Research Insights: Do the Economic Effects of Constitutions Depend on the Degree of Institutionalization?

If politics is conducted largely outside of formal arenas, political institutions may not play a very large role in determining policy outcomes. We propose a new index of institutionalization to capture how much policymaking takes place in formal arenas. We find that previous conclusions on the economic effects of constitutionally established majoritarian electoral systems and presidential forms of government are applicable only to countries with high levels of institutionalization.