|
on Development |
| By: | Oliviero A. Carboni; Giuseppe Medda |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a non-linear theoretical relationship between public spending and economic growth. The model identifies the “optimal” size of government and the “optimal” composition of government spending. Given the size of the government, different allocations of public resources lead to different growth rates in the transition dynamics, depending on their elasticity. We argue that neglecting the hypothesis of non-linearity and the different impact different kinds of public spending have on economic performance results in models which suffer from mis-specification. Traditional linear regression analysis may thus be biased |
| Keywords: | neoclassical and augmented growth models, fiscal policy; public spending composition |
| JEL: | E62 O40 H50 E13 H20 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:200701&r=dev |
| By: | David, DE LA CROIX (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Department of Economics); Clara, DELAVALLADE |
| Abstract: | Corruption is thought to prevent poor countries from catching-up. We analyze one channel through which corruption hampers growth : public investment can be distorted in favor of specific types of spending for which rent-seeking is easier and better concealed. To study this distortion, we propose an optimal growth model where households vote for the composition of public spending subject to an incentive constraint reflecting individualsÕ choice between productive activity and rent-seeking. At equilibrium, the intensity of corruption and the structure of public investment are determined by the predatory technology and the distribution of political power. Among different regimes, the model shows a possible scenario of distortion without corruption in which there is no effective corruption yet still the possibility of corruption distorts the allocation of public investment, thus hampering growth. We test the implications of the model on a panel of countries estimating a system of equations which instrumental variables. We find that countries with a high predatory technology invest more in housing and physical capital in comparison with health and education. For equal initial conditions, such countries grow slower and have higher corruption, in particular when political power is concentrated |
| Keywords: | Public investment, Optimal growth, Corruption, Political power |
| JEL: | H50 D73 |
| Date: | 2006–10–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvec:2006056&r=dev |
| By: | Gustav Ranis (Economic Growth Center, Yale University) |
| Abstract: | Migration of the unskilled clearly benefits the origin country, mainly due to the flow of remittances but also if the departure of some raises the ability of others to migrate. This depends on whether trade is a complement or a substitute for migration. The impact of such flows on the destination country is more ambiguous, although most research indicates that wages and employment are not likely to be seriously affected. Migration of the skilled is ambiguous with respect to the origin country since the impact of brain drain on local development must be weighed against the signaling effect for additional education plus the contribution of remittances. With respect to the destination country, the inflow of skilled labor is generally considered an unambiguous plus as it contributes to the enhancement of productivity. The paper concludes with policy recommendations aimed at seizing the opportunities arising from the fact that international migration remains the most constrained element of globalization. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Trade, Globalization |
| JEL: | O11 O15 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egc:wpaper:950&r=dev |
| By: | Douglas L. Miller; Anna Paulson |
| Abstract: | More than 35% of Thai households either give or receive remittances, and remittances account for about one-third of the income of the receiving households. Remittance relationships may be an important source of protection against adverse events for the individuals involved. This paper provides evidence that remittances behave in a way that is consistent with insurance: they are sensitive to shocks to regional rainfall and they respond to household level events. The paper goes on to consider how the quality of insurance that is offered through remittances affects household risk taking behavior. Specifically, we show that the likelihood and the amount of gambling increase with the quality of informal insurance. The findings suggest that households who are more insured shift their portfolios toward riskier investments. |
| Keywords: | Gambling industry ; Payment systems ; Insurance |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-07-01&r=dev |
| By: | Sudip Ranjan Basu (IUHEI, The Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva) |
| Abstract: | The paper develops a new measure of development, namely, development quality Index (DQI), to compare performance of China and India. The results show that national level development quality grew three times faster in China than in India. Conversely, the health quality grew three times as fast in India than China over the period 1980-2004. The overall regional development quality level improved in both countries, but polarization widened in China. The sign of inter-regional polarization in China indicates a rising concentration of development gains from economic reform policies, while in recent years there are trends of polarization in economic dimension of DQI in India. |
