The purpose of this paper is to empirically determine the effects of political instability on economic growth. Using the system-GMM estimator for linear dynamic panel data models on a sample covering up to 169 countries, and 5-year periods from 1960 to 2004, we find that higher degrees of political instability are associated with lower growth rates of GDP per capita. Regarding the channels of transmission, we find that political instability adversely affects growth by lowering the rates of productivity growth and, to a smaller degree, physical and human capital accumulation. Finally, economic freedom and ethnic homogeneity are beneficial to growth, while democracy may have a small negative effect.

The Hoover Institution of Stanford University in California, presents the full text of the paper entitled "Political Instability as a Source of Growth," written by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita. The paper is part of the Essays in Public Policy resource. The paper discusses the high leadership turnover associated with high economic growth both in autocracy and democracy.

The main theme of this study is chosen in response to the general consensus on the importance of conducting a comprehensive study that may shape the economic policies and promote the business sector as well as the government and other organizations. However, the key question posed by this study is whether the theory that political stability fosters economic development is simply the wishful thinking of people who value both stability and growth or whether it is a delusion of those who believe that most developing countries may enjoy rapid growth if they are stable. The importance of this study is clear: South Sudan is confronted with enormous challenges of administrative, ethnic, political, and economic development. In light of this, the current study addresses the following issues: "What is the impact of the political system in South Sudan on economic development? What is the impact of oil resources on sustainable development? What is the impact of the oil shutdown on political and economic stability, and what is the possibility of deficit financing? Is there any possibility for cooperation between Sudan and South Sudan?" In this context, the major objective of this study is to analyze the political development of the country to verify that political stability fosters the achievement of economic and social development. It also seeks to analyse the political history of Sudan in general and South Sudan in particular, emphasising the importance of political stability, among other considerations, as a precondition for socioeconomic development. Furthermore, other objectives of the study include suggestions on how political stability could be ensured in South Sudan and how good governance may promote political and economic stability. In light of the above, this study focuses on the issues of the political transition and policies that will improve the economic, political, and social well-being of the people of South Sudan. It seeks ways of setting up policies that will raise the standard of living of people with sustained growth and move from a simple, low-income economy to a modern, high-income economy. It also attempts to develop a framework for cooperation between Sudan and South Sudan. The methodology that is adopted to address these issues is collecting, sorting, and analysing primary and secondary information relating to the history of political and economic development in South Sudan, using empirical approaches such as SWOT analysis, information sources, references, and books. However, this study is organized as follows: chapter 1 discusses political stability and economic development in a theoretical framework through which we explore the empirical analysis; it is divided into four sections. Section 1 focuses on definition, causes, and measurement of political stability with an aim to assess the effect of political stability on growth-related variables. In section 2, we define the concept of political instability and measure it by using indicators like the number of coups d'état, the number of major government crises, the number of cabinet changes, and the number of political revolutions as well as political assassinations. Section 3 discusses the concept and definition of economic development and summarizes the major theories of economic development in five fundamental elements. The last section explores the implications of financing economic development by discussing domestic resources (including deficit financing) and foreign financial resources and the role of each of them in achieving economic development. Chapter 2 presents the political and social background of South Sudan is divided into three sections. Section 1 discusses South Sudan's ability to function and successfully implement its policies and strategic vision for the year 2040. Section 2 focuses on the demographic structure of South Sudan in terms of population, education, languages, and culture. Section 3 discusses the social indicators such as infrastructure, poverty, and corruption which affect improving social welfare as well as the political stability and economic development of the Republic of South Sudan. Chapter 3 focuses on the South Sudan economy and the challenges. Here we discuss the political and development challenges facing South Sudan as well as the investment opportunities. This chapter discusses the major challenges which face South Sudan, especially issues such as border demarcation, political reform, and oil shutdown as well as investment opportunities in oil and agriculture. In chapter 4, we discuss South Sudan's oil and economic development. It focuses on oil resources and their impact on sustainable development, the impact of oil shutdown on political and economic development and the possibility of deficit financing. In chapter 5, we discuss the future of stability and prosperity in South Sudan. It discusses how good governance and cooperation can be enormously beneficial to South Sudan in the process of building sustainable political and economic stability and what South Sudan can learn from other countries. The major findings of this study are as follows: - Political stability plays an important role in determining economic growth and economic development in many economies. - The degree of political stability is high if there is a high degree of democracy or autocracy. - Strong democracies or strong autocracies are best equipped to provide political stability that may lead to economic development. It is then the level of political stability within a given country, regardless of regime type, that results in economic growth. - Long-term sustainable economic growth depends on the ability to raise the rates of accumulation of physical and human capital by securing necessary sources (domestic, foreign, or deficit finance) to use efficiently for financing economic development. - Most economists view corruption as a major obstacle to development. It is seen as one of the causes of low income and is believed to play a critical role in generating poverty traps (e.g., Blackburn et al. 2006). Thus, corruption, according to this view, "sands" the wheels of development and it makes economic and political transitions difficult. - Not only is good governance critical to development, but it is also the most important factor in determining whether a country has the capacity to use resources effectively to promote economic growth and reduce poverty.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the dynamic effect of social and political instability on output. Using a panel of up to 183 countries from 1980 to 2010, the results of the paper suggest that social conflicts have a significant and negative impact on output in the short-term with the magnitude of the effect being a function of the intensity of political instability. The results also show that the recovery of output over the medium-term depends on the ability of the country to implement, in the aftermath of a social instability episode, reforms aimed at improving the level of governance. The results are robust to different checks and estimation strategies.

