Democracy

In an article for Bloomberg News, Prof. Daron Acemoglu writes about how countries that democratize tend to see faster rates of economic growth. Acemoglu notes that what tends to spur economic growth is how, “democracies increase taxes and spend more on education and health, preparing the economy to achieve greater productivity in the decades to come.”

According to The Economist, a new paper from Prof. Daron Acemoglu compared growth rates and levels of political freedom, and found that countries undergoing a democratic transition grow faster than their autocratic counterparts. Acemoglu found that permanent democratization, “leads to an increase in GDP per person of about 20% in the subsequent 25 years.”