Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The impact of political regime type on economic growth has attracted considerable scholarly attention over the years. The results of empirical studies into the matter have returned inconsistent findings and offered little in the way of mechanisms to account for any regime-growth effects. I examine the relationship between democracy and economic growth over the 1980 to 2003 period using cross-national quantitative methods on a sample of 64 developing countries. In particular, I explore fertility rates as the critical factor linking regimes and differential growth rates. I then posit and test, against alternative explanatory factors, family planning program effort as the institutional mechanism in the regime-fertility-growth relationship. My results show a significant positive effect of democracy on economic growth over the time period in question, with a significant mediating role for fertility. Analyses also support the hypothesis that family planning program effort functions as the primary mechanism in that relationship. I discuss the implications of my results for the literature and development policy.