Political Regimes and Economic Growth

Are political regimes drivers of economic growth? While political institutions are influenced by economic development, they are in turn a key determinant of the development process. This study builds in the Neoclassical Growth theory to identify the influence of political regimes on economic development through a panel data sample of 170 countries from 1960 to 2000. Results suggest that once fixed effects are considered, the positive relationship between income per capita and political regimes measured by different democracy variables disappears.