representative institutions on economic activity. They also favour Friedrich Hayek (1960)’s idea that the merits of democracy appear …This paper challenges cross-sectional findings that democratic institutions have a negligible direct effect on economic … institutions. We study democratization in a before-after event study approach that enables us to control for time-invariant country …

notably, that evolved institutions are inherently superior to those 'designed'; that institutions must be 'appropriate' and … cannot be 'transplanted'; and that the civil code and other French institutions have adverse economic effects. …

the elite in democracy or for costs of changing economic institutions, the equilibrium takes the form of a Markov regime … difficult than altering economic institutions, the model leads to a pattern of captured democracy, whereby a democratic regime …We construct a model of simultaneous change and persistence in institutions. The model consists of landowning elites …