Cointegrating Institutions: The Time-Series Properties of Country Institutional Measures

Abstract

A country’s political and economic institutions are critical for economic prosperity. The literature abounds with institutional measures, precisely because institutions are multidimensional. We use panel unit root and cointegration tests to examine the time-series properties of several institutional measures to answer two questions. First, do institutional changes tend to be permanent? Second, which subsets of institutions tend to converge or move together? These answers have important implications for whether permanent institutional reform is possible and whether reforms can be undertaken one institutional area at a time or instead must simultaneously encompass multiple institutional areas.