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POLICY ARENA: Bureaucrats, Business and Economic Growth
Author(s) -
Jalilian Hossein,
Weiss John
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1328(199709)9:6<877::aid-jid490>3.0.co;2-a
Subject(s) - state (computer science) , panel data , economics , test (biology) , economic statistics , classical economics , public economics , economic system , econometrics , computer science , paleontology , algorithm , biology
This article uses the database from the World Bank study, Bureaucrats in Business, to test the hypothesis central to the study and much more recent policy thinking that countries with large state sectors have a poorer than average economic performance. Two tests are conducted: one, a simple difference of means calculation and the other a more rigorous cross‐country analysis using panel data to pick up country‐specific effects. In neither instance is there any support for the hypothesis. This inconclusive result is none the less important since it supports the view that it is not the absolute size of the state sector per se which matters for economic performance but the type of state activity and the way in which state enterprises operate. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.