The costs of running a regression are falling rapidly, perhaps by 10-15 percent per year. Considerations of costs and benefits suggest that this will cause an increase in the mining ratio, that is, the ratio of the number of regressions made to the number published. An individual researcher’s...

Meta regression analysis is used to extract the best average from a set of N primary studies of one economic parameter. Three averages of the N-set are discussed: The mean, the PET meta-average and the augmented meta-average. They are affected by control variables that are used in some of the...

The authors have previously surveyed the AEL, aid (empirical) effectiveness literature, using the technique of meta-analysis. We reached the result that the small positive effect of aid on growth found in the average study is mostly a publication selection bias. This present study concentrates...

Economic research typically runs J regressions for each selected for publication – it is often selected as the ‘best’ of the regressions. The paper examines five possible meanings of the word ‘best’: SR0 is ideal selection with no bias; SR1 is polishing: selection by statistical fit;...

The purpose of this note is to introduce the technique and main findings of meta-analysis to the reader, who is unfamiliar with the field and has the usual objections. A meta-analysis is a quantitative survey of a literature reporting estimates of the same parameter. The funnel showing the...

The purpose of this article is to introduce the technique and main findings of meta-analysis to the reader, who is unfamiliar with the field and has the usual objections. A meta-analysis is a quantitative survey of a literature reporting estimates of the same parameter. The funnel showing the...

Meta-analysis studies a set of estimates of one parameter with three basic tools: The funnel diagram is the distribution of the estimates as a function of their precision; the funnel asymmetry test, FAT; and the meta average, where PET is an estimate. The FAT-PET MRA is a meta regression...

The effect on aid allocation of the income level and population size in the recipient country is analyzed. The data show that both variables have a significant and robust negative effect, but they explain only a small part of the variation. The main thrust of the paper is a meta-analysis of the...

The empirical literature explaining the driving forces behind the flows of development aid consists of (at least) 166 studies. One factor that has been analyzed in 30 of these studies is growth in the recipient country. A priori the effect may as well be positive as negative. This is an...