The Quality of Government

Andrei Shleifer and Robert Vishny
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes ()

Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers from Harvard - Institute of Economic Research

Abstract: We investigate empirically the determinants of the quality of governments in a large cross-section of countries. We assess government performance using measures of government intervention, public sector efficiency, public good provision, size of government, and political freedom. We find that countries that are poor, close to the equator, ethnolinguistically heterogeneous, use French or socialist laws, or have high proportions of Catholics or Muslims exhibit inferior government performance. We also find that the larger governments tend to be the better performing ones. The importance of historical factors in explaining the variation in government performance across countries sheds light on the economic, political, and cultural theories of institutions.

Date: 1998
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (132)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Quality of Government (1999)
Working Paper: The quality of government (1999)
Working Paper: The Quality of Goverment (1998)
Working Paper: The Quality of Government
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fth:harver:1847

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