We discuss the implications of informality on growth and fiscal policy by considering an informal sector based on low tech firms, in an open economy model of endogenous growth, where labour supply is elastic and increasing returns arise from public spending. We allow for both labour and capital...

This paper investigates the relationship between economic growth in Poland and selected elements of fiscal policy and private spending on education. We use the Mankiw-Romer-Weil model, augmented with learning-by-doing and spillover-effects and with concepts from the literature on optimal fiscal...

The effect of public investment on economic growth is a crucial public policy issue. Empirical research into this question was stimulated by Aschauer (1989), who suggested that public capital has a powerful impact on the productivity of private capital.Aschauer's results were controversial and...

This chapter reviews the literature that tries to explain the disparity and variation of GDP per worker and GDP per capita across countries and across time. There are many potential explanations for the different patterns of development across countries, including differences in luck, raw...

This paper analyzes the effects of an unfunded pension system on economic growth using an extended overlapping generations model to include the informal sector. Emerging countries usually have a more significant informal sector than advanced ones. The findings based on the Thai economy data...

We propose a method to estimate both whether there is an overall infrastructure shortage and the optimal share of infrastructure in gross fixed capital formation (GFCF). This is based on a two-gap model and linear programming, and is illustrated with the case of Mexico (1950-1985). The results...

The standard procedure for analyzing transitional dynamics in non-linear macro models has been to employ linear approximations. Recently quadratic approximations have been explored. This paper examines the accuracy of these and higher-order approximations in an endogenous growth model with...

This paper analyzes the effects of distortionary taxes on growth and welfare in an endogenous growth model with a public capital externality. The model is calibrated to the U.S. economy, and experiments are run under which the tax regime is shifted from the current mix of capital income, labor...

In this paper we study the equilibrium properties of an endogenous growth model, in which public maintenance expenditures affect the depreciation rate of public capital and the latter is subject to congestion. A rise in 'new' public investment and output also raises the public capital...

This paper: (1) shows that optimal transition dynamics in a simple endogenous growth model can account for much of the behavior of the stock of public capital in the U.S. economy over the last 70 or so years; (2) shows that the observed decline in the U.S. ratio of public to private capital...