| Keywords: | Development, Inequality, Polarization, China, India |
| JEL: | C43 D63 O18 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:giihei:heiwp01-2007&r=dev |
| By: | Sylvie Demurger (HIEBS - Hong Kong Institute of Economics and Business Strategy - [The Hong Kong University]); Martin Fournier (GATE - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - [CNRS : UMR5824] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines]); Shi Li (School of Economics and Business - [Beijing Normal University]) |
| Abstract: | Using newly available spatial price deflators, this paper shows that inequality evaluations in the literature<br />overstate the magnitude of inequality and inequality changes in China, as well as the role played by regional differences in the recent inequality rise. |
| Keywords: | Inequality; China; Spatial price deflators; Inequality decomposition |
| Date: | 2007–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00120375_v1&r=dev |
| By: | Sylvie Demurger (HIEBS - Hong Kong Institute of Economics and Business Strategy - [The Hong Kong University], GATE - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - [CNRS : UMR5824] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines]); Weiyong Yang (University of International Business and Economics (Beijing) - [University of International Business and Economics (Beijing)]) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses provincial macro-data from the mid 1980s onwards to investigate the determinants of land-use choice in rural China, by paying particular<br />attention to the decision to plant trees as competing with agriculture. The evidence supports the importance of economic motivations in the afforestation decision. A profitseeking behavior is found to be at stake in the decision to plant trees, which is made according to both the relative profitability of forestry against agriculture, and their relative risks. Afforestation is also found to strongly depend on the pressure upon land as well as<br />on household wealth. |
| Keywords: | afforestation incentives; rural China |
| Date: | 2007–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00120383_v1&r=dev |
| By: | Sjöholm, Fredrik (European Institute of Japanese Studies) |
| Abstract: | Equitization (privatization) has been at the core of the policy debate in Vietnam over the last decade but the government’s attitude seems ambivalent. On the one hand, equitization is emphasized in policy statements. On the other, the progress on equitization has been relatively modest and SOEs continue to dominate the Vietnamese economy. This paper examines SOEs and the equitization process in Vietnam. We compare the development with guidelines from economic theory and with lessons from privatization programs in other countries. Equitization in Vietnam is found to target small SOEs and no larger ones, and it does not address the efficiency problem with state ownership since the state typically remains a controlling share of the equitized SOEs. Moreover, economic theory and experience from other countries suggest that the Vietnamese approach with diffused ownership in SOEs and in equitized firms; equitization to employees and management; and little participation of strategic investors, might not be the most efficient approach to public ownership and to equitization. We argue in this paper that Vietnam still has an opportunity to change its approach towards SOEs and equitization and thereby secure increased efficiency and economic growth. |
| Keywords: | State Owned Enterprises; Privatization; Equitization; Vietnam |
| JEL: | L32 P21 P31 |
| Date: | 2006–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:eijswp:0228&r=dev |
| By: | Isaac Ehrlich |
| Abstract: | This paper offers a thesis as to why the US overtook the UK and other European countries in the 20th century in both aggregate and per-capita GDP, as a case study of recent models of endogenous growth where human capital is the "engine of growth". The conjecture is that the ascendancy of the US as an economic superpower owes in large measure to its relatively faster human capital formation. Whether the thesis has legs to stand on is assessed through stylized facts indicating that the US led other OECD countries in schooling attainments per adult population over the 20 century, especially at the secondary and tertiary levels. While human capital is viewed as the direct facilitator of growth, the underlying factors driving the US ascendancy are linked to the superior returns the political-economic system in the US has so far offered individual human capital attainments, both home-produced and imported. |
| JEL: | H1 I2 N1 N3 O0 O4 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12868&r=dev |
| By: | Jess Benhabib; Boyan Jovanovic |
| Abstract: | We ask what level of migration would maximize world welfare. We find that skill-neutral policies are never optimal. An egalitarian welfare function induces a policy that entails moving mainly unskilled immigrants into the rich countries, whereas a welfare function skewed highly towards the rich countries induces an optimal policy that entails a brain-drain from the poor countries. For intermediate welfare functions that moderately favor the rich however, it is optimal to have no migration at all. |
| JEL: | O0 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12871&r=dev |
| By: | Eric V. Edmonds; Nina Pavcnik; Petia Topalova |
