Comments on the article Proxying Human Capital:
Tim Lundeen writes: There is an interesting analysis based on the IQ of Nations [here and here]. This analysis shows a 0.9 correlation between the "smart fraction" of a country with verbal IQ over 106 and per capita GDP. This is an astounding number, if it is in fact correct.
Raw data:
The Hypothesis (Smart Fraction Theory II):
where IQ0 is the threshold IQ, Pi(t) is the IQ density function of nation i and zi is a vector with control variables which are allowed to enter in a non-linear fashion (acutally, it should be an "economic system" dummy).
I really enjoyed reading the article (although it is clear that the smart fraction variable is endogenous (Mean IQ is a function of GDP per capita, this holds at least for the poorest and malnourished countries) and then there is always the problem of multicollinearity); see Tyler's post on Education and Economic Development). Maybe of interest: I run the regression ln(gdp per capita) = α + β(mean iq) (semi-log model) and could explain actually the same amount of variation as the La Griffe du Lion model ;-D.
Tim Lundeen writes: There is an interesting analysis based on the IQ of Nations [here and here]. This analysis shows a 0.9 correlation between the "smart fraction" of a country with verbal IQ over 106 and per capita GDP. This is an astounding number, if it is in fact correct.
Raw data:
The Hypothesis (Smart Fraction Theory II):
In market economies, per capita GDP is directly proportional to the population fraction with verbal IQ at or above some determinable threshold.More technically:
where IQ0 is the threshold IQ, Pi(t) is the IQ density function of nation i and zi is a vector with control variables which are allowed to enter in a non-linear fashion (acutally, it should be an "economic system" dummy).
I really enjoyed reading the article (although it is clear that the smart fraction variable is endogenous (Mean IQ is a function of GDP per capita, this holds at least for the poorest and malnourished countries) and then there is always the problem of multicollinearity); see Tyler's post on Education and Economic Development). Maybe of interest: I run the regression ln(gdp per capita) = α + β(mean iq) (semi-log model) and could explain actually the same amount of variation as the La Griffe du Lion model ;-D.
Mahalanobis - am 2004-09-28 04:24 - Rubrik: economics
