Political Regimes, Economic Freedom, Institutions and Growth

2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdiweli M. Ali ◽  
W. Mark Crain

Abstract The impact of political systems on economic growth cannot be understood solely in terms of a simple distinction between democratic and non-democratic regimes. The democratic character of the political regime may be irrelevant when economic freedom is assessed independently from political freedom and civil liberty. This paper uses newly constructed measures of economic freedom by Gwartney-Lawson-Block [1996]. The empirical results of this paper show that economic freedom contributes to economic growth irrespective of the nature of the political regime. The empirical results also indicate that the effect of democracy on economic growth is ambiguous at best. Nonetheless, democracy may have some effect on economic growth, operating indirectly through the investment channel.

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 501-515
Author(s):  
Prathibha Joshi ◽  
Kris Aaron Beck

AbstractThe BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries generally offer some of the best opportunities for successful investment. We therefore examine the factors that encourage or discourage foreign direct investment (FDI) in these BRICS countries. Some similar studies have evaluated the impact of economic risks on investment; fewer studies have explored the political risks associated with investing or how human development within a country can alter the decision to invest. Our innovation is to look at all of these factors, and hence we investigate how domestic economic growth, measures of economic freedom, degrees of political freedom, cultural factors, and levels of human development influence the likelihood of investment in BRICS countries. We find that economic freedom and urbanization are insignificant, but that GDP, political freedom, gross national income, and secondary education all are significant and positive; cellphone subscriptions show negative and significant results.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Ivana Brkić ◽  
Nikola Gradojević ◽  
Svetlana Ignjatijević

This paper analyzes the impact of economic freedom along with traditional economic factors on economic growth for a panel of European countries. The growth of the gross domestic product was observed over a twenty-year time period on a sample of 43 developing and developed countries. Based on a robust dynamic panel setting, we conclude that increases in economic freedom as expressed by the Index of Economic Freedom/Heritage Foundation (but not its levels) are related to economic growth. The EU membership status either had no effect or it curbed the effect of the economic freedom on growth. We also find that the subprime economic crisis of 2008–2009 exerted a negative impact on the growth of European economies.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1850263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekrem Erdem ◽  
Can Tansel Tugcu

The aim of this paper is to find a new answer to an old question “Is economic freedom good or not for economies?” which was refreshed after the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. For this purpose, the relationship between economic freedom and economic growth, and the relationship between economic freedom and total factor productivity in OECD countries were investigated by using panel data for the period of 1995-2009. Study employed the recently developed cointegration test by Westerlund (2007) and the estimation technique by Bai and Kao (2006) which account for cross-sectional dependence that is an important problem in the panel data studies. Although no significant relationship found between economic freedom and total factor productivity, cointegration analysis revealed that economic freedom matters for economic growth in OECD countries in the long-run, and estimation results showed that direction of the impact is negative.


2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-30
Author(s):  
Mariusz Próchniak

Abstract This study aims at assessing to what extent institutional environment is responsible for worldwide differences in economic growth and economic development. To answer this question, we use an innovative approach based on a new concept of the institutions-augmented Solow model which is then estimated empirically using regression equations. The analysis covers 180 countries during the 1993-2012 period. The empirical analysis confirms a large positive impact of the quality of institutional environment on the level of economic development. The positive link has been evidenced for all five institutional indicators: two indices of economic freedom (Heritage Foundation and Fraser Institute), the governance indicator (World Bank), the democracy index (Freedom House), and the EBRD transition indicator for post-socialist countries. Differences in physical capital, human capital, and institutional environment explain about 70-75% of the worldwide differences in economic development. The institutions-augmented Solow model, however, performs slightly poorer in explaining differences in the rates of economic growth: only one institutional variable (index of economic freedom) has a statistically significant impact on economic growth. In terms of originality, this paper extends the theoretical analysis of the Solow model by including institutions, on the one hand, and shows a comprehensive empirical analysis of the impact of various institutional indicators on both the level of development and the pace of economic growth, on the other. The results bring important policy implications.


