Economic Governance and Economic Growth in South and East Asia & Pacific Region: Evidence from Systematic Literature Reviews and Meta-analysis

摘要

With economists and policy makers recognising the role of governance for growth, recent research focus is on governance and its impact on growth. However, with ever growing number of studies using different methodologies, data sources and country groupings, a high amount of heterogeneity is created among reported results. This has left both policy makers and researchers having different views on the importance of governance for growth. This paper has meta-synthesised the empirical evidence on governance and growth in South and East Asia Pacific countries based on 29 studies with 554 estimates from 1980 – 2012. The empirical results show that while corruption is significantly and negatively correlated with growth, government effectiveness and regulation are positively and significantly correlated. Political stability and law have no important effect on economic growth. We conclude that empirical research literature on governance and growth has failed to provide evidence of a true effect of voice and accountability on growth. Finally, overall governance is important for growth. Our results have important policy implications.