eprintid: 1657
rev_number: 10
eprint_status: archive
userid: 6
dir: disk0/00/00/16/57
datestamp: 2013-09-02 11:23:34
lastmod: 2014-09-04 09:11:19
status_changed: 2013-09-02 11:23:34
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Prati, Alessandro
creators_name: Onorato, Massimiliano Gaetano
creators_name: Papageorgiou, Chris
creators_id: 
creators_id: massimiliano.onorato@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
title: Which Reforms Work and under What Institutional Environment? Evidence from a New Data Set on Structural Reforms
ispublished: pub
subjects: HG
subjects: HJ
divisions: EIC
full_text_status: public
keywords: JEL Classifications: O16, O24, O38, O43
abstract: Are structural reforms growth enhancing? Is the effectiveness of reforms constrained by a country's distance from the technology frontier or by its institutional environment? This paper takes a new and comprehensive look at these questions by employing a novel data set that includes several kinds of real (trade, agriculture, and networks) and financial (domestic finance, banking, securities, and capital account) reforms for an extensive list of developed and developing countries, going back to the early 1970s. First-pass evidence based on growth breaks analysis and on panel growth regressions suggests that on average, both real and financial sector reforms are positively associated with higher growth. However, on several occasions, botched reforms resulted in growth disasters. More important, the positive reform-growth relationship is shown to be highly heterogeneous and to be influenced by a country's constraints on the authority of the executive power and by its distance from the technology frontier. Finally, there is some evidence that crises, defined as severe growth downturns, are associated with subsequent reform upticks.
date: 2013-07
date_type: published
publication: Review of Economics and Statistics
volume: 95
number: 3
publisher: MIT Press
pagerange: 946-968
id_number: 10.1162/REST_a_00307
refereed: TRUE
issn: 0034-6535
official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00307
citation:   Prati, Alessandro and Onorato, Massimiliano Gaetano and Papageorgiou, Chris  Which Reforms Work and under What Institutional Environment? Evidence from a New Data Set on Structural Reforms.  Review of Economics and Statistics, 95 (3).  pp. 946-968.  ISSN 0034-6535      (2013)  
document_url: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/1657/1/rest_a_00307.pdf