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Discussion Paper Details

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Title: Free Trade Agreements and the Consolidation of Democracy

Author(s): Xuepeng Liu and Emanuel Ornelas

Publication Date: January 2013

Keyword(s): political regimes, Regionalism, rent destruction and trade liberalization

Programme Area(s): Development Economics and International Trade and Regional Economics

Abstract: We study the relationship between participation in free trade agreements (FTAs) and the sustainability of democracy. Our model shows that FTAs can critically reduce the incentive of authoritarian groups to seek power by destroying protectionist rents, thus making democracies last longer. This gives governments in unstable democracies an extra motive to form FTAs. Hence, greater democratic instability induces governments to boost their FTA commitments. In a dataset with 116 countries over 1960-2007, we find robust support for these predictions. They help to rationalize the rapid simultaneous growth of regionalism and of worldwide democratization since the late 1980s.

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Bibliographic Reference

Liu, X and Ornelas, E. 2013. 'Free Trade Agreements and the Consolidation of Democracy'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=9279