Political Institutions and Economic Development, 1800-2000

该项目的目的是通过收集和分析可追溯到世纪初的数据，重新审视政治制度对经济发展的影响。核心问题是，通过保障产权、协调投资或让统治者对公民负责，政治制度是否会影响发展的速度和模式。这些数据将按年度涵盖1918年以后任何时候存在的所有国家从1800年至今的情况。这些数据将联合收割机把最初收集的关于政治机构和事件的资料与现有来源的经济和社会统计数字结合起来。虽然政治体制对发展的影响最近已成为一个深入研究的主题，但由于体制可能因发展而改变，这些研究未能成功地解决问题。 为了解决制度内生性带来的计量经济学困难，有必要考虑每个国家的整个历史经验：殖民地背景（如果有的话）、独立时继承或建立的制度框架、国家在国际劳动分工中的原始地位以及随后的政治和经济变革。此外，由于每一种计量经济学方法都是基于特定的假设，因此必须利用各种技术来评估答案是否可靠。更广泛的影响项目的贡献应该是三方面的。首先，它应阐明政治体制和经济发展的共同动力，从而澄清具体体制安排在促进或阻碍生产投入和技术变革的发展方面的作用。第二，该项目将建立一个独特的数据库，其中载有关于现代政治机构历史变革的详细信息。这个数据库应该是普遍感兴趣的研究人员寻求了解历史的影响，随后的政治和经济轨迹的特定国家。最后，该项目应阐明在将政治机构转移到不同环境中所涉及的政策问题。

The aim of the project is to re-examine the impact of political institutions on economic development by collecting and analyzing data going back to the early nineteenth century. The central question is whether -- by securing property rights, coordinating investment, or rendering rulers accountable to citizens -- political institutions affect the pace and the patterns of development. The data will cover on an annual basis the period from 1800 to the present for all countries that existed at any time after 1918. These data will combine originally collected information about political institutions and events with economic and social statistics from existing sources. While the impact of political institutions on development has recently become a subject of intensive scrutiny, these studies have not succeeded in resolving problems due to the possibility that institutions may change as a consequence of development. To confront the econometric difficulties arising from the endogeneity of institutions, it is necessary to consider the entire historical experience of each country: its colonial background, if any, the institutional framework inherited or established at independence, the original place of the country in the international division of labor, and the subsequent political and economic transformations. Moreover, since every econometric approach is based on particular assumptions, a variety of techniques must be utilized to assess whether the answers are robust. Broader Impacts The contribution of the project should be threefold. First, it should elucidate the joint dynamics of political institutions and economic development, hence clarifying the role of specific institutional arrangements in promoting or blocking the development of productive inputs and technological change. Secondly, the project will generate a unique database containing detailed information about historical transformations of modern political institutions. This database should be of general interest to researchers seeking to understand the impact of history on subsequent political and economic trajectories of particular countries. Finally, the project should cast light on the policy issues entailed in transferring political institutions to different contexts.