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19世纪初的数据，重新审视政治机构对经济发展的影响。核心问题是，通过保护产权、协调投资或让尺子对公民负责，政治制度是否会影响发展的速度和模式。这些数据将涵盖1918年以后任何时候存在的所有国家从1800年到现在的年度数据。这些数据将把最初收集的有关政治机构和事件的信息与现有来源的经济和社会统计数据结合起来。虽然政治机构对发展的影响最近已成为一个密切关注的主题，但这些研究没有成功地解决问题，因为机构可能会因发展而改变。为了应对制度内生性引起的计量经济学困难，有必要考虑每个国家的整个历史经验：其殖民背景(如果有的话)、在独立时继承或建立的制度框架、国家在国际分工中的原始地位，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基于特定的假设，因此必须使用各种技术来评估答案是否稳健。更广泛的影响该项目的贡献应该是三倍的。首先，它应阐明政治体制和经济发展的联合动力，从而澄清具体体制安排在促进或阻碍生产性投入和技术变革发展方面的作用。其次，该项目将生成一个独特的数据库，其中包含有关现代政治机构历史变革的详细信息。试图了解历史对特定国家随后的政治和经济轨迹的影响的研究人员应该普遍对这个数据库感兴趣。最后，该项目应阐明将政治机构转移到不同背景所涉及的政策问题。

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.