 Does sovereignty help economic growth? A recent reassessmentJose Caraballo-Cueto World Development, 2025, vol. 185, issue C Abstract: There is relevant literature that has found that independence harmed economic growth in some former colonies, but there are few to no systematic and recent empirical analyses on the relationship between sovereignty and economic growth. We follow and enhance the Solow–Swan growth model to measure economic convergence with the United States. This model was estimated through feasible generalized least squares panel regressions and robust regressions. These estimations allow us to capture the experience of recent (since the 1950s) sovereignties vis-à-vis long-existing countries and the economic outcomes of democratic sovereignties. We then stratify economies by region and income level and show propensity score matching estimators of recent former colonies with other countries that share similar growth determinants. On average, our parameter estimates suggest that independence causes countries’ per capita income to converge with that of the United States. Initial democratic and economic conditions appear to be among the modifying factors between sovereignty and economic growth. Keywords: Sovereignty; Convergence; Economic growth; Independence; Democracy (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:185:y:2025:i:c:s0305750x24002845 DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106814 Access Statistics for this article World Development is currently edited by O. T. Coomes More articles in World Development from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.