Political liberty and social development: An empirical investigation

Macroeconomic determinants of growth: new measurement and evidence on the effect of political freedom

“…Dick (1974) finds no conclusive empirical evidence to support the view that authoritarian states are universally capable of achieving faster growth than countries with competitive political institutions. Vorhies and Glahe (1988) estimate positive correlations between measures of socio-economic development and political freedom and emphasize the complementary relationship between political and economic rights as theorized by Hayek (1944) and Friedman (1962). Pourgerami (1988) estimates a positive causal relationship between democracy and growth and concludes that the establishment of genuine democracy and expansion of freedom will enable individuals to participate more actively in the process of improving the quality of human life.…”

Democracy, property rights and economic growth

“…Six additional papers outside the two literature reviews continue the uncertain pattern. Bilson [1982], Vorhies and Glahe [1988], and Pourgerami and Assane [1992] uncover a positive association; Goldsmith [1994] and Burkhart and Lewis-Beck [1994] detect none; while Mbaku [1994] One reason for the divergent outcomes from empirical studies may be that democratic institutions combine with other behavioural rules to boost or hinder growth. Capitalist societies need certain regularised, publicly sanctioned codes of business conduct for their economies to function smoothly.…”

Religion, liberty and economic development: An empirical investigation

“…In a previous study (Vorhies and Glahe, 1987), we investigated the relationship between political liberty and economic development for the world. In that study, as in this, the 150 most populated countries in the world were considered.…”