Intelligence and Shadow Economy: a Cross-Country Empirical Assessment

This paper empirically assesses the influence of intelligence on a shadow economy, using data from 158 countries, over the period 1999-2007. The results provide strong evidence for the claim that intelligence is negatively associated with an underground economy. This paper establishes that, on average, a one standard deviation increase in IQ is associated with an 8.5 percentage point reduction in a shadow economy relative to GDP. The negative effect of intelligence remains intact when controlled for conventional antecedents of a shadow economy

Democracy and economic growth: the role of intelligence in cross-country regressions

Empirical literature has long conjectured that institutional arrangements, proxied by democracy, social capital and intelligence, are relevant determinants in cross-country differences in economic performance. Related literature, however, predominantly documents that democracy has either a negative or not significant impact on economic growth, while intelligence is assumed to have strong and direct effect on economic performance. We propose that that the effect of democratization is mediated by the degree of the approval to such policies, and that intelligence may alleviate or diminish the negative effect of weak institutions on economic growth. We empirically, investigate the interactive effect of democracy and intelligence on economic growth, using data from 93 nations, over the period 1970-2013. The results show that the relationship link between democracy and the real GDP growth varies with a nation’s level of cognitive abilities. The results remain robust to various estimation techniques, control variables and time periods

Does intelligence help fighting inflation: an empirical test?

This article empirically investigates the effect of intelligence on inflation, using data from 122 countries, over the period 1990 – 2013. The findings suggest strong evidence for the hypothesis that intelligence is negatively linked to inflation. This paper documents that on average, when national IQ increases from the level of El Salvador (78 points) to that of Malaysia (91.7 points), the long run inflation decreases by 27 percent. In particular, the negative effect of intelligence on inflation is stronger in countries with low levels of democracy. The negative impact of national IQ remains robust when controlled for potential determinants of inflation

Intelligence and Shadow Economy: a Cross-Country Empirical Assessment

This paper empirically assesses the influence of intelligence on a shadow economy, using data from 158 countries, over the period 1999-2007. The results provide strong evidence for the claim that intelligence is negatively associated with an underground economy. This paper establishes that, on average, a one standard deviation increase in IQ is associated with an 8.5 percentage point reduction in a shadow economy relative to GDP. The negative effect of intelligence remains intact when controlled for conventional antecedents of a shadow economy

Do female parliamentarians improve environmental quality? Cross-country evidence

This study explores the empowerment of women in politics on the environmental sustainability. Using data for the period 2015-2019 from 179 countries, we investigate the link between representation of women in parliament and the Environmental Performance Index (EPI). To explore the causal effect, we rely on gender quotas, language intensity and land suitability for agriculture as instruments for the share of women in parliament. Our results suggest that 10 percentage points increase in instrumented proportion of women in parliament leads to 7.1 points increase in the EPI. The results remain robust to a number of robustness checks

Intelligence and finance

This paper explore the effect of intelligence on financial development using data from 180 nations, over the period 2000–2012. The results provide strong support for the claim that intelligence is positively associated with the supply offinance to economy. This paper establishes that, moving from country with the mean IQ score (84.1) to the highest national IQ score (107.1) is associated with 3.6 fold increase in the size of banking sector. The positive effect of intelligence remains intact when we control for other antecedents offinancial development

Government size, intelligence and life satisfaction

Recent studies show that psychological factors such as cognitive ability play an important role in the empirical modeling of life satisfaction and suggest that intelligence is an important proxy for political and intellectual capital. These articles, however, only explore the direct effect of intelligence on subjective wellbeing. In this study, we conjecture that intellectual capital is a mechanism through which the size of bureaucracy impacts life satisfaction. Using data from 147 countries, we find that the interaction term between nation-IQ and government size is positive and significant, suggesting that government size increases life satisfaction most in high-IQ countries and least in countries with lower levels of cognitive abilities

Democracy and economic growth: the role of intelligence in cross-country regressions

Empirical literature has long conjectured that institutional arrangements, proxied by democracy, social capital and intelligence, are relevant determinants in cross-country differences in economic performance. Related literature, however, predominantly documents that democracy has either a negative or not significant impact on economic growth, while intelligence is assumed to have strong and direct effect on economic performance. We propose that that the effect of democratization is mediated by the degree of the approval to such policies, and that intelligence may alleviate or diminish the negative effect of weak institutions on economic growth. We empirically, investigate the interactive effect of democracy and intelligence on economic growth, using data from 93 nations, over the period 1970-2013. The results show that the relationship link between democracy and the real GDP growth varies with a nation’s level of cognitive abilities. The results remain robust to various estimation techniques, control variables and time periods