Democracy and Reforms: Evidence from a New Dataset
IMF Working Papers, July 1, 2010
Source details
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- Democracy and Reforms: Evidence from a New Dataset
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Antonio Spilimbergo, Paola Giuliano, Prachi Mishra
- Published: July 1, 2010
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781455201846.001
Summary
- Empirical evidence on the relationship between democracy and economic reforms is limited to few reforms, countries, and years.
- This paper studies the impact of democracy on the adoption of economic reforms using a new dataset on reforms in the financial, capital and banking sectors, product markets, agriculture, and trade.
- Sample covers 150 countries over the period 1960 - 2004.
- Main result: Democracy has a positive and significant impact on the adoption of economic reforms.
- No evidence that economic reforms foster democracy.
- Results are robust to the inclusion of a large variety of controls and estimation strategies.
Data and scope
- Sectors covered: financial, capital and banking sectors, product markets, agriculture, and trade.
- Coverage: 150 countries.
- Time period: 1960 - 2004.
- Publication details: Pages: 39; Volume: 2010; Issue: 173; Series: Working Paper No. 2010/173; DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781455201846.001; Stock No: WPIEA2010173; ISBN: 9781455201846; ISSN: 1018-5941.
Key findings
- Democracy → adoption of economic reforms: positive and significant relationship.
- Economic reforms → democracy: no evidence of a fostering effect.
- Robustness: findings hold after adding a large variety of controls and applying multiple estimation strategies.
Subject classification and keywords
- Subject: Banking, Commodity markets, Current account, Expenditure, Securities markets
- Keywords: country, democracy, Lagged democracy, WP
This content unit summarizes "Democracy and Reforms: Evidence from a New Dataset" (IMF Working Papers) by Antonio Spilimbergo, Paola Giuliano, Prachi Mishra, July 1, 2010.