| Abstract: | Do the short and medium term adjustment costs associated with trade liberalization influence schooling and child labor decisions? We examine this question in the context of India's 1991 tariff reforms. Overall, in the 1990s, rural India experienced a dramatic increase in schooling and decline in child labor. However, communities that relied heavily on employment in protected industries before liberalization do not experience as large an increase in schooling or decline in child labor. The data suggest that this failure to follow the national trend of increasing schooling and diminishing work is associated with a failure to follow the national trend in poverty reduction. Schooling costs appear to play a large role in this relationship between poverty, schooling, and child labor. Extrapolating from our results, our estimates imply that roughly half of India's rise in schooling and a third of the fall in child labor during the 1990s can be explained by falling poverty and therefore improved capacity to afford schooling. |
| JEL: | F14 F16 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12884&r=dev |
| By: | Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg; Nina Pavcnik |
| Abstract: | We discuss recent empirical research on how globalization has affected income inequality in developing countries. We begin with a discussion of conceptual issues regarding the measurement of globalization and inequality. Next, we present empirical evidence on the evolution of globalization and inequality in several developing countries during the 1980s and 1990s. We then examine the channels through which globalization may have affected inequality discussing theory and evidence in parellel. We conclude with directions for future research. |
| JEL: | F10 F16 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12885&r=dev |
| By: | Diego Comin; Bart Hobijn |
| Abstract: | We introduce a tractable model of endogenous growth in which the returns to innovation are determined by the technology adoption decisions of the users of new technologies. Technology adoption involves an implementation investment that determines the initial productivity of a new technology. After implementation, learning increases the productivity of a technology to its full potential. In this framework, implementation enhances growth, while growth increases obsolescence and reduces implementation. In a calibrated version of our model, the optimal policy involves a subsidy to capital and to implementation and a R&D tax. This policy would lead to a welfare improvement of 7.6 percent. Out of steady-state analysis yields that the transitional dynamics of the detrended variables after a shock to capital are very similar to the dynamics of the neoclassical growth model, but transitory shocks have permanent effects on the level of productivity. |
| JEL: | O0 O3 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12886&r=dev |
| By: | Dalton Conley; Gordon C. McCord; Jeffrey D. Sachs |
| Abstract: | Much of Africa has not yet gone through a "demographic transition" to reduced mortality and fertility rates. The fact that the continent's countries remain mired in a Malthusian crisis of high mortality, high fertility, and rapid population growth (with an accompanying state of chronic extreme poverty) has been attributed to many factors ranging from the status of women, pro-natalist policies, poverty itself, and social institutions. There remains, however, a large degree of uncertainty among demographers as to the relative importance of these factors on a comparative or historical basis. Moreover, econometric estimation is complicated by endogeneity among fertility and other variables of interest. We attempt to improve estimation (particularly of the effect of the child mortality variable) by deploying exogenous variation in the ecology of malaria transmission and in agricultural productivity through the staggered introduction of Green Revolution, high-yield seed varieties. Results show that child mortality (proxied by infant mortality) is by far the most important factor among those explaining aggregate total fertility rates, followed by farm productivity. Female literacy (or schooling) and aggregate income do not seem to matter as much, comparatively. |
| JEL: | I1 J11 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12892&r=dev |
| By: | McKenzie, David; Rapoport, Hillel |
| Abstract: | The authors examine the role of migration networks in determining self-selection patterns of Mexico-U.S. migration. They first present a simple theoretical framework showing how such networks impact on migration incentives at different education levels and, consequently, how they are likely to affect the expected skill composition of migration. Using survey data from Mexico, the authors then show that the probability of migration is increasing with education in communities with low migrant networks, but decreasing with education in communities with high migrant networks. This is consistent with positive self-selection of migrants being driven by high migration costs, and with negative self-selection of migrants being driven by lower returns to education in the U.S. than in Mexico. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Voluntary and Involuntary Resettlement,Human Migrations & Resettlements,Anthropology,Technology Industry |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4118&r=dev |
| By: | Fares, Jean; Raju, Dhushyanth |
