Citation

Discussion Paper Details

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Title: Populist Leaders and the Economy

Author(s): Manuel Funke, Moritz Schularick and Christoph Trebesch

Publication Date: October 2020

Keyword(s): institutions, populism and protectionism

Programme Area(s): Economic History, International Macroeconomics and Finance, International Trade and Regional Economics, Macroeconomics and Growth, Monetary Economics and Fluctuations and Public Economics

Abstract: Populism at the country level is at an all-time high, with more than 25% of nations currently governed by populists. How do economies perform under populist leaders? We build a new cross-country database identifying 50 populist presidents and prime ministers 1900-2018. We find that the economic cost of populism is high. After 15 years, GDP per capita is more than 10% lower compared to a plausible non-populist counterfactual. Rising economic nationalism and protectionism, unsustainable macroeconomic policies, and institutional decay under populist rule do lasting damage to the economy.

For full details and related downloads, please visit: https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=15405

Bibliographic Reference

Funke, M, Schularick, M and Trebesch, C. 2020. 'Populist Leaders and the Economy'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=15405