 107-143, January.
    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. Barry Eichengreen & David Leblang, 2008. "Democracy And Globalization," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 289-334, November.
    2. John A. Doces & Christopher S. P. Magee, 2015. "Trade and Democracy: A Factor-Based Approach," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 407-425, March.
    3. Daniel Yuichi Kono & Stephanie J. Rickard, 2014. "Buying National: Democracy, Public Procurement, and International Trade," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(5), pages 657-682, October.
    4. repec:lic:licosd:25109 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Kym Anderson & Gordon Rausser & Johan Swinnen, 2013. "Political Economy of Public Policies: Insights from Distortions to Agricultural and Food Markets," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(2), pages 423-477, June.
    6. Paola Giuliano & Prachi Mishra & Antonio Spilimbergo, 2013. "Democracy and Reforms: Evidence from a New Dataset," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 179-204, October.
    7. Krenz, Astrid, 2016. "Do political institutions influence international trade? Measurement of institutions and the Long-Run effects," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 276, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    8. Jessica Decker & Jamus Lim, 2009. "Democracy and trade: an empirical study," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 165-186, April.
    9. Amy Pond, 2018. "Protecting Property: The Politics of Redistribution, Expropriation, and Market Openness," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 181-210, July.
    10. Rabah Amir & Hend Ghazzai & Rim Lahmandi-Ayed, 2023. "On the political economy of economic integration," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 61(1), pages 61-100, July.
    11. Giuliano, Paola & Mishra, Prachi & Spilimbergo, Antonio, 2009. "Democracy and Reforms," IZA Discussion Papers 4032, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Antonis Adam & Sofia Tsarsitalidou, 2018. "Do democracies have higher current account deficits?," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 40-68, March.
    13. Rode, Martin & Gwartney, James D., 2012. "Does democratization facilitate economic liberalization?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 607-619.
    14. Abeliansky, Ana & Krenz, Astrid, 2015. "Democracy and international trade: Differential effects from a panel quantile regression framework," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 243, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    15. Xuepeng Liu & Emanuel Ornelas, 2014. "Free Trade Agreements and the Consolidation of Democracy," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 29-70, April.
    16. Alessandro Olper & Jan Fałkowski & Johan Swinnen, 2014. "Political Reforms and Public Policy: Evidence from Agricultural and Food Policies," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 21-47.
    17. Méon, Pierre-Guillaume & Sekkat, Khalid, 2022. "A time to throw stones, a time to reap: how long does it take for democratic transitions to improve institutional outcomes?," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(3), pages 429-443, June.
    18. Zissimos, Ben, 2017. "A theory of trade policy under dictatorship and democratization," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 85-101.
    19. Weinberg, Joe, 2018. "Where’s the Pork?: The Political Economy of the US Farm Bill," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 273867, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Krenz, Astrid, 2013. "Political institutions and trade-evidence for the long-run relationship and causality," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 182, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    21. Bougharriou, Nouha & Benayed, Walid & Gabsi, Foued Badr, 2019. "The democracy and economic growth nexus: Do FDI and government spending matter? Evidence from the Arab world," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 13, pages 1-29.

    More about this item

    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:taf:uitjxx:v:29:y:2015:i:5:p:376-396. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/uitj20 .

    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.