*Government Size and Implications for Economic Growth*

The authors are Andreas Bergh and Magnus Henrekson and this book is a good summary of ongoing attempts to correlate the size of government with economic growth.

Nonetheless the book does not answer my two longstanding objections to how this literature is sometimes interpreted:

1. To what extent is "economic freedom" actually proxying for "quality of government?" (the link is the best blog post of this year so far, by the way)

2. Why say so much about growth rates and so little about income levels?  The latter are positively correlated with size of government.  You don't have to view big government as causing high per capita income, but at the very least the account of differential growth rates should be consistent with the account of differential levels of per capita income.

Why does AEI price the paperback at $20?  Aren't think tanks supposed to subsidize the books they produce?  Amazon, by the way, was claiming (incorrectly) that there is a hardcover at $30.