In this paper we empirically study the relation between public debt and economic

growth. We analyze how the public debt to GDP ratio at a certain point in time

is correlated with the GDP growth rate in the following period, where we consider

a one-year time span, a three-years time interval and a five-years interval. Using

panel data comprising seven developed countries from 1970-2012, we estimate a

pooled regression model and a random effects model. We find strong evidence

for a significantly negative relation between debt and growth. Further, for most

specifications this relationship does not seem to be characterized by non-linearities.