This study first uses a set of graphs and tables to present the pattern of democracy in the world, using the Gastil Index. Then a statistical analysis is conducted by two techniques: Regression techniques are used to analyze the effect on democracy of a handful of variables. It shows that...

Long-run development (in income) causes a large fall in the share of agriculture commonly known as the agricultural transition. We confirm that this conventional wisdom is strongly supported by the data. Long-run development (in income) also causes a large increase in democracy known as the...

The aid effectiveness literature (AEL) consists of empirical macroeconomic estimates of the effects of development aid. By the end of 2004, it comprised 97 econometric studies of three families of related effects. Each family has been analyzed in a separate meta-analysis. The AEL is an ideal...

Prehistoric measures of biogeography are used as instruments for modern income levels. We find that our instrumented incomes explain the cross-country pattern of corruption just as well as actual incomes, so the long-run causality appears to be entirely from income to corruption.

We consider the empirical relevance of two opposing hypotheses on the causality between income and democracy: The Democratic Transition hypothesis claims that rising incomes cause a transition to democracy, whereas the Critical Junctures hypothesis denies this causal relation. Our empirical...

The complex pattern of Market Orientation of the 275 Danish municipalities is analyzed. An MO-variable is constructed from a poll covering 12 tasks, where municipalities are free to produce the service or purchase it on the market. Six potential explanations of the MO-pattern are...

It is well known that the average government loses votes--the so-called cost of ruling. The authors show that the loss can be explained as a perfectly rational demand for change in a median voter model once the model is amended to let the two parties be visibly different. Copyright 1995 by...