This thesis builds on the paper of Reinhart and Rogoff, named ‘Growth in a Time of Debt’. However, this study is focused on Western Countries. It uses another database than the one analyzed by Reinhart and Rogoff. This thesis starts with a simple analysis similar to that of the above mentioned authors. Subsequently, the research is extended by using Panel Data Models. The influence of debt on annual GDP growth is examined. Tax revenues, government expenditure, inflation and real interest rate are taken into account. This is done for an unbalanced panel, a balanced panel and a panel without outliers. The general conclusion is that based on this study it cannot be determined whether debt has a significant impact on the annual GDP growth. All other added variables have a regression coefficient which is expected based on economic theory.