This article focuses on the empirical approach proposed by Hall and Jones (1999) to estimate the effect of what they call ‘social infrastructure’ on productivity across countries. We consider the issue of weak identification in their linear instrumental variables model. The evidence obtained from partially robust estimators, such as the k-class and jackknife estimators, is interpreted on the basis of Monte Carlo studies. Our findings suggest that using certain k-class estimators allows exclusive reliance on the linguistic variables to instrument for institutional quality despite their low correlation with the endogenous regressor in question.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	institutions; growth; weak instruments; robust estimators
Research Division:	Human Society
Research Group:	Policy and administration
Research Field:	Economic development policy
Objective Division:	Economic Framework
Objective Group:	Macroeconomics
Objective Field:	Macroeconomics not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Dmitriev, A (Dr Alexandre Dmitriev)
ID Code:	83258
Year Published:	2013
Web of Science® Times Cited:	1
Deposited By:	Economics and Finance
Deposited On:	2013-03-06
Last Modified:	2013-06-11
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