Expatriate workers' remittances represent an important source of financing for low- and middle-income countries. No consensus, however, has yet emerged regarding the effect of remittances on economic growth. In a quantitative survey of 538 estimates reported in 95 studies, we find that...

The impact of ICT (information and communication technology) on economic performance has been the subject of academic research for several decades, and despite the remarkable and significant innovation in computer technology, usage, and investments, only a small growth in productivity was...

National borders reduce trade, but most estimates of the border effect seem puzzlingly large. We show that major methodological innovations of the last decade combine to shrink the border effect to a one-third reduction in international trade flows worldwide. The border effect varies across...

Class size reduction mandates are frequent and invariably justified by studies reporting positive effects on student achievement. Yet other studies report no effects, and the literature as a whole awaits correction for potential publication bias. Moreover, if identification drives results...

There is still an ongoing debate on employment effects of minimum wage. Not only the magnitude, but also the direction of the effect is a matter of concern. Economic theory on its own cannot unanimously resolve the dispute as it provides concepts within which both negative and positive effects...

The present paper conducts a meta-analysis of literature on intra-industry spillovers from foreign direct investment, using 97 different outcomes from 67 empirical studies. Apart from the traditional approach, robust meta-regression, random-effects model, and normal probability regression are...

Meta-analysis upweights studies reporting lower standard errors and hence more precision. But in empirical practice, notably in observational research, precision is not given to the researcher. Precision must be estimated, and thus can be p-hacked to achieve statistical significance. Simulations...

An important question in development studies is how abundance of natural resources affects long-term economic growth. No consensus answer, however, has yet emerged, with approximately 40% of empirical papers finding a negative effect, 40% finding no effect, and 20% finding a positive effect....

A key parameter in international economics is the elasticity of substitution between domestic and foreign goods, also called the Armington elasticity. Yet estimates vary widely. We collect 3,524 reported estimates of the elasticity, construct 34 variables that reflect the context in which...

The effect of common currency on bilateral trade also called Rose effect has been examined extensively in past decade. There is a huge variance of results in primary research which drives a large debate. Using meta-analysis we exploit 51 studies and 3254 estimates of rose effect and provide...