Determinants of Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Empirical Study

Author: (USA) Barro
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: For the long-term economic welfare of a country, nothing is more important than the growth rate of the economy. Differences in annual growth rates may seem small, but over the years, these subtle differences can lead to significant disparities in living standards. In the past decade, a large number of studies on economic diagrams have emerged, with hundreds of empirical analyses focusing on the correlation between growth and various variables. This book summarizes these key literatures. The Determinants of Economic Growth begins with a major question proposed by Adam Smith two hundred years ago: What determines long-term economic growth and national prosperity? Barro examines many theories using basic data from over a hundred countries and carefully explains their flaws. For conclusions based on very incomplete data, he always designs additional tests to verify them. What is important is that this book contains sufficient statistical and technical details to meet the needs of experts within the field, yet the presentation of key findings is also accessible to interested laypeople. This book explores various determinants of economic growth from a broad research perspective, not only economic factors but also political factors. Through the analysis of a large amount of cross-national data, Barro confirms three fundamental conclusions: cross-national data support conditional convergence; there is a nonlinear relationship between democracy and growth; and the negative impact of inflation on economic growth is more pronounced at high inflation rates but uncertain at low inflation rates. Although this book is a specialized work in the field of economic growth, the literature review in chapters has already given readers a glimpse of the development of growth-related thought, and understanding the majority of the content does not require advanced theoretical foundations in growth. The book consists of three complete, detailed, and standard empirical studies, providing readers who have mastered intermediate econometric tools with exemplary empirical research. A careful reader can not only appreciate Barro's ingenuity in empirical research from the text but is also likely to be inspired by new research ideas from the broad research perspective.