This paper throws new light on the relationship between income and democracy. Using data for 162 countries over 1960-2018, we show that the causal relationship between political and economic development is U-shaped: "intermediate" political regimes significantly lead to inferior economic...

We study the empirical relationship between democracy and growth using grid-based panel regression and regime-transition frameworks. Our set-up nests several existing approaches, such as Barro (1996) and Gerring et al. (2005), and reconciles their conflicting messages in a more general model,...

Key issues in the empirical study on growth are addressed using provincial data in the Philippines. We find a high rate of absolute convergence, a positive relationship between inequality and growth, and a positive relationship between political competitiveness and growth

Key issues in the empirical study on growth are addressed using provincial data in the Philippines. We find a high rate of absolute convergence, a positive relationship between inequality and growth, and a positive relationship between political competitiveness and growth

There is little consensus on the capacity for foreign aid to cause economic growth in developing countries. This is due in large part to the fact that foreign aid recipients are selected by donors, confounding identification. This paper proposes an identification strategy that exploits exogenous...

We analyze when, and to a lesser extent how, privatization occurred in a group of thirty-five low or middle-income developing countries. The theoretical perspective turns on the concept of net political benefits, which in our model is the primary determinant of privatization policies....