This paper empirically tests the hypothesis that landed elites may block technological change and economic development if they fear that they will lose future political power (Acemoglu and Robinson (2002, 2006, and 2012). It exploits a plausible exogenous change in the distribution of political...

Since 1980, there has been a steady increase in earnings inequality alongside rapid technological growth in the U.S. economy. To what extent does technological change explain the observed increase in earnings dispersion? How does it affect the optimal progressivity of the tax system? To answer...

We analyze investment decisions when information is costly, with and without delegation to an agent. We use a rational-inattention model and compare it with a canonical signal-extraction model. We identify three "investment conditions". In "sour" conditions, no information is acquired and no...

Untersucht wird das Zusammenspiel von Angebot und Nachfrage im Rahmen von Wachstumsprozessen. Es wird gezeigt, dass auch unter klassischen, auf dem Tausch basierenden Annahmen die Wirtschaftsentwicklung durch die Nachfrage maßgeblich beeinflusst wird. Wachstum setzt die Bereitschaft der...

Baumol's cost disease states that relatively high productivity growth in manufacturing induces a steady increase in the relative price of human services. If demand for these services is inelastic or manufactured goods are necessities, the budget share of these services inexorably rises over time...

Since 1980 there has been a steady increase in earnings inequality alongside rapid technological growth in the U.S. economy. To what extent does technological change explain the observed increase in earnings dispersion? How does it affect the optimal progressivity of the tax system? To answer...

The aim of this paper is to empirically analyze the role that aggregate R&D-expenditures play in economic growth. We introduce a technology of innovation based on R&D-expenditures instead of labor to see how this consideration generates sustainable growth determined endogenously, even if...

R&D-based growth theory suggests that productivity growth is positively correlated with population size or population growth, an implication which is hard to see in the data. Here we integrate micro-founded fertility and schooling into an otherwise standard R&D-based growth model. We then show...

This paper investigates the growth impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in an economy consisting of three sectors: ICT-producing, ICT-using, and non-ICT-using. The ICT progress causes falling prices of the consumption and intermediates produced by the ICT-using sector,...

We analyze the steady state and transitional dynamics of two-sector model with structural change and horizontal innovation. There are three main economic forces could drive structural change: technological progress in one sector, technological progress in the other sector, and capital deepening....