Do coups create economic crises? Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean

While most of the literature considers economic crisis as a precursor to coup attempts, theoretical considerations suggest that coups may also cause crises. Estimating effects of different types of coups on crisis risk across 32 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean between 1920 and 2022, the findings indicate that civilian-led coups and coups dismantling democracy significantly and substantially increase the likelihood of entering an economic crisis. As such, certain types of coups have severe economic consequences.

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Publication Details

Journal
Defence and Peace Economics
Published
2026-08-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/10242694.2026.2722064
Primary Topic
Economic Sanctions and International Relations
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Do coups create economic crises? Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean

Christian Bjørnskov
Defence and Peace Economics
Economic Sanctions and International Relations
article

Do coups create economic crises? Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean

Christian Bjørnskov
article en

Abstract

While most of the literature considers economic crisis as a precursor to coup attempts, theoretical considerations suggest that coups may also cause crises. Estimating effects of different types of coups on crisis risk across 32 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean between 1920 and 2022, the findings indicate that civilian-led coups and coups dismantling democracy significantly and substantially increase the likelihood of entering an economic crisis. As such, certain types of coups have severe economic consequences.

Defence and Peace Economics
Aarhus University (DK), Research Institute of Industrial Economics (SE)
Jan Wallanders och Tom Hedelius Stiftelse samt Tore Browaldhs Stiftelse
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Openalex Percentile: Top 67%
Economic Sanctions and International Relations
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