The School of Economics invites you to a HDR seminar by Matthew Ho (University of Sydney).

Democracy and Development in America: Evidence from counties in the United States, 1790 to 1990

Abstract

Do inclusive political institutions create incentives for a society’s leaders to provide a wide range of public goods that are conducive to development?

The central argument of this paper is that inclusive political institutions provide incentives for leaders to pursue policies that maximises benefits for society. Institutions that restrict participation provide incentives for leaders to maximise their own welfare by delivering private benefits for themselves and their key supporters, generally at the expense of the broader population. However, inclusive institutions provides incentives for leaders to provide public goods, such as policies that support economic growth and development, that deliver benefits to a wide cross section of society, in order to win and retain office.

The purpose of this paper is to investigating the relationship between institutions and development in counties within the United States using a database spanning over two hundred years from the late eighteenth century to the late twentieth century.