This paper investigates the relationship between political instability and per capita GDP growth in a sample of 113 countries for the period 1950-1982. We define?political instability? as the propensity of a government collapse, and we estimate a model in which political instability and economic growth are jointly determined. The main result of this paper is that in countries and time periods with a high propensity of government collapse, growth is significantly lower than otherwise. This effect remains strong when we restrict our definition of?government change? to cases of substantial changes of the government.

This book explains the lifecycle of terrorist organizations from an innovative theoretical perspective, combining economics with social psychology. It provides a new approach to understanding human behaviour in organized society, and then uses this to analyze the forces shaping the lifecycle of violent political movements. Economic and rational-choice theorists assume that human beings are motivated only by self-utility, yet terrorism is ultimately an altruistic act in the eyes of its participants. This book highlights the importance of the desire to belong to a group as a motivating factor, and argues that all of us face an eternal trade-off between selfishness and community concern. This hypothesis is explored through four key groups; the IRA in Northern Ireland, Al Qaeda, Hamas, and the Naxalites in India. Through this, the book analyzes the birth, growth, transformation and demise of violent political movements, and ends with an analysis of the conditions which determine the outcome of the war against terrorism. Understanding Terrorism and Political Violence will be essential reading for advanced students of terrorism studies and political science, and of great interest to students of social psychology and sociology.

We provide evidence that political instability deteriorates economic growth. We establish this result based on panel difference-in-differences strategies and dynamic panel data models using a large sample of 180 countries, a novel geocoded dataset for 2,660 regions, and micro data for about 250,000 households. We exploit coups d'état as a source of exogenous variation in political instability, as they are difficult to anticipate, mirror the political zeitgeist, and reduce measurement error. We use spatial variations and synthetic control methods for identification and find that periods of instability reduce growth by 2-3 percentage points, increase unemployment, and impair health and life satisfaction. The adverse effects are stronger for women than for men.

This book addresses a puzzle in political economy: why is it that political instability does not necessarily translate into economic stagnation or collapse? In order to address this puzzle, it advances a theory about property rights systems in many less developed countries. In this theory, governments do not have to enforce property rights as a public good. Instead, they may enforce property rights selectively (as a private good), and share the resulting rents with the group of asset holders who are integrated into the government. Focusing on Mexico, this book explains how the property rights system was constructed during the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship (1876-1911) and then explores how this property rights system either survived, or was reconstructed. The result is an analytic economic history of Mexico under both stability and instability, and a generalizable framework about the interaction of political and economic institutions.