According to the economic approach to political transitions, negative transitory economic shocks can give rise to a window of opportunity for democratic change. We examine this hypothesis using yearly rainfall variation over the 1980-2004 period in 41 Sub-Saharan African countries. We find that...

In many western democracies, political parties with extreme platforms challenge more moderate incumbents. This paper analyses the impact of economic growth on the support for extreme political platforms. We provide a theoretical argument in favor of growth effects (as opposed to level effects)...

Evidence from structural VARs suggests that the unemployment rate significantly increases following increases in government expenditures in many OECD countries. Results hold for a variety of specifications and identification schemes. Fiscal expansions also tend to increase the participation...