I formulate and estimate a model of externalities within countries and technological interdependence across countries. I find that external returns to scale to physical capital within countries are 8 percent; that a 10 percent increase of total factor productivity of a country's neighbors raises...

We decompose aggregate saving and investment into its public and private components and then document a variety of ``stylized facts'' associated with saving and investment rates for a sample of 15 countries over the period 1975--1989. In order to see whether these empirical relationships are...

Do high levels of human capital foster economic growth by facilitating technology adoption? If so, countries with more human capital should have adopted more rapidly the skilled-labor augmenting technologies becoming available since the 1970’s. High human capital levels should therefore have...

This paper advances a highly tractable model with search theoretic foundations for money and neoclassical growth. In the model, manufacturing and commerce are distinct and separate activities. In manufacturing, goods are efficiently produced combining capital and labor. In commerce, goods are...

In this paper we study the disability transition probabilities (as well as the mortality probabilities) due to concurrent factors to age such as income, gender and education. Although it is well known that ageing and socioeconomic status influence the probability of causing functional disorders,...

In this paper, we explore the links between pension reform, early retirement, and the use of unemployment as an alternative pathway to retirement. We use a dynamic rational expectations model to analyze the search and retirement behaviour of employed and unemployed workers aged 50 or over. The...

The demographic shift underway in Southern Europe requires a revision of some of the fundamental principles of the traditional welfare state. We analyze the evolution of several aspects of welfare and social expenditure over the last two decades. We find that in the context of the present...

In this paper we analyse the observed systematic differences in costs for teaching hospitals (THhenceforth) in Spain. Concern has been voiced regarding the existence of a bias in the financing of TH’s has been raised once prospective budgets are in the arena for hospital finance, and claims...

Many political economic theories use and emphasize the process of voting in their explanation of the growth of Social Security, government spending, and other public policies. But is there an empirical connection between democracy and Social Security program size or design? Using some new...

In this paper we evaluate the quantitative impact that a number of alternative reform scenarios may have on the total expenditure for public pensions in Spain. Our quantitative findings can be summarized in two sentences. For all the reforms considered, the financial impact of the mechanical...