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Lecture,Graduate School of Economics and Management

Lecture,Graduate School of Economics and Management

Research Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Lingnan University

Little is known about the historical origins of political instability, and systematic empiri- cal evidence remains limited. This paper addresses this gap by examining the historical deter- minants of political instability through the lens of the millennia-long centralized authoritarian monarchy in imperial China. Exploiting proximity to imperial capitals as a proxy for the strength of centralized statehood, we show that counties historically exposed to stronger and more persis- tent state penetration exhibit significantly lower levels of political instability today, as reflected in a lower incidence of anti-government protests. Our results further suggest that cultural trans- mission, rather than sustained development, demographic change, or institutional continuity, is the primary channel through which the legacy of long-defunct institutions endures.