I propose running a simple cross-country regression with yearly growth as the dependent variable and a measure of annual development research about the country as the explanatory variable. It can be measured as the number of researchers working on "development" or the number of articles published in high quality journals about "development" in the country. Lags and cross-country spillover effects can also be analyzed.
It's common knowledge that development research isn't focused on countries with the biggest problems so endogeneity shouldn't be an issue.
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I predict no relationship. One of the great success stories in the past two decades is Ireland and I have yet come across a development article, in the academic circles, related to Ireland. China is another example. On the other hand, India has been studied endlessly and its now growing at an 8+% clip. But my impression is that economic growth is influenced most by large macroeconomic policy shifts, which is still developed using good old open IS-LM.
Regress growth on development papers and a dummy for English-speaking. Then you have a wonderful measure of how researchers love to study countries where they can speak the language, and feel comparatively safe. Why is so much work done on Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania?
-James
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