Populist Leaders and the Economy

Manuel Funke, Moritz Schularick and Christoph Trebesch

No 15405, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: 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 long-run cross-country database to study the macroeconomic history of populism. We identify 51 populist presidents and prime ministers from 1900 to 2020 and show that the economic cost of populism is high. After 15 years, GDP per capita is 10% lower compared to a plausible non-populist counterfactual. Economic disintegration, decreasing macroeconomic stability, and the erosion of institutions typically go hand in hand with populist rule.

Keywords: Populism; Protectionism; Institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E60 N10 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro, nep-his and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Populist Leaders and the Economy (2023)
Working Paper: Populist Leaders and the Economy (2023)
Working Paper: Populist Leaders and the Economy (2023)
Working Paper: Populist Leaders and the Economy (2022)
Working Paper: Populist Leaders and the Economy (2022)
Working Paper: Populist Leaders and the Economy (2020)
Working Paper: Populist leaders and the economy (2020)
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