Using a large dataset covering all trade in military equipment over the period 1950-2007, we address the relationship between differences in polity and arms trade from a novel empirical perspective. We provide evidence on the determinants of link formation at the bilateral level by estimating...

Although many of the worst performing countries over the post-World War II period were autocracies, many of the best were likewise autocratic. At the same time, no long-lived autocracy currently is rich whereas every long-lived democracy is. This paper proposes a theory to account for these...

Using SIPRI data on all international transfers of major conventional weapons 1950–2007, we study the relationship between differences in polity and arms trade. To study whether states tend to trade arms within their political vicinity we estimate gravity models of the likelihood of trade at...