Growth Empirics and Reality

This article questions current empirical practice in the study of growth. It argues that much of the modern empirical growth literature is based on assumptions about regressors, residuals, and parameters that are implausible from the perspective of...

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Main Authors: Brock, William A., Durlauf, Steven N.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
en_US
Published: Washington, DC: World Bank 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/05/17737425/growth-empirics-reality
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17447
id okr-10986-17447
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-174472021-04-23T14:03:29Z Growth Empirics and Reality Brock, William A. Durlauf, Steven N. AUTOREGRESSIVE MOVING AVERAGE AVERAGE PROCESS BAYES FACTOR BAYESIAN STATISTICS BENCHMARK BOOTSTRAP BUSINESS CYCLE CALCULATION CIVIL LIBERTIES COMPUTATION COUNTRY DATA COUNTRY REGRESSIONS COVARIANCE CROSS-COUNTRY DATA CROSS-COUNTRY DIFFERENCES CROSS-COUNTRY REGRESSION DATA ANALYSIS DATA SET DATA SETS DECISION MAKING DECISION THEORY DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS DETERMINANTS OF GROWTH DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION DISTRIBUTIONAL DYNAMICS ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS ECONOMETRIC ISSUES ECONOMETRICS ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC HISTORY ECONOMIC REVIEW ECONOMIC STRUCTURE ECONOMIC SYSTEMS ECONOMIC THEORY ECONOMICS ECONOMICS LITERATURE EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS EMPIRICAL GROWTH LITERATURE EMPIRICAL GROWTH REGRESSIONS EMPIRICAL LITERATURE EMPIRICAL METHODS EMPIRICAL RESEARCH EMPIRICAL WORK ENDOGENOUS GROWTH EQUATIONS ERROR TERM EXOGENOUS VARIABLES EXPECTED UTILITY EXPECTED VALUE EXPECTED VALUES EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS FIXED EFFECTS FREE MARKETS FUNCTIONAL FORM GOODNESS OF FIT GROWTH ANALYSIS GROWTH CONTEXT GROWTH DATA GROWTH DETERMINANTS GROWTH DYNAMICS GROWTH EMPIRICS GROWTH EQUATION GROWTH MODEL GROWTH MODELS GROWTH PERFORMANCE GROWTH POLICIES GROWTH PROCESS GROWTH RATE GROWTH RATES GROWTH REGRESSION GROWTH REGRESSIONS GROWTH RESIDUALS GROWTH THEORY HETEROSKEDASTICITY HUMAN CAPITAL HYPOTHESES INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES INEQUALITY INSTRUMENTAL VARIABLES LINEAR MODEL LINEAR MODELS LINEAR REGRESSION LONG RUN MACROECONOMIC POLICY MACROECONOMICS MATRIX MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION MEASUREMENT ERROR MICROECONOMIC DATA SETS MILITARY EXPENDITURES MINIMIZATION MISSING OBSERVATIONS MODEL OF GROWTH NEW GROWTH THEORIES ORTHOGONALITY OUTLIERS PER CAPITA GROWTH PER CAPITA INCOME POLICY ANALYSIS POLICY CHANGE POLICY INSTRUMENT POLICY INTERVENTION POLICY VARIABLES POLITICAL INSTABILITY POLITICAL RIGHTS POLITICAL STABILITY POLITICAL SYSTEMS POOR COUNTRIES POOR DATA POOR MEASURES POPULATION GROWTH POVERTY TRAPS PREDICTION PREDICTIONS PROBABILITIES PROBABILITY PROBABILITY THEORY PRODUCTION FUNCTION PROPERTY RIGHTS RANDOM VARIABLES REGRESSION ANALYSES RISK AVERSION SOCIAL CAPITAL STANDARD DEVIATION STANDARD ERRORS STATISTICAL ANALYSES STATISTICAL ANALYSIS STATISTICAL INFERENCE STATISTICAL METHODS STATISTICAL MODELS STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE STATISTICAL THEORY STATISTICIANS THEOREMS TRADE OPENNESS TRADE POLICY UTILITY FUNCTION UTILITY FUNCTIONS UTILITY THEORY UTILITY VALUE VALIDITY This article questions current empirical practice in the study of growth. It argues that much of the modern empirical growth literature is based on assumptions about regressors, residuals, and parameters that are implausible from the perspective of both economic theory and the historical experiences of the countries under study. Many of these problems, it argues, are forms of violations of an exchangeability assumption that implicitly underlies standard growth exercises. The article shows that these implausible assumptions can be relaxed by allowing for uncertainty in model specification. Model uncertainty consists of two types: theory uncertainty, which relates to which growth determinants should be included in a model; and heterogeneity uncertainty, which relates to which observations in a data set constitute draw from the same statistical model. The article proposes ways to account for both theory and heterogeneity uncertainty. Finally, using an explicit decision-theoretic framework, the authors describe how one can engage in policy-relevant empirical analysis. 