For every 1% increase in the number of lawyers, economic growth falls 3% (1986)
<i>>This paper uses international cross-section data to provide a simple test of this hypothesis. Despite the crudeness of the test, the small size of the sample and possible ambiguities in interpretation, the results provide a tentative confirmation of the hypothesis.</i><p>Doesn’t sound very reliable, especially being from 1986 when we generally had a much less sophisticated understanding of the intricacies of statistics and hypothesis testing.<p>Conversely to the paper’s implication, too many lawyers can also be seen as evidence of a society based on the rule of the law, with strong legal institutions, processes, separation of powers and other patterns of integrity, and lack of rule by decree in any form, all of which are valuable and possibly necessary components of sustainable economic growth.  In such a society, law will naturally be one of the more prestigious and attractive professions.<p>I’m sure there’s some optimal ratio of lawyers to scientists|engineers|teachers|builders and other productive professions, where exceeding that ratio results in lower than optimal growth.  But even a society with too many lawyers probably has stronger growth than one with none.