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Political Ideology and Economic Growth: Evidence from the French Democracy

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  • François Facchini

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UP11 - Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11)

  • Mickaël Melki

    (THEMA - Théorie économique, modélisation et applications - UCP - Université de Cergy Pontoise - Université Paris-Seine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract
We provide a test of the impact of voters' political ideology on economic growth and of the role of preferences for government size as a transmission channel. We focus on France from the beginning of its stable democratic experience in 1871. A move of voters' ideology to the right increases economic growth over the total observation period. However, the growth effect of ideology is mediated by voters' preferences for government size only during the post-World War II period. For reverse causality concerns, we use the political ideology of other historical democracies as an instrument variable for France's ideology.

Suggested Citation

  • François Facchini & Mickaël Melki, 2014. "Political Ideology and Economic Growth: Evidence from the French Democracy," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-01286702, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-01286702
    DOI: 10.1111/ecin.12100
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    Cited by:

    1. Bjørnskov, Christian & Rode, Martin, 2016. "And Yet It Grows: Crisis, Ideology, and Interventionist Policy Ratchets," Working Paper Series 1135, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    2. Facchini, François & Seghezza, Elena, 2018. "Public spending structure, minimal state and economic growth in France (1870–2010)," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 151-164.
    3. Ali Sarkhosh-Sara & Khadije Nasrollahi & Karim Azarbayjani & Rasul Bakhshi Dastjerdi, 2020. "Comparative analysis of the effects of institutional factors and Piketty’s Hypothesis on inequality: evidence from a panel of countries," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 9(1), pages 1-28, December.
    4. Bergh, Andreas & Dackehag, Margareta & Rode, Martin, 2017. "Are OECD policy recommendations for public sector reform biased against welfare states? Evidence from a new database," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 3-15.
    5. Melki, Mickael & Pickering, Andrew, 2019. "New evidence on the historical growth of government in Europe: The role of labor costs," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 445-460.
    6. Oliver Bachmann & Klaus Gründler & Niklas Potrafke & Ruben Seiberlich, 2021. "Partisan bias in inflation expectations," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 186(3), pages 513-536, March.
    7. Gabriel Asante, 2023. "The Politics of Social Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Configurational Approach to Fee-Free Policies at the High School Level," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, July.
    8. Vincent Tawiah & Abdulrasheed Zakari, 2024. "Government political ideology and green innovation: evidence from OECD countries," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1-22, June.
    9. Pál Czeglédi, 2017. "Productivity, institutions, and market beliefs: three entrepreneurial interpretations," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 6(2), pages 164-180, August.
    10. Facchini, Francois & Couvreur, Stéphane, 2015. "Inequality: The original economic sin of capitalism? An Evaluation of Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the twenty-first century"," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 281-287.
    11. Pál Czeglédi & Carlos Newland, 2018. "How Is The Pro†Capitalist Mentality Globally Distributed?," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 240-256, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    economic growth; France; ideology; public spending;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E6 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth
    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government

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