We consider economic development of sub-Saharan Africa from the perspective of slow convergence of productivity, both across sectors and firms within sectors. Why have 'productivity enclaves', islands of high productivity in a sea of smaller low-productivity firms, not diffused more rapidly? We...

We consider economic development of Sub-Saharan Africa from the perspective of slow convergence of productivity, both across sectors and across firms within sectors. Why have “productivity enclaves”, islands of high productivity in a sea of smaller low-productivity firms, not diffused more...

Empirical data suggest that new firms tend to grow faster than incumbent firms in terms of their productivity. A sticky-price model with learning-by-doing in new firms fits this data and predicts that for plausible calibrations, the optimal long-run inflation rate is positive and between 0.5%...

We analyze the influence of monetary policy on firms’ extensive margin and productivity. Our empirical evidence for the U.S. based on a macro-financial SVAR suggests that expansionary monetary policy shocks stimulate corporate profits, reduce firm exit and increase firm entry. In the medium...

We develop a general equilibrium model of an emerging market economy where productivity growth differentials between tradable and non-tradable sectors result in an equilibrium appreciation of the real exchange rate - the so-called Balassa-Samuelson effect. The paper explores the dynamic...

Objective - The manufacturing sector plays an important role in any economy. However, Africa has experienced significant deindustrialisation over the last few decades, whilst economic growth has been on an upward trend over the same period. The high growth rates have mostly been propelled by...

In the last few decades, real GDP growth and investment in advanced countries have declined in tandem. This slowdown was not the result of weak demand (there has been no shift along the Okun curve), but of a decline in potential output growth (which has shifted the Okun curve to the left). We...

In the early 1990's, the Argentine government promoted a framework for productivity-based negotiations between firms and unions at low levels of organization. The policy weakened the industry-wide collective bargaining system, which sets working conditions for all firms in an industry. This...