Democracy and Economic Development: Disentangling the Effect of Elections and Rule of Law

Abstract

The article provides evidence on how the political settlements - rule of law and elections - would affect the economic development and enhances the economic growth. It empirically investigates whether democracy affects the economic convergence of countries through the quality of institutions: (i) electoral component of democracy, and (ii) rule of law parameters. Investigations differentiate between Islamic and non-Islamic countries. We find that the elections parameter has a first-order effect on economic development; such a relationship is not confirmed for Islamic countries. Rule of law also influences this relationship, but brings less efficient impact to the economic development. Our results are obtained using a sample of 167 countries over the 2010-2012 period.