Political systems, regime memory, and economic freedom

Abstract

AbstractWe expand on the economic research about regime types, culture, institutions, and economic freedom, with the development of a unique measure of regime memory and examine the generational effect of past regimes on a country's level of economic freedom. Using a panel of 144 countries between 1970 and 2015 we follow the literature and argue that institutions can be fast and slow‐moving. We find evidence that regime memory promotes improvements in (discourages) economic freedom for countries that are historically democratic (autocratic).