Reform Chatter and Democracy

Rabah Arezki, Simeon Djankov, Ha Nguyen and Ivan Yotzov

No 9319, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This paper explores the dynamics of media chatter about economic reforms using text analysis from about a billion newspaper articles in 28 languages. The paper shows that the intensity of reform chatter increases during economic downturns. This increase is more significant in democracies. Using instrumental variable techniques, the analysis finds the relationship to be causal. The paper also documents that reform chatter is followed by actual reforms, suggesting that democracies benefit from a "self-correcting" mechanism stemming from changing popular attitudes toward reform.

Keywords: International Trade and Trade Rules; Trade and Multilateral Issues; Macroeconomic Management; Commodity Risk Management; Government Policies; Quality of Life&Leisure; Social Analysis; Youth and Governance; National Governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-07-13
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Reform chatter and democracy (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9319

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