This paper explores these issues further by reconsidering the link between democracy and health using panel data from a cross-section of countries. The data show a strong (conditional) correlation between life expectancy and democracy. This relationship is strongest for the decades of the 1960s...

One of the key goals of political economy is to understand how in-stitutional arrangements shape policy outcomes. This paper studiesa comparatively neglected aspect of this - the forces that shape het-erogeneous performance of autocracies. The paper develops a simpletheoretical model of...

It has long been recognized that the media play an essential role in governmentaccountability. However, even in the absence of censorship, the government mayinfluence news content by maintaining a "cozy" relationship with the media. Thispaper develops a model of democratic politics in which...

This paper develops an approach to studying how bias in favor ofone party due to the pattern of electoral districting affects policy choice.We tie a commonly used measure of electoral bias to the theory of partycompetition and show how this affects party strategy in theory. Theusefulness of the...

Economists generally assume that the state has sufffcient institutional capacityto support markets and levy taxes, assumptions which cannot be taken forgranted in many states, neither historcally nor in today’s developing world.Our paper develops a framework where "policy choices" in market...

The absence of state capacities to raise revenue and to supportmarkets is a key factor in explaining the persistence of weak states.This paper reports on an on-going project to investigate the incentiveto invest in such capacities. The paper sets out a simple analyticalstructure in which state...

This paper develops a simple model to analyze how a lack of politi-cal competition may lead to policies that hinder economic growth. Wetest the predictions of the model on panel data for the US states. Inthese data, we …nd robust evidence that lack of political competitionin a state is...

Recent events in several countries have underscored the importanceof good governance in private occupational pension plans. Thepresent paper uses contract theory to analyze the interplay of residualclaims and control rights in private pensions. The residual claimant isthe plan sponsor in a...

How and whether judges should be held accountable is a key issue in the design of a legalsystem. Thirty-seven of the forty-eight continental states use some method of judicial selectionwhich involves a direct role for citizens in selecting or re-appointing the judiciary. We identifytwo...

This paper uses data on elected village councils in South India to examinethe political economy of public resource allocation. We find that the patternof policy-making reflects politicians' self-interest. Elected councillors benefit from improved personal access to public resources. In addition,...