Do democratic institutions promote growth? In this workshop, we will discuss recent empirical evidence on this question. After a brief overview of cross-country evidence on the relationship between democratization and growth, the course will move on to experimental evidence that helps to uncover precise mechanisms of influence. Subsequently, we will cover empirical evidence on how within-country variation in the strength of democratic institutions shape public good provision and development. In this topic, we will emphasize the role of elite capture in particular.