Comments on “Globalization, Growth and Volatility”

A Fun (but Preliminary) Paper
· Searching for role of international integration on the negative
effect that volatility has on growth.
An Intrinsically Difficult Mission
· Cross-Country growth regressions not in favor
· Difficult to measure integration
· Lack of structural model => empirics necessarily ad hoc
Plausible Results
· Interactive effect; more real integration dampens effect of
volatility on growth
o No luck on financial integration
o Sensitivity analysis on Ramey-Ramey
Caution #1
· Lots of discussion of (often ambiguous) effects of globalization
on output growth and volatility.
o Should be more on effects on welfare (risk-diversification),
especially for financial integration
Caution #2
· Instrumental variables seem suspicious
o Too many.
o Would like to see first stage fit
o Would like more on institutions
o Many more plausibly exogenous alternatives (legal
systems; mortality rates for clergy and soldiers.
Caution #3
· Key Results hard to grasp
o Volatility goes in and out of significance
o Would like more on volatility/openness relation S
o Some results seem marginal
o Would like to see (joint) F-tests, not just (marginal) t-tests
o Panels omit country- and decade-specific effects.