of income per capita is positive and highly statistically significant, in sharp contrast to the difference-GMM results … difference in democracy across countries can be explained by the corresponding difference in income per capita. …

transitory negative income shocks to SSA countries. The BDI reflects the cost of utilizing dry bulk carriers, which are specially … the SSA economies. We find that positive BDI cost shocks are followed by significant contraction in income through trade … improvement. Instrumental variables estimates indicate that following a negative income shock of one percentage point, democracy …