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What does political economy tell us about economic development - and vice versa?

Philip Keefer

No 3250, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: The author reviews how three pillars of political economy-collective action, institutions, and political market imperfections-help us answer the question: Why do some countries develop and others do not? Each makes tremendous advances in our understanding of who wins and who loses in government decision making, generally, but only a subset of this literature helps us answer the question. The study of political market imperfections strongly suggests that the lack of credibility of pre-electoral political promises and incomplete voter information are especially robust in explaining development outcomes. From the institutional literature, the most powerful explanation of contrasting development outcomes links political checks and balances to the credibility of government commitments.

Keywords: Parliamentary Government; Decentralization; National Governance; Environmental Economics&Policies; Economic Theory&Research; National Governance; Economic Theory&Research; Parliamentary Government; Environmental Economics&Policies; Governance Indicators (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-03-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-hpe, nep-pke and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

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