Investigating Factors Affecting on Per Capita GDP Growth in Different Groups of Countries with Emphasis on Governance Indicators

Proposed by the World Bank, in which the emphasis is on the participation of all sectors in order to achieve comprehensive development in economic, political, social and cultural fields. In this research, by using data of governance quality in 97 countries in 2000-2012, using panel data method, the effect of governance quality index and its sub-indices on the growth rate of per capita GDP is studied. To achieve the comparable results, countries have divided into five groups with low income (first group), with lower than average income (second group), with higher than average income (third group), high income and non-OECD (Group 4) and high-income and OECD (Group 5) countries. Then the effects of some explanatory variables such as governance indicator and its sub-indices on the per capita GDP is estimated for each group of countries separately. The results of the research indicate that in the studied period and for the countries under study, the governance indicator and its sub-indices do not have the same effects on GDP per capita in different groups of countries. Voice and accountability index has a positive significant effect on per capita GDP growth only in three groups of countries (third, fourth and fifth groups). Political stability index only has a positive significant effect on per capita GDP growth in the third group. The government efficiency indicator only has a positive significant effect on per capita GDP growth in the third, fourth and fifth groups. In the first group, only the regulatory quality index has a positive significant effect on per capita GDP growth. This difference in the way indicators are used implies a difference in regulatory policies in order to influence the per capita GDP growth in different groups of countries.