Study
| EST. READ TIME 1 MIN.Populist regimes erode economic freedom, research shows
Populism, Majority Rule, and Economic Freedom
In this chapter from the forthcoming Economic Freedom of the World: 2023 Annual Report, Andrea Celico and Martin Rode of the Universidad de Navarra investigate the relationship between populism and economic freedom, and also consider the potentially mediating roles of institutional constraints and government ideology. Controlling for other determinants, they find that populism in government is significantly associated with reductions in economic freedom for a large sample of democratic countries. They also find that in OECD countries, the negative association between populism and economic freedom seems to be mediated to a substantial degree by political constraints and political ideology. It is possible that institutional guardrails, which are often absent in many non-OECD countries, check the power of populist governments.
-
Andrea Celico
Andrea Celico is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of Navarre (UNAV, Spain), specializing in the fields ofpolitical economy, institutional economy, and public choice. His research is empirical and focuses on topics including populism, party competition, and the impact of institutional designs on cultural traits. He’s recently been a visiting researcher at Heidelberg University (Germany). Andrea is also the holder of a master’s degree in Economics and Finance from the University of Navarre and a master’s degree in European Economy and Business Law from the University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy).… Read more -
Martin Rode
Martin Rode is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Navarra in Pamplona (Spain). Hereceived a doctoral degree in economics from a joint Ph.D. program by the Universities of Cantabria, the Basque Country, and Oviedo in 2012. Martin is also the holder of two undergraduate degrees in Economics and Political Science, both from the University of Innsbruck, Austria. He has been a visiting researcher at Florida State University (USA), Aarhus University (Denmark), and CESifo Group Munich (Germany). Martin’s research and teaching is in the areas of Political Economy, Institutional Economics, and Public Policy. Here, a central question is always how politics and economic reform processes are conditioned by the underlying institutional environments in which they are conducted. His publications have appeared, among others, in Economics and Politics, the European Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Public Choice, Publius-the Journal of Federalism, and Social Indicators Research.… Read more