"The Economic Effects of Democracy and Dictatorship"

The project will take place from January through April at the Department of Political Science at Columbia University, New York. This project is part of my doctoral work on the economic effects of different political regime types. This project will more s pecifically include novel work on the reciprocal relationship between democracy and income inequality. The previous literature has generally focused on either the isolated effect from democracy on inequality, or from inequality on democratization or democ ratic stability. This project aims to model the complex interrelationship theoretically. The implications from the theoretical model will be tested through utilizing methodology that incorporates the reciprocal, causal nature of the interrelationship. F inding proper instruments for inequality that allows me to pursue this empirical strategy is the anticipated most critical challenge. The project also includes further revision of previous work on the economic effects of political regimes. This includes work on how democracy and dictatorship affect technological change, and on how dictators' political survival strategies affect economic policies, and thus economic outcomes. In addition to this output, I aim at upgrading substantial and methodological s kills relevant for the research project during the project period. I will participate in two or three Ph.D. courses at Columbia University.