Arbeitspapier
Populist leaders and the economy
Populism at the country level is at an all-time high, with more than 25% of nations currently governed by populists. How do economies perform under populist leaders? We build a new cross-country database identifying 50 populist presidents and prime ministers 1900-2018. We find that the economic cost of populism is high. After 15 years, GDP per capita is more than 10% lower compared to a plausible non-populist counterfactual. Rising economic nationalism and protectionism, unsustainable macroeconomic policies, and institutional decay under populist rule do lasting damage to the economy.
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: Kiel Working Paper ; No. 2169
- Classification
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Wirtschaft
- Event
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
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Funke, Manuel
Schularick, Moritz
Trebesch, Christoph
- Event
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Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)
- (where)
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Kiel
- (when)
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2020
- Handle
- Last update
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10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET
Data provider
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ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Funke, Manuel
- Schularick, Moritz
- Trebesch, Christoph
- Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)
Time of origin
- 2020
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