Author(s):  
Nicola Contessi

In its 25 years of existence as an independent state, Kazakhstan has had to invent an entire foreign policy. The process was driven by multiple objectives, for a large part aimed at ensuring the success of the broader state-building project: the preservation of national sovereignty, political stability, economic growth, and taking on international responsibilities. This strategy, shaped at once by the nature of the political regime and the constraints of the regional system, was inspired by the convergence of economic, political, and geopolitical considerations. Taking stock of Kazakhstan’s external action, this article finds unexpected correspondence with the key tenets of middle power doctrine, pointing to a widely unacknowledged reading of the country’s external action.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 384-398
Author(s):  
Jorge Guadalupe-Lanas ◽  
Jorge Cruz-Cárdenas ◽  
Patricio Arévalo-Chávez ◽  
Andrés Palacio-Fierro

Purpose This study aims to analyze the influence of political regime on economic growth. Design/methodology/approach The methodology was based on an inter-period comparison of the evolution of macroeconomic fundamentals in three different political regimes in Ecuador, a South American country. Findings The results showed that what determines the evolution of macroeconomic fundamentals is not the political regime that oversees it, but the size of a positive exogenous shock on the price of raw materials, which, by providing higher incomes, considerably increases the level of investment and net exports. However, the political regime does affect the distribution of income in sectors such as health and education. Originality/value As far as the authors know, this may be the first paper to explore the importance of a positive exogenous shock on a political regime for the case of primary-exporting Latin American economies, which are price takers subject to exogenous shocks.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Noviello ◽  
Sameer Menghani ◽  
Maksym Bondarenko ◽  
Bhushan Mohanraj ◽  
Oliver Solensky ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated people’s lives around the globe and, even with the start of vaccination efforts in late 2020, the virus is likely to continue to affect global economies and individual routines long after the end of 2021. As a result, numerous pandemic-related analyses have been completed. However, few of these studies focus on the impact of pre-existing societal and economic factors that may have played a role in the spread of COVID-19. This study evaluated the impact of social and economic freedoms, gross domestic product, and population density in nations around the world on COVID-19 cases, deaths, testing and vaccination rates. Methods To explore the effects of social and economic freedoms, gross domestic product, and other parameters on the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple datasets, including the Economic Freedom Index and the Human Freedom Index were used, along with COVID-19 data, to examine both direct and indirect relationships. The K-Means clustering algorithm was used for many analyses. Results High economic and social freedoms were associated with increased numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths throughout 2020. Countries within the highest category of economic freedoms reported their first COVID-19 case 44 days before and their first virus death 91 days before low-economic-freedom nations, on average. Countries with the highest overall freedoms exhibited average COVID-19-stringency scores of 4.4, 12.85, and 4.49 points less than countries in the lowest freedom categories for the Spring, Summer, and Fall of 2020, respectively, representing less strict pandemic responses. Despite these relationships, countries with higher overall freedoms had a lower average fatality rate of 2.03% compared with countries in the lower freedom categories of up to 2.98%. Freedoms were also shown to correlate with other pandemic-influencing factors, including GDP, political systems, and population density. Conclusion High economic and social freedoms were associated with increased numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths throughout 2020. Future analyses should address whether the enjoyment of freedoms can be balanced with the preservation of safety to improve responses to future pandemics.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-73
Author(s):  
Nur Siti Annazah ◽  
Bambang Juanda ◽  
Sri Mulatsih

Redenomination is a simplification of the nominal value of the currency by reducing digits (zeros) without reducing the real value of the currency. The research was done because of the theoretical and empirical results are still a debate about the impact of redenomination policy on the economic perspective. This is due to the redenomination policy in each country has a different effect depending on economic conditions when redenomination is applied. The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors that influence the success of the redenomination of a country. Data used in the form of secondary data, historical data of 32 countries that have conducted redenomination. The analysis used is multiple regression. The results showed the better the condition of economic growth when redenomination is applied, it will lower inflation one year after the redenomination. Keywords: Economic growth, Inflation, Redenomination, Regression


Author(s):  
Gunārs Ozolzīle

A democratic political system can be sustainable and stable only if it has society’s support that is based on legitimacy. So far, the attention of Latvian researchers has mostly been devoted to the so-called “ratings” of separate political institutions and politicians, but no attempt has been undertaken to investigate the political system as a whole through the prism of legitimacy. The aim of the present article is to explore whether there is a sufficient resource of legitimacy of the Latvian political system in order to provide stability and efficiency of the regime. The empirical basis of the research mostly consists of the results of the sociological research conducted in Latvia during the past six years (2011–2016). The data analysis of the present research is based on David Easton and Pippa Norris’ conceptual approach to the study of legitimacy of political systems. One of the conclusions that can be made is that the political system of Latvia is characterised by insufficient diffuse support, which then indicates that the political system experiences the problem of legitimacy. As there is a divided society in Latvia, both communities lack a shared national identity, which could connect the society. In addition, it can be stated that around half of the society is not satisfied with the functioning of the political regime. The analysis performed in the article allows concluding that the trust in political institutions is extremely low and the assessment of the political authority performance is highly negative.


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