Scholars and policy makers believe that democracy will bring prosperity through integration into the global economy via … trade more. Second, democracy implies higher quality governance either through institutions or policy-making procedures. I …, importers and exporters. I find the theory that democracy, and many of its components, promotes international trade unconvincing …

There are many stories of democracy but little consensus over which variables robustly determine its emergence and … million regressions. The most robust determinants of the transition to democracy are GDP growth (a negative effect), past … countries are less likely to see democracy emerge, although the latter finding is driven entirely by oil producing Muslim …

democracy disappears once including country fixed effects. This paper tests the hypothesis that the effect of income on … democracy might differ systematically across countries. A replication of the estimation in a less restrictive empirical … framework provides evidence for significant but heterogeneous effects of income on democracy for former colonies and non …