No country for old men

Richard Jong-A-Pin () and Jochen Mierau

No 11-289, KOF Working papers from KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich

Abstract: This paper develops a model of the relationship between the age of a dictator and economic growth. In the model a dictator must spread the resources of the economy over his reign but faces mortality and political risk. The model shows that if the time horizon of the dictator decreases, either due to an increase of mortality risk or political risk, the economic growth rate decreases. The model predictions are supported by empirical evidence based on a threeway fixed effects model including country, year and dictator fixed effects for a sample of dictators from 116 countries. These results are robust to sample selection, the tenure of dictators, the definition of dictatorship, and a broad set of economic growth determinants.

Keywords: Aging; Economic growth; Government performance; Political instability; Political leaders (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2011-10
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kof:wpskof:11-289

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