This paper examines the extent to which the process of globalization can explain the observed widening in the cross--country distribution of output--per--worker. In particular examine whether the opening up of trade in a Hecksher--Ohlin type model of trade can explain the observed changes. On...

Over the last few decades, countries have experienced quite different patterns of productivity growth. In this paper, we emphasize the role of country level demographics in explaining these differences. In particular, looking over the period 1960-2002, we show that cross-country data support the...

This paper is motivated by a set of cross-country observations on labor productivity growth among industrial countries over the period 1960-1997. In particular, we show that over this period, the speed of convergence among industrialized countries has decreased substantially while the negative...

This papers examines changes in the distribution of per-worker-output across countries over the period 1960-98, with a particular focus on identifying the forces behind the hollowing out of the middle of the distribution and the associated emergence of a twin-peaks phenomenon. The main finding...

This paper presents a model of macroeconomic fluctuations driven by agents competing to secure shares in new markets. The resulting fluctuation resemble a gold rush in the sence that they increase economic activity but may be of limited social gain. We use different techniques to evaluate the...

Why have some countries done so much better than others over the recent past? This paper sheds light on this issue by providing a decomposition of the change in the distribution of output per worker across countries over the period 1960-1998. We find that most of the change in shape of the world...

Cross-country observations on the effects of population growth are used to show why differences in rates of growth in working-age population may be a key to understanding differences in economic performance across industrialized countries over the period 1975-1997 versus 1960-1974. In...