Macroeconomic Determinants of Economic Growth: A Cross-Cohort Study of Anglophone, Francophone and Hispanophone Countries
Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 29, No 2, Fall 2017
17 Pages Posted: 18 Jan 2018
Date Written: July 1, 2017
Abstract
The focus of this paper is to analyze the influence of several macroeconomic determinants on per capita GDP growth of countries from three language cohorts (Anglophone, Francophone, and Hispanophone). Differences in per capita real GDP across countries are stylized facts in economic growth literature. Even though the empirical literature varies widely in attributing such differentials to any specific set of factors, a strand of growth literature finds institutional differences in colonial legacies as a major contributing factor to growth differences across countries. In this study, we test the hypothesis that there are statistically significant differences in per capita real GDP across countries with three dominant languages. We construct three language cohorts of countries to serve as proxies for institutional differences from colonial legacies, as well as, lingually driven differences in economic behaviors of agents. The GLS panel regression results confirm that Anglophone countries’ per capita GDP is higher than that of Hispanophone and Francophone countries.
Keywords: Economic Growth, Anglophne, Francophone, Hispanophone
JEL Classification: O40, O47
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