Democratic Capital: The Nexus of Political and Economic Change
从理论和实证角度研究民主资本（一国民主历史经验及邻国民主程度）如何降低民主崩溃率、提高独裁退出率，并通过稳定民主促进增长，揭示民主与经济发展的良性循环。
We study the dynamics of economic and political change, theoretically and empirically. Democratic capital measured by a nation's historical experience with democracy, and the incidence of democracy in its neighborhood, appears to reduce exit rates from democracy and raise exit rates from autocracy. Higher democratic capital stimulates growth by increasing the stability of democracies. Heterogeneous effects of democracy induce sorting of countries into political regimes, which helps explain systematic differences between democracies and autocracies. Our results suggest the possibility of a virtuous circle, where accumulation of physical and democratic capital reinforce each other, promoting economic development and consolidation of democracy.