| Abstract: | The aim of this study is two-fold. First, based on summary data at the country-level for an unusually large set of developing countries originally obtained from household sample surveys conducted between 1993 and 2003, the authors construct a detailed profile of child economic activity and child labor, attempting, wherever the data permit, to identify similarities and differences across regions and between genders. Second, they link the country-level data on child economic activity and child labor to country-level indicators of the state of economic and social development in the same time period in order to (1) ascertain if cross-country correlations previously identified in the literature are found in the data, and (2) illumine other possible correlations that may exist. As part of this exercise, the authors examine one important relationship that has thus far not been directly investigated in the literature, namely, the cross-country correlation between child labor, agriculture, and poverty. |
| Keywords: | Street Children,Youth and Governance,Children and Youth,Primary Education,Educational Sciences |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4119&r=dev |
| By: | Kim, Namsuk |
| Abstract: | A puzzle in the recently stagnated economy of Jamaica is that high rates of unemployment have persisted even when real wages have been increasing. This paper examines aspects of the labor supply in an effort to understand why high rates of unemployment have existed with increasing real wages. This is a sign of a badly functioning labor market. The cross-sectional analysis suggests that remittances have some impact on labor supply, especially on labor market participation. The pseudo panel data analysis also confirms that remittances have a strong impact on labor participation but not on weekly working hours. Households with remittance income have a higher reservation wage and have reduced the supply of labor by moving out of the labor force. |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets,Population Policies,Remittances,Banks & Banking Reform,Economic Growth |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4120&r=dev |
| By: | Barrera-Osorio, Felipe |
| Abstract: | In 1999 the city of Bogota, Colombia launched the concession school program designed to broaden the coverage and quality of basic education. It consists of a contract between a group of private schools and the public educational system such that private agents provide education for low-income students. This paper tests three main hypotheses concerning the impact of concessions on the quality of education: first, dropout rates are lower in concession schools than in similar public schools; second, other public schools nearby the concession schools have lower dropout rates in comparison with other public schools outside the area of influence; and third, test scores from concession schools are higher than scores in similar public schools. The paper presents evidence in favor of the three hypotheses using propensity score and matching estimators. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Education For All,Secondary Education,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4121&r=dev |
| By: | Hanushek, Eric A.; Woessmann, Ludger |
| Abstract: | The role of improved schooling, a central part of most development strategies, has become controversial because expansion of school attainment has not guaranteed improved economic conditions. This paper reviews the role of education in promoting economic well-being, focusing on the role of educational quality. It concludes that there is strong evidence that the cognitive skills of the population-rather than mere school attainment-are powerfully related to individual earnings, to the distribution of income, and to economic growth. New empirical results show the importance of both minimal and high-level skills, the complementarity of skills and the quality of economic institutions, and the robustness of the relationship between skills and growth. International comparisons incorporating expanded data on cognitive skills reveal much larger skill deficits in developing countries than generally derived from just school enrollment and attainment. The magnitude of change needed makes it clear that closing the economic gap with industrial countries will require major structural changes in schooling institutions. |
| Keywords: | Education For All,Teaching and Learning,Primary Education,Tertiary Education,Secondary Education |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4122&r=dev |
| By: | Jacoby, Hanan G.; Mansuri, Ghazala |
| Abstract: | Although sharecropping has long fascinated economists, the determinants of this contractual form are still poorly understood and the debate over the extent of moral hazard is far from settled. The authors address both issues by emphasizing the role of landlord supervision. When tenant effort is observable, but at a cost to the landlord, otherwise identical share-tenants can receive different levels of supervision and have different productivity. Unique data on monitoring frequency collected from sharetenants in rural Pakistan confirm that, controlling for selection, " supervised " tenants are significantly more productive than " unsupervised " ones. Landlords ' decisions regarding the intensity of supervision and the type of incentive contract to offer depend importantly on the cost of supervising tenants. |
| Keywords: | Contract Law,Economic Theory & Research,Investment and Investment Climate,Municipal Housing and Land,Urban Housing |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4125&r=dev |
| By: | Jacoby, Hanan G.; Mansuri, Ghazala |
