Inequality and the Instability of Polity and Policy

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9705897
AutoresPushan Dutt (0000-0003-3912-3721, INSEAD), Devashish Mitra (0000-0003-3842-3386, Syracuse University, NBER and IZA)
Año2008
Volumen118
Número531
Páginas1285-1314
Fecha de publicación2008-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Economic Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0013-0133 • E-ISSN: 1468-0297
EditorialOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-0297.2008.02170.x
OpenAlexW3124561683
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas11
Referencias citadas36

We create alternative measures of political instability, which capture only movements from dictatorship to democracy and vice versa and, unlike older, well-known measures, does not capture government changes that preserve the democratic or dictatorial structure of the country. We show that inequality is positively correlated with our measures of political instability as well as with a well-known measure (used by Alesina and Perotti) but the impact of inequality on the latter is only through components of political instability captured by our measures. We show that our measures have significant policy implications - political instability increases both fiscal and trade polity volatility. Copyright (C) The Author(s). Journal compilation (C) Royal Economic Society 2008

Democracy · Dictatorship · Econometrics · Economic inequality · Economics · Inequality · Instability · Keynesian economics · Political economy · Political instability · Political science · Politics · Polity · Volatility (finance · Corruption and Economic Development · Global Financial Crisis and Policies · Law · Mathematics · Monetary Policy and Economic Impact