Do democracies breed rent-seeking behavior?

Using objective institutional historical data for the case of Uruguay, we test the link between rent-seeking behavior in democracies using time-series and panel data approaches. We find three main results. First, democratic regimes are negatively linked with rent-seeking actions. Second, the longer the duration of democracy, the less rent seeking in a society. Third, legislation enacted more transparently is negatively correlated with rent-seeking behavior. Our results are robust to the use of different econometric methods and basic robustness tests and are consistent with prevailing theory.