| Abstract: | In a setting where husbands wield considerable coercive power, forms of marriage should adapt to protect the interests of women and their families. The authors study the pervasive marriage custom of watta satta in rural Pakistan, a bride exchange between families coupled with a mutual threat of retaliation. They show that watta satta may be a mechanism to coordinate the actions of two sets of in-laws, each of whom wish to restrain their sons-in-law but who only have the ability to restrain their sons. The authors ' empirical results support this view. The likelihood of marital inefficiency, as measured by estrangement, domestic abuse, and wife ' s mental health, is significantly lower in watta satta arrangements as compared with conventional marriages, but only after properly accounting for selection. |
| Keywords: | Population & Development,Anthropology,Education and Society,Gender and Law,Gender and Law |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4126&r=dev |
| By: | Silva, Patricia; Klytchnikova, Irina; Radevic, Dragana |
| Abstract: | The Government of Montenegro is preparing an electricity tariff reform due to recent developments in the national and regional electricity markets. Electricity tariffs for residential consumers in Montenegro are likely to gradually increase by anywhere from 40 to over 100 percent. This significant price rise will impose a heavy burden on poor households and it may adversely affect the environment. In an ex-ante investigation of the welfare impact of this price increase on households in Montenegro, the authors show that the anticipated price increase will result in a significant increase in households ' energy expenditures. A simulation of alternative policy measures analyzes the impact of different tariff levels and structures on the poor and vulnerable households in particular. Higher electricity prices could also significantly increase the proportion of households using fuelwood for space heating. |
| Keywords: | Energy Production and Transportation,Electric Power,Environment and Energy Efficiency,Energy and Environment,Engineering |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4127&r=dev |
| By: | Cull, Robert; Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad |
| Abstract: | This paper describes the recent trends in foreign bank ownership in developing countries, summarizes the existing evidence on the causes and implications of foreign bank presence, and reexamines the link between banking crises and foreign bank participation. Using data on the share of banking sector assets held by foreign banks in over 100 developing countries during 1995-2002, the results show that countries that experienced a banking crisis tended to have higher levels of foreign bank participation than those that did not. Furthermore, panel regressions indicate that foreign participation increased as a result of crises rather than prior to them. However, post-crisis increases in foreign participation did not coincide with increased credit to the private sector, perhaps because in many cases foreign banks acquired distressed banks. |
| Keywords: | Banks & Banking Reform,Foreign Direct Investment,Corporate Law,Privatization,Financial Crisis Management & Restructuring |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4128&r=dev |
| By: | Lane, Philip R.; Schmukler, Sergio L. |
| Abstract: | Three main features characterize the international financial integration of China and India. First, while only having a small global share of privately-held external assets and liabilities (with the exception of China ' s foreign direct investment liabilities), these countries are large holders of official reserves. Second, their international balance sheets are highly asymmetric: both are " short equity, long debt. " Third, China and India have improved their net external positions over the past decade although, based on their income level, neoclassical models would predict them to be net borrowers. Domestic financial developments and policies seem essential in understanding these patterns of integration. These include financial liberalization and exchange rate policies, domestic financial sector policies, and the impact of financial reform on savings and investment rates. Changes in these factors will affect the international financial integration of China and India (through shifts in capital flows and asset and liability holdings) and, consequently, the international financial system. |
| Keywords: | Investment and Investment Climate,Economic Theory & Research,Banks & Banking Reform,Capital Flows,Financial Economics |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4132&r=dev |
| By: | van de Walle, Dominique; Ren Mu |
| Abstract: | While most economists assume that aid is fungible, most aid donors behave as if it is not. The authors study recipient government responses to development project aid in the context of a specific World Bank-financed project. They estimate the impact of a rural road rehabilitation project in Vietnam on the kilometers of roads actually rehabilitated and built. Using local-level survey data collected for this purpose, the authors test whether the evidence supports the standard economic argument that there will be little or no impact on rural roads rehabilitated, given fungibility. They find evidence that, although project aid impacts on rehabilitated road kilometers were less than intended, more roads were built in project areas. The results suggest that there was fungibility within the sector, but that aid largely stuck to that sector. |
| Keywords: | Transport Economics Policy & Planning,Rural Roads & Transport,Rural Transport,Roads & Highways,Housing & Human Habitats |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4133&r=dev |
| By: | Wagstaff, Adam |
