Arbeitspapier
No country for old men: Aging dictators and economic growth
This paper develops a model of the relationship between the age of a dictator and economic growth. In the model a dictator must spread the resources of the economy over his reign but faces mortality and political risk. The model shows that if the time horizon of the dictator decreases, either due to an increase of mortality risk or political risk, the economic growth rate decreases. The model predictions are supported by empirical evidence based on a threeway fixed effects model including country, year and dictator fixed effects for a sample of dictators from 116 countries. These results are robust to sample selection, the tenure of dictators, the definition of dictatorship, and a broad set of economic growth determinants.
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: KOF Working Papers ; No. 289
- Classification
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Wirtschaft
Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government
Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
Institutions and Growth
- Subject
-
Aging
economic growth
government performance
political instability
political leaders
Diktatur
Staatsoberhaupt
Sterblichkeit
Wirtschaftswachstum
Politische Stabilität
Systemvergleich
Welt
- Event
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
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Jong-A-Pin, Richard
Mierau, Jochen O.
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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ETH Zurich, KOF Swiss Economic Institute
- (where)
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Zurich
- (when)
-
2011
- DOI
-
doi:10.3929/ethz-a-006668259
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET
Data provider
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Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Jong-A-Pin, Richard
- Mierau, Jochen O.
- ETH Zurich, KOF Swiss Economic Institute
Time of origin
- 2011