Do long constitutions really hamper economic performance? A comment on Tsebelis and Nardi (2016a)

Abstract

In their contribution, Tsebelis and Nardi (2016a) examine the impact of constitutional design on economic performance. The authors find evidence of a significant negative relationship between constitutional length and economic performance. As we will show here, the results of Tsebelis and Nardi (2016a) are not robust. Several minor adjustments to the models, each on its own, reduce or eliminate the presumed relevance of constitutional length. Moreover, conceptual considerations raise doubts whether the focus on constitutional length is a promising path to follow.