This paper looks at the spatial relationship of the average per capita income growth using intra-country or provincial data from 1988 to 2009. The results from the study provide insights on the geographical dimensions of provincial income growth and showed evidence on the role of spatial effects...

This paper surveys the empirical literature on total factor productivity (TFP) and the sources of growth in the East Asian Countries. It raises the queston whether the literature has helped us understand better the factors that have propelled growth in the region. The paper discusses the main...

The foundations of the aggregate production function were long ago thrown into doubt by problems of aggregation and the Cambridge capital theory controversies. Yet the aggregate production function, whether in the familiar form of the Cobb-Douglas, the CES, or the translog, continues to be...

This paper shows that unit labor costs (ulcs), the most widely used measure of competitiveness, can be interpreted as the labor share in output multiplied by a price-adjustment factor. This has three main implications. First, ulcs are not just a technical concept since they embody the social...

This paper evaluates the methodological foundations of some recent attempts to estimate econometrically the degree of market power and the degree of returns to scale in manufacturing. The method discussed is based on estimating the aggregate production function in growth rate form. It is argued,...

This comment raises three main issues about He and Qin's (2004)attempt at modeling investment in the PRC. The first is this author's skepticism about the general applicability of the neoclassical model of investment to the PRC. Second, that their model for business investment, based on the...

This paper shows that previous arguments about the problems in interpreting the coefficients in multiplicative-logarithmic functions, derived from an arbitrary rebasing of the series, are incorrect. In the specific case of the translog production function, the tests for the CES, Cobb-Douglas and...

This paper takes a sample of 16 Asian countries and shows that: (i) Income levels in Asia have not tended to converge during the last 30 years, (ii) There has not been a catch-up process with the US: the initially more advanced Asian countries have reduced the income gap with the US faster....