What Makes Growth Sustained?

By Jonathan D. Ostry, Andrew Berg, Jerónimo Zettelmeyer. Social Science Research Network, 2008

597 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract We identify structural breaks in economic growth in 140 countries and use these to define “growth spells:” periods of high growth preceded by an upbreak and ending either with a downbreak or with the end of the sample. Growth spells tend to be shorter in African and Latin American countries than elsewhere. We find evidence that growth duration is positively related to: the degree of equality of the income distribution; democratic institutions; export orientation (with higher propensities to export manufactures, greater openness to FDI, and avoidance of exchange rate overvaluation favorable for duration); and macroeconomic stability.

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Citations in the corpus

Distributional Consequences of Fiscal Consolidation and the Role of Fiscal Policy: What Do the Data Say? (2013, background): “Moreover, high income inequality can harm long-term growth through various channels (for example, see Easterly 2007; Berg et al. 2011; and Woo 2011).”
Inequality and Globalization: A Review Essay (2018, background): “19 Contributions include Dollar and Kraay (2004), Lundberg and Squire (2003) and Berg et al. (2012). For overviews of the arguments and evidence, focusing on developing countries, see Ravallion (2006, 2016b, Chapter 9).”
The real exchange rate and economic development (2012, background): “Berg et al. (2008). This emerging body of empirical evidence – along with East Asia’s rapid accumulation of reserves in the pursuit of what is widely seen as ‘export-led growth’ – has stimulated interest in the theoretical linkages between the real exchange rate and growth.”
Ending Extreme Poverty and Sharing Prosperity: Progress and Policies (2015, background): “Economically, strategies that lead to the sustained underperformance of the B40 may eventually stifle the economy-wide growth process (Berg, Ostry, and Zettelmeyer 2012; Easterly 2007).”
Redistribution, inequality, and growth: new evidence (2018, methodology): “We follow Berg et al. (2012) in focusing on “growth spells”, defined as periods of at least 5years during which growth is above 2% and significantly higher than during preceding years.”
Redistribution, Inequality, and Growth (2014, methodology): “…countries.3 We analyze both the growth rate over five-year horizons (panel growth regressions) and the duration of growth spells, as defined in Berg, Ostry, and Zettelmeyer (2012), which we think is a more useful way of assessing growth experience, especially for emerging and developing…”
Inequality and Labor Market Institutions (2015, unknown): “…recent work suggests that higher inequality tends to be associated with lower and less sustainable growth in the medium run, and that under certain conditions redistribution may be benign for growth (Berg and Ostry, 2011; Berg, Ostry, and Zettelmeyer, 2012; Ostry, Berg, and Tsangarides, 2014).”
Social Identity and Inequality: The Impact of China's Hukou System (2015, unknown): “This in turnmay have adverse consequences for sustaining economic growth (Berg et al., 2012; Berg and Ostry, 2011).”