Democratization and the size of government: evidence from the long 19th century |
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Authors: | Toke S. Aidt Peter S. Jensen |
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Affiliation: | 1. Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 9DD, UK 2. Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230, Odense M, Denmark
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Abstract: | We study the consequences of franchise extension and ballot reform for the size of government in Western Europe between 1820 and 1913. We find that franchise extension exhibits a U-shaped association with revenue per capita and a positive association with spending per capita. Instrumental variables estimates, however, suggest that the U-shaped relationship may be non-causal and our fixed effects estimates point to substantial cross-country heterogeneity. Further, we find that the secret ballot did not matter for tax revenues per capita but might have expanded the size of government relative to GDP. |
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