What makes growth sustained?

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 els...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of development economics Vol. 98; no. 2; pp. 149 - 166
Main Authors:	Berg, Andrew, Ostry, Jonathan D., Zettelmeyer, Jeromin
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-07-2012 Elsevier Sequoia S.A
Subjects:	Accelerations Africa Business cycles Democracy Economic growth Economic stability Export composition Export-oriented industry Exports Growth Income distribution Income inequality International comparisons Latin America Political institutions Structural breaks Studies 011 Structural breaks Income inequality 02 Growth F143 Accelerations
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	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.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23
ISSN:	0304-3878 1872-6089
DOI:	10.1016/j.jdeveco.2011.08.002