Quantitative cross-national studies of economic development: A comparison of the economics and sociology literatures

For more than two decades, economists and sociologists have pursued paralle l cross-national quantitative investigations of the determinants of economi c development. These investigations have proceeded in mutual ignorance desp ite the often large overlap in statistical methods and data employed. Appar ently contradictory findings have resulted, especially regarding the impact s of international trade and foreign direct investment. We find that there are two factors that account for these inconsistent results. One key factor is the use of different variables to measure international trade and inves tment, the choice of which is in turn driven by underlying differences in t heoretical motivations. A second important difference involves sociologists ' greater preoccupation with more complex multivariate models versus econom ists' greater willingness to focus on individual variables in multivariate regressions while viewing others as "controls." A major finding of our surv ey is that when the same variables are used, the results of economists and sociologists tend to be consistent, rather than contradictory (as might hav e occurred, for example, because of the use of different samples of countri es or time periods, or the use of other variables included in the regressio n equations). We also consider some studies whose purviews go beyond econom ic growth to consider factors such as income inequality, physical quality o f life, demographic change, and basic needs provisioning.