| Abstract: | Vietnam ' s Health Care Fund for the Poor (HCFP) uses government revenues to finance health care for the poor, ethnic minorities living in selected mountainous provinces designated as difficult, and all households living in communes officially designated as highly disadvantaged. The program, which started in 2003, did not as of 2004 include all these groups, but those who were included (about 15 percent of the population) were disproportionately poor. Estimates of the program ' s impact-obtained using single differences and propensity score matching on a trimmed sample-suggest that HCFP has substantially increased service utilization, especially in-patient care, and has reduced the risk of catastrophic spending. It has not, however, reduced average out-of-pocket spending, and appears to have had negligible impacts on utilization among the poorest decile. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring & Evaluation,Health Economics & Finance,Housing & Human Habitats,Health Law,Health Systems Development & Reform |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4134&r=dev |
| By: | Marek Hudon (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and Harvard University, Boston.) |
| Abstract: | Fair prices have been recently addressed through debates on fair trade or fair wage. This paper addresses the fairness of credits to the poor. It first analyzes a few definitions of fair interest rates. It then determines the extent of the ‘just’ range of a price, its major constraints and the methodology to assess the fairness of the distribution. Based on Gauthier’s (1986) work on imperfect markets, a contractarian position is presented. |
| Keywords: | justice, microfinance, interest rate, contractarian. |
| JEL: | L31 M54 O16 Q14 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:07-003&r=dev |
| By: | Leonardo Gasparini (Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS) - Universidad Nacional de La Plata); Leopoldo Tornarolli (Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS) - Universidad Nacional de La Plata) |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0046&r=dev |
| By: | Moscoso Boedo, Hernan |
| Abstract: | Skill intensive technologies seem to be adopted by rich countries rather than poor ones. Related to that observation, the ratio of wages of skilled to unskilled workers - the skill premium - shows two important features over time and across countries. In the US the skill premium decreased during the first half of the 20th century and it increased after 1950, evolving according to a U shaped pattern. On the other hand, the same measure across countries around 1990 is hump shaped when countries are ordered by GDP per worker. By modeling the decisions for factor accumulation and technology adoption, this paper gives a systematic explanation as to why we see ever more skill intensive technologies being adopted both over time in the US and across countries. The model developed here endogenously generates predictions for the skill premium that are consistent with both the US and international observations under the same set of parameter values. |
| Keywords: | Technology adoption; growth |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1644&r=dev |
| By: | Amavilah, Voxi Heinrich |
| Abstract: | African countries may have fared poorly compared to some countries in other regions, but relative to their own performance history some African countries have done quite well over the past eight years. In particular 2004 and 2005 were especially good years. How can such performance be made to stick and even expand? The answer to that question requires better understanding of the source of good performance. This paper proceeds on the assumption that technology was, at least partially, responsible. The result shows that a feeble technology undercuts per capita real GDP across African countries. However, the impacts of new technologies, measured by the intensities of internet and cell phone use are very strong. The policy implication of the findings speaks to the need for investment in new technologies for which productivity is high and the adoption and diffusion costs seem low. Further research can clarify the findings and policy by expanding and improving the data coverage, and examining effects on income of different kinds of technologies. |
| Keywords: | technology and per capita income; GDP per capita Africa; African countries’ GDP-technology nexus |
| JEL: | O55 O47 C21 O14 C51 O41 |
| Date: | 2006–11–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1675&r=dev |
| By: | Bertoli Simone |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an analysis of the impact of migration and remittances on the inter-generational evolution of human capital in an economy that is characterized by the existence of a poverty trap at a low level of human capital. The analysìs is conducted within an overiapping generation model, where parental investment in education are driven by weakly altruistic motivations. Remittances boost educational expenditure in recipient households, and they can determine a decisive impact on the long-term dynamics of human capitai under favourabie assumptions on the wage differential and on migration costs. Under these assumptions, an exogenous probability to migrate represents an equal probabìlity of moving out of the poverty trap, that fades away in the long run, as remittances lead ali households to converge towards the equilíbríum at a high level of human capítal. Although this modei does not analyze the generai equilibrium effects of remittances - as it ìs grounded on the independence of households' dynamics - it provides a framework that is open to such an extension, that is called for by the literature on the Dutch Disease effects of remittances. |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:200607&r=dev |