Democracy and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Indonesia
利用印度尼西亚地区政治体制变革的准随机变化，研究发现民主化通过改善地方商业法规和营商环境，提高了企业生产率，从而促进经济增长。
Abstract While recent work suggests democracy does cause growth, the channels through which this effect occurs remain unclear. Exploiting quasi-random variation in the timing of district-level political regime changes induced by the collapse of President Suharto's government, we study the microlevel drivers of the democracy-growth relationship. Using Indonesian firm-level data, we find that democratization leads to an increase in firm productivity, a critical determinant of economic growth. Furthermore we find evidence of an improvement in the quality of local business regulations and the business environment for firms.