Do Autocratic States Trade Less?

Toke Aidt and Martin Gassebner

No 07-175, KOF Working papers from KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich

Abstract: The paper analyzes whether the political regime of a country influences its involvement in international trade. Firstly, we develop a theoretical model that predicts that autocracies trade less than democracies. Secondly, we test the predictions of the model empirically using a panel of more than 130 countries for the years 1962 to 2000. In contrast to the existing literature, we use data on individual importing and exporting countries, rather than a dyadic set-up. In line with the model, we find that autocracies import substantially less than democracies, even after controlling for official trade policies. This finding is very stable and does not depend on a particular set-up or estimation technique.

Keywords: International trade; Democracy; Autocracy; Gravity model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2007-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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http://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-005476226 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Do Autocratic States Trade Less? (2010)
Working Paper: Do Autocratic States Trade Less? (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kof:wpskof:07-175

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