2014-03-27T21:33:17Z 2014-03-27T21:33:17Z 2001-05 Journal Article http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/05/17737425/growth-empirics-reality World Bank Economic Review http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17447 English en_US CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Publications & Research :: Journal Article
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic AUTOREGRESSIVE MOVING AVERAGE
AVERAGE PROCESS
BAYES FACTOR
BAYESIAN STATISTICS
BENCHMARK
BOOTSTRAP
BUSINESS CYCLE
CALCULATION
CIVIL LIBERTIES
COMPUTATION
COUNTRY DATA
COUNTRY REGRESSIONS
COVARIANCE
CROSS-COUNTRY DATA
CROSS-COUNTRY DIFFERENCES
CROSS-COUNTRY REGRESSION
DATA ANALYSIS
DATA SET
DATA SETS
DECISION MAKING
DECISION THEORY
DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS
DETERMINANTS OF GROWTH
DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION
DISTRIBUTIONAL DYNAMICS
ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS
ECONOMETRIC ISSUES
ECONOMETRICS
ECONOMIC GROWTH
ECONOMIC HISTORY
ECONOMIC REVIEW
ECONOMIC STRUCTURE
ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
ECONOMIC THEORY
ECONOMICS
ECONOMICS LITERATURE
EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS
EMPIRICAL GROWTH LITERATURE
EMPIRICAL GROWTH REGRESSIONS
EMPIRICAL LITERATURE
EMPIRICAL METHODS
EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
EMPIRICAL WORK
ENDOGENOUS GROWTH
EQUATIONS
ERROR TERM
EXOGENOUS VARIABLES
EXPECTED UTILITY
EXPECTED VALUE
EXPECTED VALUES
EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS
FIXED EFFECTS
FREE MARKETS
FUNCTIONAL FORM
GOODNESS OF FIT
GROWTH ANALYSIS
GROWTH CONTEXT
GROWTH DATA
GROWTH DETERMINANTS
GROWTH DYNAMICS
GROWTH EMPIRICS
GROWTH EQUATION
GROWTH MODEL
GROWTH MODELS
GROWTH PERFORMANCE
GROWTH POLICIES
GROWTH PROCESS
GROWTH RATE
GROWTH RATES
GROWTH REGRESSION
GROWTH REGRESSIONS
GROWTH RESIDUALS
GROWTH THEORY
HETEROSKEDASTICITY
HUMAN CAPITAL
HYPOTHESES
INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES
INEQUALITY
INSTRUMENTAL VARIABLES
LINEAR MODEL
LINEAR MODELS
LINEAR REGRESSION
LONG RUN
MACROECONOMIC POLICY
MACROECONOMICS
MATRIX
MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION
MEASUREMENT ERROR
MICROECONOMIC DATA SETS
MILITARY EXPENDITURES
MINIMIZATION
MISSING OBSERVATIONS
MODEL OF GROWTH
NEW GROWTH THEORIES
ORTHOGONALITY
OUTLIERS
PER CAPITA GROWTH
PER CAPITA INCOME
POLICY ANALYSIS
POLICY CHANGE
POLICY INSTRUMENT
POLICY INTERVENTION
POLICY VARIABLES
POLITICAL INSTABILITY
POLITICAL RIGHTS
POLITICAL STABILITY
POLITICAL SYSTEMS
POOR COUNTRIES
POOR DATA
POOR MEASURES
POPULATION GROWTH
POVERTY TRAPS
PREDICTION
PREDICTIONS
PROBABILITIES
PROBABILITY
PROBABILITY THEORY
PRODUCTION FUNCTION
PROPERTY RIGHTS
RANDOM VARIABLES
REGRESSION ANALYSES
RISK AVERSION
SOCIAL CAPITAL
STANDARD DEVIATION
STANDARD ERRORS
STATISTICAL ANALYSES
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
STATISTICAL INFERENCE
STATISTICAL METHODS
STATISTICAL MODELS
STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE
STATISTICAL THEORY
STATISTICIANS
THEOREMS
TRADE OPENNESS
TRADE POLICY
UTILITY FUNCTION
UTILITY FUNCTIONS
UTILITY THEORY
UTILITY VALUE
VALIDITY
spellingShingle AUTOREGRESSIVE MOVING AVERAGE
AVERAGE PROCESS
BAYES FACTOR
BAYESIAN STATISTICS
BENCHMARK
BOOTSTRAP
BUSINESS CYCLE
CALCULATION
CIVIL LIBERTIES
COMPUTATION
COUNTRY DATA
COUNTRY REGRESSIONS
COVARIANCE
CROSS-COUNTRY DATA
CROSS-COUNTRY DIFFERENCES
CROSS-COUNTRY REGRESSION
DATA ANALYSIS
DATA SET
DATA SETS
DECISION MAKING
DECISION THEORY
DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS
DETERMINANTS OF GROWTH
DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION
