This paper uses cross country regression analysis on a large set of countries to consider two hypotheses. The first is that increased public debt as a percentage of the economy reduces confidence in financial institutions. The second is that increased public debt relative to the economy lowers...

The paper uses cross country regression analysis on a data set consisting of one hundred thirty countries for the year 2008 to test whether better auditing standards lead to lower levels of corruption. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that improved auditing standards reduce corruption.

The paper employs cross country regression analysis to estimate the effect of democracy and income inequality, adjusting for the level of income and other variables, on country innovation. It finds that both of these variables are of consequence for innovation. Different countries innovate at...