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Democracy Does Cause Growth: Comment

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  • Eberhardt, Markus

Abstract

I revisit the causal relationship between democracy and growth as recently studied in Acemoglu, Naidu, Restrepo, and Robinson (2019, ANRR). I demonstrate the sensitivity of their results to sample selection by dropping a small number of observations in a non-random fashion and use these findings to motivate a generalisation of their empirical approach. My own analysis relaxes the assumption of (i) a common democracy-growth relationship, and of (ii) the absence of strong cross-section correlation. Adopting novel methods for policy evaluation I find a robust positive long-run effect of democracy albeit with only around half the magnitude of that found in ANRR.

Suggested Citation

  • Eberhardt, Markus, 2019. "Democracy Does Cause Growth: Comment," CEPR Discussion Papers 13659, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13659
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Johannes Blum, 2021. "Democracy’s third wave and national defense spending," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 183-212, October.
    2. Taymaz, Erol & Voyvoda, Ebru & Yilmaz, Kamil, 2024. "Is there a virtuous cycle between wages and productivity? Turkish experience after the transition to democracy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    3. Fabio Monteforte & Jonathan R. W. Temple, 2020. "The autocratic gamble: evidence from robust variance tests," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 363-384, December.
    4. Erol Taymaz & Ebru Voyvoda & Kamil Yilmaz, 2021. "Transition to Democracy, Real Wages and Productivity: The Turkish Experience," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 2111, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    5. Christopher A. Hartwell & Roman Horvath & Eva Horvathova & Olga Popova, 2019. "Democratic Institutions, Natural Resources, and Income Inequality," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 61(4), pages 531-550, December.
    6. Pakhnin, M. & Shapovalov, R., 2023. "Democratic capital and economic growth in the countries of the third wave of democratization," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 58(1), pages 12-31.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Democracy; Growth; Political development; Spillovers; Difference-in-difference estimator; Interactive fixed effects;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

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