@TechReport{iza:izadps:dp1693,
            	author={Gersbach, Hans and Siemers, Lars},
            	title={Can Democracy Educate a Society?},
            	year={2005},
	month={Jul},
            	institution={Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)},
            	address={Bonn},
            	type={IZA Discussion Paper},
            	number={1693},
            	url={https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp1693},
	abstract={We examine the constitutional design required for democratic societies to overcome poverty traps. Restricting agenda-setting only by ensuring subsistence levels of consumption and applying simple majority voting as decision rule fails to enable a society to overcome poverty because it does not induce capital-enhancing redistribution. We show that a combination of suitable constitutional rules can, however, overcome poverty and induce economic well-being. Besides majority voting, these rules include rotating agenda-setting, agenda repetition and tax protection rules. We highlight the crucial role of democratic institutions for economic development and discuss why the evidence for democracy fostering growth is mixed.},
	keywords={constitutional design;institutions;redistribution;poverty traps;tax allowances;voting rules},
            }