Deregulation, Economic Growth and Growth Acceleration

The paper analyzes the influence of credit-, labor-, and product market deregulation policies on economic growth in more than 70 economies over a period of 40 years. By combining a difference-in-difference strategy with an IV approach to the endogeneity of the reform timing, this work finds that deregulation contributed to the per capita GDP levels of the early and consistent reformers relatively more than to the ones of the late reformers. The paper also finds a significant growth acceleration effect from market-oriented reforms over shorter periods of time. However, the growth acceleration effects dissipate over longer periods. A number of robustness checks support these conclusions