Small states have attracted a large amount of research. In this paper we test whether small states are any different from other states in terms of their income, growth, and volatility outcomes. We find that, controlling for location, small states have higher per capita GDP than other states. This income advantage is largely due to a productivity advantage, constituting evidence against the idea that small states suffer from an inability to exploit increasing returns to scale. Small states also do not have different per capita growth rates than other states. Small states do have greater volatility of annual growth rates, which is in part due to their greater volatility of terms of trade shocks. This terms of trade-based volatility is in turn due to small states’ greater openness. However, their greater openness on balance has a positive net payoff for growth. The one differential policy measure that might be relevant for small states is to further open up to international capital markets in order to better diversify risk, but the benefits of even that are still unresolved in the literature. We conclude that small states are no different from large states, and so should receive the same policy advice that large states do.
Kind of Data
Aggregate data [agg]
Version
Version Description
Dataset used for Easterly, William and Aart Kraay (1999). "Small States, Small Problems?". World Bank Policy Research Department Working Paper No. 2139
Version Date
1999
Scope
Notes
The dataset includes the following indicators:
- Real per capita GDP
- Real per capita GNP
- Population
- GDP growth
- Growth in population
- Investment to GDP
- Terms of trade shock
- Secondary school enrollment rates
- IMF indicator of capital account restrictions
- Trade openess
- Financial openness
- Capital inflows
- Institutional Investor Risk Ratings
- Ethnolinguistic fractionalization
- Inflation
- Proportion of population speaking english
- Proportion of population speaking a major european language (non English)
- Latitude
- ODA
Coverage
Geographic Coverage
The database contains data on 176 countries from all regions in the world.
Producers and sponsors
Primary investigators
Name
William Easterly and Aart Kraay
Data Collection
Dates of Data Collection
Start
End
1960
1995
Data Collection Mode
Face-to-face [f2f]
Access policy
Contacts
Name
Affiliation
Email
URL
Development Research Group
World Bank
research@worldbank.org
http://go.worldbank.org/B9W4QTDHR0
Citation requirements
Use of the dataset must be acknowledged using a citation which would include:
- the Identification of the Primary Investigator
- the title of the survey (including acronym and year of implementation)
- the survey reference number
- the source and date of download
Example:
William Easterly and Aart Kraay. Small States, Small Problems? (SSSP) 1960-1995. Ref. WLD_1995_SSSP_v01_M. Dataset downloaded from http://microdata.worldbank.org on [date]
Disclaimer and copyrights
Disclaimer
The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.