Data sets are provided in two compressed formats: as a self-extracting exe file and as a zip file. Both files contain the same information.
 

     eastrebl.exe (317 K)   or  eastrebl.zip (294 K)
 

     Data Set Description

     The data for the paper is provided as Lotus-1-2-3 (.wk1) and corresponding TSP (.h or .fmt) files. It is organized in three files:

          FISCAL.wk1
          This is a Lotus 1-2-3 file that has cross-sectional data for 160 countries for the period 1970-88 (occasionally coverage may be 1970-85; where
          this is so it is documented in the variable list below). Tables 1,2,3,4 and 7 in the paper are based on this data. The country order is provided at
          the end of this document. The variables covered in this file are mostly fiscal policy and output variables. The variable list is provided at the end of
          this document after the country lists.

               Please note that in table 4 of the paper the conditioning variables M2 (ratio of money supply to GDP) and STRD (share of trade in GDP)
          refer to their 1960 values.

          FISCALD.wk1
               This file has pooled cross-section data for the same 160 countries for each of the three decades: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s. The three
          cross-sections are stacked up in the order 1960s, 1970s, 1980s to give a file that has 480 (= 3 * 160) observations for each series. Tables 5
          and 6 in the paper are based upon this data. There are mostly public investment variables in this file. The variables are:

          ASSP6070  Number of assasinations per year per million people between 1960 and 1970.  Source: Barro and Wolf data-set.
          CS6070    Average war casualties per capita between 1960 and 1970
          GCON6070  Government consumption as percent of GDP, average for the years 1960-69.  Both series were in constant prices.
          IAGRIC6D  Sectoral public investment in agriculture
          ICMGGV6   Public investment by general government
          ICMPBE6D  Public investment by public enterprises
          ICMPUB6D  Total consolidated public investment
          IEDUCT6D  Sectoral public investment in education
          IHLTH6D   Sectoral public investment in health
          IHOUSE6D  Sectoral public investment in housing and urban infrastructure
          IINDML6D  Sectoral public investment in industry and mining.
          IPRIVT6D  Private investment as a percentage of GDP.  Calculated as the difference between total and public investment.
          ITRNCM6D  Sectoral public investment in transport and communications.
          LGPC6070  Least squares log growth rate of GDP per capita (Source: World Bank)
          M260      Money supply (M2) as a percent of GDP for 1960.
          PRIM60    Primary gross enrollment rate for 1960 (Source: World Bank, Social Indicators)
          REVC6070  Total number of revolutions and coups per year between1960 and 1970.
          SEC60     Secondary gross enrollment rate for 1960
          SGDPPC60  Gross domestic product per capita in 1960 (Summers and Heston [1991])
          STRD60    Imports plus exports as percent of GDP (Summers and Heston [1988])

               Note that the variable names refer to the 1960s value but the series are for the entire 3-decade period. For example, STRD60 refers to
          the share of trade in GDP for the initial year of each of the three decades. ITRNCM6D refers to the average public investment in transport and
          communication for each of the three decades. Note that all investment series are expressed as percentages of GDP.

               The source for the public investment series is primarily World Bank Country Reports, which provide data on sectoral public investment.
          These data were consolidated as part of a comprehensive research project on Economic Growth managed by Dr. William Easterly and Dr. Ross
          Levine of The World Bank. Additional data sources used were United Nations and the World Development Report.

               Public investment data for Algeria and Somalia, though provided in the file, was not used in the regressions in tables 5 and 6 because of
          the poor quality of public investment data in these countries.

          HIST.wk1
               This file has historical data for the 28 OECD and Latin American countries listed in the appendix table "Summary Statistics on Historical
          Data-set" of the paper. The country list is repeated at the end of this document. Table 8 in the paper is based on this data. The data is organized
          as a panel. Each country has annual observations from 1870 to 1988 (119 years).

          The 28 countries, each with 119 rows of data, are stacked up in the same country order as in the 28 country list below to give a file with 3,332
          (= 119 * 28) observation cells for each of the 10 variables. The variables in this file are:

          CUSTREV  Share of customs tax revenue in total tax revenue
          DATE     Year of observation
          GREVGDP  Share of government revenue in GDP
          GROWTH   Growth of real per capita GDP
          INCTREV  Share of income tax revenue in total tax revenue
          LGDPPC   Log of real per capita GDP
          LPOP     Log of population
          TRDGDP   Share of Exports plus Imports in GDP
          WWI      Dummy for World War I years
          WWII     Dummy for World War II years

          For further details on the sources and construction of these variables please see the paper.