Civil liberties and economic development
نویسنده
چکیده
Skepticism prevails among a substantial number of economists over a possible connection between civil liberties and the level of economic activity. Until now, empirical research on economic growth has found mixed evidence on the influence of civil liberties. Disaggregation of the Freedom House Civil Liberties Index allows a fresh empirical look at the effect of human rights on long-term growth or economic development. Our results show that one of the four subcategories of the index outperforms all available indicators of property rights institutions in explaining long-term economic growth. This subcategory, Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights, captures the level of second generation human rights that affect the mobility of individuals with respect to housing, employment and university education, as well as the level of protection of property rights. This result is robust with respect to reverse causation, important omitted variables such as geography and human capital, as well as to a variety of sensitivity tests. We also discuss in our conceptual framework how civil liberties work as an indicator of the prevalence of the rule of law and how the latter affects growth or development as an essential public input.
منابع مشابه
آزادی‌های مدنی و توسعه حسابداری
آزادی مدنی می‌تواند موجب رشد و شفافیت روابط انسان‌ها، کار گروهی، مقررات و قوانین، ظرفیت‌های اجتماعی و ایجاد فرصت‌های برابر و در نهایت عدالت اجتماعی گردد. حسابداری حرفه‌ای است متأثر از محیط اجتماعی، اقتصادی و سیاسی که این اثرات موجب تغییر در حرفه حسابداری می‌گردد. هدف این مقاله مطالعه اثر شاخص‌های مختلف آزادی‌های مدنی در قالب آزادی بیان، آزادی سازمان‌ها، حاکمیت قانون و آزادی اشخاص بر توسعه حسابد...
متن کاملInstitutional Quality , Reforms and Integration in the Maghreb
Using panel data this paper examines the effects of institutions on the success of reforms and integration in the Maghreb. Institutional quality measures are developed using fuzzy-set based transformations of civil liberties and political rights. We posit that these transformations are quite appropriate given the nature of freedom indicators. We show that using fuzzy-set transformed measures pr...
متن کاملHuman Rights and Development – An International Political Economy Perspective
This research note provides a critical review of the recent literature on the consequences of development and democratization for the protection of human rights. It identifies common lessons and grounds for further research in the field. This literature takes a series of paradoxes that challenge conventional wisdom regarding the relationship between development and democratization as its starti...
متن کاملDo Transnational Organizations Promote Civil and Political Liberties? Cross-National Evidence from Southeast Asia, 1978-2002
We explore the impact of a growing presence of transnational organizations upon civil and political liberties. Building upon previous world-polity research we evaluate qualitative and quantitative evidence from Southeast Asia between 1978 and 2002. We extend world-polity research by statistically evaluating the hypothesized influence of transnational organizations upon civil and political life,...
متن کامل