Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP5350
Authors: Andrew K. Rose
Abstract: I search for a 'scale' effect in countries. I use a panel data set that includes 200 countries over forty years and link the population of a country to a host of economic and social phenomena. Using both graphical and statistical techniques, I search for an impact of size on the level of income, inflation, material well-being, health, education, the quality of a country's institutions, heterogeneity, and a number of different international indices and rankings. I have little success; small countries are more open to international trade than large countries, but are not systematically different otherwise.
Keywords: big country; cross-section data; empirical; international; panel; population
JEL Codes: O57
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Larger countries (R12) | Not systematically richer than smaller ones (D39) |
| Country size (R12) | Real GDP per capita (O49) |
| Population size (J11) | Trade as a percentage of GDP (F10) |
| Larger countries (R12) | Health outcomes (I14) |
| Larger countries (R12) | Education outcomes (I21) |
| Larger countries (R12) | Institutional quality (I24) |