Democracy or Dictatorship? Which political system helps economy to grow faster?

Thesis title: Democracy or Dictatorship? Which political system helps economy to grow faster?
Author: Zhadger, Assem
Thesis type: Bachelor thesis
Supervisor: Špecián, Petr
Opponents: Slaný, Martin
Thesis language: English
Abstract:
The thesis concerns the question of the importance of the political system in economic development. My research investigates whether dictatorship or democracy generate higher economic growth. The growth rate is measured by GDP per capita. The discussion starts with a short literature review regarding the political regime and economic prosperity. Afterwards, I summarize earlier statistical evidence and create my own OLS models. The model includes GDP per capita growth as the main independent variable and trade level, population growth, investment rates, and corruption level as dependent variables. The time range is between 2000 and 2019. I select all the states based on their democracy index and data from the world bank. The conclusion is that the dictatorship countries are more successful in term of GDP per capita growth. The corruption level negatively affects the GDP per capita growth under the dictatorship, and the corruption level is lower in democracies. The trade positively influences on dictatorial countries, but negatively effects on states under democracies. In both regimes, the investment level is statistically significant. But in democracies, investment leads to higher growth in comparison with dictatorships. The population growth is insignificant in both political systems. The last thing is years in power negatively impact on GDP per capita growth.
Keywords: GDP per capita; trade; economic development; political system; dictatorship; democracy
Thesis title: Democracy or Dictatorship? Which political system helps economy to grow faster?
Author: Zhadger, Assem
Thesis type: Bakalářská práce
Supervisor: Špecián, Petr
Opponents: Slaný, Martin
Thesis language: English
Abstract:
The thesis concerns the question of the importance of the political system in economic development. My research investigates whether dictatorship or democracy generate higher economic growth. The growth rate is measured by GDP per capita. The discussion starts with a short literature review regarding the political regime and economic prosperity. Afterwards, I summarize earlier statistical evidence and create my own OLS models. The model includes GDP per capita growth as the main independent variable and trade level, population growth, investment rates, and corruption level as dependent variables. The time range is between 2000 and 2019. I select all the states based on their democracy index and data from the world bank. The conclusion is that the dictatorship countries are more successful in term of GDP per capita growth. The corruption level negatively affects the GDP per capita growth under the dictatorship, and the corruption level is lower in democracies. The trade positively influences on dictatorial countries, but negatively effects on states under democracies. In both regimes, the investment level is statistically significant. But in democracies, investment leads to higher growth in comparison with dictatorships. The population growth is insignificant in both political systems. The last thing is years in power negatively impact on GDP per capita growth.
Keywords: economic development; politica system; democracy; trade; GDP per capita growth ; dictatorship

Information about study

Study programme: Ekonomie a hospodářská správa/Economics
Type of study programme: Bakalářský studijní program
Assigned degree: Bc.
Institutions assigning academic degree: Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze
Faculty: Faculty of Economics
Department: Department of Economics

Information on submission and defense

Date of assignment: 25. 2. 2020
Date of submission: 8. 9. 2020
Date of defense: 8. 9. 2020
Identifier in the InSIS system: https://insis.vse.cz/zp/72795/podrobnosti

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