Knowledge capital and total factor productivity

Development of “new economies” leading to economies mostly based on knowledge implies the construction of new long-term macroeconometric models. They should incorporate the impacts of new technologies being endogenized, as well as human capital. The paper discusses several issues related to the extension of the notion of production function. They cover first of all the measurement and explanation of total factor productivity (TFP), the role of domestic and foreign R&D expenditures, as well as educational expenditures. The discussion is extended to include proposals to construct new submodels explaining the sections of research and education and also the ICT industries.