Abstract

The theoretical and empirical sides of democracy-growth literature fail to offer a consensus on the impact of democracy on growth. This paper provides a disaggregated manufacturing approach that reveals different effects of democracy across industries within countries. I surmise that the interplay between democracy and technological development is crucial to the economic performance of industries. A panel dataset of 61 manufacturing industries from 72 countries between 1990 and 2010 is employed, along with a wide variety of democracy measures. The results point to a technologically-conditioned effect of democracy. Political regime changes towards democracy are growth-enhancing for industries close to the World Technology Frontier but have a negative effect on backward industries. This evidence is robust to specification changes and alternative estimation techniques, and prevails once the possible dynamics of manufacturing growth are tackled.

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.