Working Papers

The WNE Working Papers series has been published by the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw since 2008.

The WNE Working Papers series provides a fast, open channel for disseminating research conducted at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw. The papers hosted here are working versions (pre-prints) and may evolve as authors refine their analyses, incorporate feedback, or progress through formal peer-review. What you read is the current version released by the authors, timestamped and assigned DOI/ISSN identifiers to ensure precise citation and version tracking. Copyright remains with the authors, who may, at any time, upload a revised file or add a note directing readers to a later, peer-reviewed publication.

The Working Papers series accepts articles by research employees of the Faculty and publications from conferences organised at the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw. Articles should be original research papers which have not been previously published, on the subject of economics.

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Number of Results 2

WP(11/2023)418. Leader Characteristics and Constitutional Compliance

Authors: Gutmann Jerg, Metelska-Szaniawska Katarzyna, Voigt Stefan
While research in constitutional economics has made important progress in recent decades, the factors determining whether a constitution is complied with have only received scant attention. We contribute to that narrow literature by studying how pers…

WP418. Leader Characteristics and Constitutional Compliance

While research in constitutional economics has made important progress in recent decades, the factors determining whether a constitution is complied with have only received scant attention. We contribute to that narrow literature by studying how personal traits of political leaders are associated with constitutional compliance. Compliance levels of 943 political leaders between 1950 and 2010 can be explained by their education, entry into office, political experience, military background, and whether they are members of extreme left-wing parties. Specifically, under former military officers and Communist leaders, constitutional compliance is significantly lower. The combined effect of these two traits corresponds to the difference between democracy and nondemocracy. This implies a difficult normative question, which we discuss in our conclusion: Should constitutions set entry barriers for high political offices that are based on leader characteristics?


Gutmann Jerg, Metelska-Szaniawska Katarzyna, Voigt Stefan
constitutional compliance; de jure-de facto gap; leader characteristics

WP(21/2016)212. Post-Socialist Constitutions: The De Jure - De Facto Gap, Its Effects and Determinants

Authors: Metelska-Szaniawska Katarzyna
In this paper we aim to contribute to the debate on constitutional rules and their economic effects by extending the focus to the de jure – de facto constitutional gap. Firstly, we provide evidence that the size of this gap matters as non-compl…

WP212. Post-Socialist Constitutions: The De Jure - De Facto Gap, Its Effects and Determinants

In this paper we aim to contribute to the debate on constitutional rules and their economic effects by extending the focus to the de jure – de facto constitutional gap. Firstly, we provide evidence that the size of this gap matters as non-compliance lowers the effectiveness of the constitutional commitment mechanism. Secondly, we identify several explanans of this gap, in particular relating to the democratization process, political conflict, age and comprehensiveness of the constitution. We base the conclusions on an empirical study for the unique setting of the post-socialist countries of Europe and Asia, which all enacted new constitutional frameworks after 1989, and argue that the constitutions in these countries acted primarily as blueprints.


Metelska-Szaniawska Katarzyna
Constitutional Economics constitutional compliance post-socialist transition economic reforms sham constitutions
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