Why doesn’t capita flow to developing countries as predicted by the neoclassical model? Is the explanation simply that cross-country marginal productivity of capital (MPK) is equalized, and if so, why? We revisit these issues by unpacking MPK into its public and private components, since there...

Growth accounting exercises point to aggregate TFP differences as the dominant source of the large cross-country income differences. In this paper, I ask which sectors account for the aggregate TFP gap between rich and poor countries. Data limitations for developing countries have led...

Despite the widely recognised importance of the manufacturing industry for successful development relatively few studies empirically investigate this sector in cross-country analysis. In this paper we attempt to fill this gap in the literature by investigating manufacturing production across a...

We analyze the transitional dynamics of an endogenous growth model with heterogeneous consumption goods. In this model, convergence is driven by two different forces: the diminishing returns to capital and the growth of the relative price between physical and human capital. Because this second...

I broadly summarize the theoretical and recent empirical literatures on human development. Using Gray and Purser’s 1970-2010 database of human development index (HDI) components (income, life expectancy, literacy, gross enrolment ratios) for 135 countries, together with indicators of the...

We derive the aggregate normalized CES production function from idea-based microfoundations where firms are allowed to choose their capital- and labor-augmenting technology optimally from a menu of available technologies. This menu is in turn augmented through factor-specific R&D. The considered...

We use panel data on Mexican manufacturing plants to study the dynamics of plant-level exporting activity at both the extensive and the intensive margins and the connection between exporting dynamics and plant-level total factor productivity growth. We find that exporting activity has a ladder...

In this paper, we empirically assess the impact of government debt on two key determinants of long-term growth, i.e., private investment and productivity, on a panel of 20 OECD economies from 1970 to 2009. Our main finding is that high public debts are followed by significant and linear declines...

In this model of North and South economies, growth is driven by Schumpeterian R&D and by accumulation of two types of human capital, versatile and specialized. The former is school intensive while the latter is on-the-job-training intensive. Growth is endogenous and independent of scale effects....

We construct a Schumpeterian growth model of a common market with following properties. Households can stay as workers or become researchers at some cost. Workers are employed in production and researchers in R&D. Workers are unionized. A larger common market means a wider variety of products...