Pre-registration
Across a pre-registered narrower OECD/market-peer panel from 1996 to 2021, larger public-debt shares predict slower real GDP per capita growth after country and year fixed effects and basic macro controls. This tests the debt-overhang, future-tax-expectation, and sovereign-risk channels as a second-wave market-order hypothesis rather than reusing the Heritage latest-year cross-section.
Falsification criterion — what would disprove this
This hypothesis is considered falsified if:
SUPPORTED if the coefficient on public_debt_share is negatively signed at p<0.10 with at least 30 usable observations after listwise deletion. REFUTED if the coefficient is significantly opposite-signed at p<0.10. Otherwise PARTIAL.
formal test & threshold
test: panel_fe_market_order_public_debt_gdp_pc_growth_panel threshold: [object Object]
Method
- Template
panel_fe- Fixed effects
country, year- Clustering
country- Sample
- 33 countries · 1996 – 2021
- Evidence type
- associational
Primary test is two-way fixed effects with country-clustered standard errors. This is a registered associational hurdle; causal promotion requires a sharper subsequent design.
Data
| Variable | Source | Transform |
|---|---|---|
gdp_pc_growth outcome | world_bank_wdi:NY.GDP.PCAP.KD.ZGtier 2 | level |
public_debt_share treatment | world_bank_wdi:GC.DOD.TOTL.GD.ZStier 2 | level |
log_gdp_pc_ppp control | world_bank_wdi:NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KDtier 2 | log |
population_growth control | world_bank_wdi:SP.POP.GROWtier 2 | level |
trade_openness_control control | world_bank_wdi:NE.TRD.GNFS.ZStier 2 | level |
● ready · ● pending · ● reconstruct-needed
Detailed result card
Result card — market_order_public_debt_gdp_pc_growth_panel
Verdict: PARTIAL — coef=-0.0007575, p=0.919 (above α=0.1); direction inconclusive
Pre-registration
- Claim: Across a pre-registered narrower OECD/market-peer panel from 1996 to 2021, larger public-debt shares predict slower real GDP per capita growth after country and year fixed effects and basic macro controls. This tests the debt-overhang, future-tax-expectation, and sovereign-risk channels as a second-wave market-order hypothesis rather than reusing the Heritage latest-year cross-section.
- Falsification rule: SUPPORTED if the coefficient on public_debt_share is negatively signed at p<0.10 with at least 30 usable observations after listwise deletion. REFUTED if the coefficient is significantly opposite-signed at p<0.10. Otherwise PARTIAL.
- Falsification test: panel_fe_market_order_public_debt_gdp_pc_growth_panel
Estimate
- Method: linearmodels.PanelOLS
- Coefficient (treatment): -0.0007575
- Std error: 0.007416
- p-value: 0.919
- Observations: 231, countries: 12
- Within R²: -0.116
- Fixed effects: entity=True, time=True
- Clustering: country
Variables resolved
world_bank_wdi:NY.GDP.PCAP.KD.ZG→ gdp_pc_growth (outcome, publisher=world_bank_wdi, n=13897)world_bank_wdi:GC.DOD.TOTL.GD.ZS→ public_debt_share (treatment, publisher=world_bank_wdi, n=1788)world_bank_wdi:NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD→ log_gdp_pc_ppp (controls, publisher=world_bank_wdi, n=8325)world_bank_wdi:SP.POP.GROW→ population_growth (controls, publisher=world_bank_wdi, n=16672)world_bank_wdi:NE.TRD.GNFS.ZS→ trade_openness_control (controls, publisher=world_bank_wdi, n=10714)
Generated by scripts/run_panel_fe.py at 2026-06-29T17:52:25+00:00
Strongest opposing argument
Every hypothesis ships with its charitable opposing argument. The framework earns credibility by handling objections at their strongest, not weakest.
Notes
Second-wave market-order panel test. Do not edit v1 after first run.