Could the answer to our economic problems be in every man's pants?
One researcher, Tatu Westling from the University of Helsinki, took a long, hard look at this issue.
In his research paper comparing average penile length (erect) and GDP growth, Westling introduces the "male organ hypothesis", which states that "penises carry economic significance".
In the abstract he writes, "The size of the male organ is found to have an inverse U-shaped relationship with the level of GDP in 1985. It can alone explain over 15% of the variation in GDP. The GDP maximizing size is around 13.5 centimetres [5.31 inches], and a collapse in economic development is identified as the size of male organ exceeds 16 centimetres [6.30 inches]."
The Huffington Post has reproduced Westling's chart of erect penis length (inches) vs per capita GDP (1985) below:
Westling also found, "Economic growth between 1960 and 1985 is negatively associated with the size of male organ, and it alone explains 20% of the variation in GDP growth."
He thinks it's "quite penetrating an argument" but the study doesn't seem to have that much girth to it.
"It started as a half-serious attempt, but frankly speaking I did not expect the correlations to be so robust as they turned out to be, Westling told the Global Post. "Hence the seriousness increased as the study proceeded, and I may submit it to an economics journal at some point. But seriousness does not imply that I believe in causality at this point.
Perhaps it's even mocking the sausage factory approach some academics take to research.
This study comes following a South Korean penis length study that indicated the ratio of a index figer to a ring finger on a man's right hand could determine penis length.
Need more information? Someone also created a map of penis sizes worldwide.