DISTRIBUTIONAL DYNAMICS
ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS
ECONOMETRIC ISSUES
ECONOMETRICS
ECONOMIC GROWTH
ECONOMIC HISTORY
ECONOMIC REVIEW
ECONOMIC STRUCTURE
ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
ECONOMIC THEORY
ECONOMICS
ECONOMICS LITERATURE
EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS
EMPIRICAL GROWTH LITERATURE
EMPIRICAL GROWTH REGRESSIONS
EMPIRICAL LITERATURE
EMPIRICAL METHODS
EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
EMPIRICAL WORK
ENDOGENOUS GROWTH
EQUATIONS
ERROR TERM
EXOGENOUS VARIABLES
EXPECTED UTILITY
EXPECTED VALUE
EXPECTED VALUES
EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS
FIXED EFFECTS
FREE MARKETS
FUNCTIONAL FORM
GOODNESS OF FIT
GROWTH ANALYSIS
GROWTH CONTEXT
GROWTH DATA
GROWTH DETERMINANTS
GROWTH DYNAMICS
GROWTH EMPIRICS
GROWTH EQUATION
GROWTH MODEL
GROWTH MODELS
GROWTH PERFORMANCE
GROWTH POLICIES
GROWTH PROCESS
GROWTH RATE
GROWTH RATES
GROWTH REGRESSION
GROWTH REGRESSIONS
GROWTH RESIDUALS
GROWTH THEORY
HETEROSKEDASTICITY
HUMAN CAPITAL
HYPOTHESES
INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES
INEQUALITY
INSTRUMENTAL VARIABLES
LINEAR MODEL
LINEAR MODELS
LINEAR REGRESSION
LONG RUN
MACROECONOMIC POLICY
MACROECONOMICS
MATRIX
MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION
MEASUREMENT ERROR
MICROECONOMIC DATA SETS
MILITARY EXPENDITURES
MINIMIZATION
MISSING OBSERVATIONS
MODEL OF GROWTH
NEW GROWTH THEORIES
ORTHOGONALITY
OUTLIERS
PER CAPITA GROWTH
PER CAPITA INCOME
POLICY ANALYSIS
POLICY CHANGE
POLICY INSTRUMENT
POLICY INTERVENTION
POLICY VARIABLES
POLITICAL INSTABILITY
POLITICAL RIGHTS
POLITICAL STABILITY
POLITICAL SYSTEMS
POOR COUNTRIES
POOR DATA
POOR MEASURES
POPULATION GROWTH
POVERTY TRAPS
PREDICTION
PREDICTIONS
PROBABILITIES
PROBABILITY
PROBABILITY THEORY
PRODUCTION FUNCTION
PROPERTY RIGHTS
RANDOM VARIABLES
REGRESSION ANALYSES
RISK AVERSION
SOCIAL CAPITAL
STANDARD DEVIATION
STANDARD ERRORS
STATISTICAL ANALYSES
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
STATISTICAL INFERENCE
STATISTICAL METHODS
STATISTICAL MODELS
STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE
STATISTICAL THEORY
STATISTICIANS
THEOREMS
TRADE OPENNESS
TRADE POLICY
UTILITY FUNCTION
UTILITY FUNCTIONS
UTILITY THEORY
UTILITY VALUE
VALIDITY
Brock, William A.
Durlauf, Steven N.
Growth Empirics and Reality
description This article questions current empirical practice in the study of growth. It argues that much of the modern empirical growth literature is based on assumptions about regressors, residuals, and parameters that are implausible from the perspective of both economic theory and the historical experiences of the countries under study. Many of these problems, it argues, are forms of violations of an exchangeability assumption that implicitly underlies standard growth exercises. The article shows that these implausible assumptions can be relaxed by allowing for uncertainty in model specification. Model uncertainty consists of two types: theory uncertainty, which relates to which growth determinants should be included in a model; and heterogeneity uncertainty, which relates to which observations in a data set constitute draw from the same statistical model. The article proposes ways to account for both theory and heterogeneity uncertainty. Finally, using an explicit decision-theoretic framework, the authors describe how one can engage in policy-relevant empirical analysis.
format Journal Article
author Brock, William A.
Durlauf, Steven N.
author_facet Brock, William A.
Durlauf, Steven N.
author_sort Brock, William A.
title Growth Empirics and Reality
title_short Growth Empirics and Reality
title_full Growth Empirics and Reality
title_fullStr Growth Empirics and Reality
title_full_unstemmed Growth Empirics and Reality
title_sort growth empirics and reality
publisher Washington, DC: World Bank
publishDate 2014
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/05/17737425/growth-empirics-reality
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17447
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