“How often do dictators have positive economic effects,” Stephanie Rizio (Uni Melbourne) and Ahmed Skali (QUT) ask, and answer in a (pay-walled) paper

“We find that growth under supposedly growth-positive autocrats does not significantly differ from previous realisations of growth, suggesting that even the infrequent growth-positive autocrats largely ‘ride the wave’ of previous success. On the other hand, our estimates reject the null hypothesis that growth-negative rulers have no effects. Taken together, our results cast serious doubt on the benevolent autocrat hypothesis.”

International recruitment offices take note.