The transparency curse: Private information and political freedom

TY - JOUR

T1 - The transparency curse

T2 - Private information and political freedom

AU - Londregan, John B.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2015 University of Venice.

PY - 2015/9/1

Y1 - 2015/9/1

N2 - I offer a model of the sustainability of authoritarian rule in which the transparency of productive economic activity enables the ruler to distinguish productive economic activity from preparations for rebellion. The less transparent the productive technology the greater the economic side effects of maintaining authoritarian rule, and the stronger the incentives to liberalize the regime. Using a cross section of countries I provide evidence that, consistently with the theory, democratic government Granger causes internet penetration.

AB - I offer a model of the sustainability of authoritarian rule in which the transparency of productive economic activity enables the ruler to distinguish productive economic activity from preparations for rebellion. The less transparent the productive technology the greater the economic side effects of maintaining authoritarian rule, and the stronger the incentives to liberalize the regime. Using a cross section of countries I provide evidence that, consistently with the theory, democratic government Granger causes internet penetration.

KW - Democracy

KW - Dictatorship

KW - Political economy

KW - Transparency curse

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84942192836&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84942192836&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.rie.2015.04.002

DO - 10.1016/j.rie.2015.04.002

M3 - Article

SN - 1090-9443

VL - 69

SP - 412

EP - 438

JO - Research in Economics

JF - Research in Economics

IS - 3

ER -