Size Really Doesn't Matter: In Search of a National Scale Effect

Andrew K. Rose

NBER Working Paper No. 12191
Issued in May 2006
NBER Program(s):   ITI

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.

(672 K)

Published: Rose, Andrew. "Size Really Doesn't Matter: In Search of a National Scale Effect." Journal of the Japanese and International Economies 20, 4 (December 2006): 482-507.

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