The Impact of U.S. Economic Growth on the Rest of the World: How Much Does It Matter?

This paper attempts to quantify the extent to which U.S. growth is an “engine” of the world economy. Results based on fixed-effects estimation using panel data suggest a significant positive impact of U.S. growth on growth in the rest of the world, especially developing countries, in recent decades. The impact is as large as one-for-one in some specifications. The results are robust to alternative specifications and to the alternative claim that world growth in recent decades has been driven predominantly by common global shocks.