|
on Economic Growth |
| By: | Leander Heldring; James A. Robinson; Sebastian Vollmer |
| Abstract: | We examine the long-run economic impact of the Dissolution of the English monasteries in 1535, which is plausibly linked to the commercialization of agriculture and the location of the Industrial Revolution. Using monastic income at the parish level as our explanatory variable, we show that parishes which the Dissolution impacted more had more textile mills and employed a greater share of population outside agriculture, had more gentry and agricultural patent holders, and were more likely to be enclosed. Our results extend Tawney’s famous ‘rise of the gentry’ thesis by linking social change to the Industrial Revolution. |
| JEL: | N43 N63 N93 O14 Q15 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21450&r=all |
| By: | Alesina, Alberto F; Giuliano, Paola |
| Abstract: | A growing body of empirical work measuring different types of cultural traits has shown that culture matters for a variety of economic outcomes. This paper focuses on one specific aspect of the relevance of culture: its relationship to institutions. We review work with a theoretical, empirical, and historical bent to assess the presence of a two-way causal effect between culture and institutions. |
| Keywords: | culture; institutions |
| JEL: | P16 Z1 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10773&r=all |
| By: | Okoye, Dozie; Pongou, Roland |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the debate on the effect of European contact on African societies by comparing the long-run economic impacts of the transatlantic slave trade and historical missionary activity. Recognizing that early missionary activity in Africa was unintentionally aided by the preceding slave trade, it proposes an analytical framework in which the effect of the slave trade was partially mediated by missions. Using unique data from Nigeria, we analyze the causal effects of these shocks on schooling attainment, and consequent effects on literacy rates and self-employment. We �find a total negative effect of the transatlantic slave trade on schooling; its negative direct effect outweighs its positive indirect effect through missionary activity. Missionary activity, on the other hand, has a strong positive direct effect which outweighs the total negative effect of the slave trade. Furthermore, individuals whose ancestors were historically exposed to greater missionary activity are more likely to be literate and less likely to be self-employed, consistent with the positive effect of missionary activity on schooling. In contrast, exposure to the slave trade is associated with lower literacy rates and a greater likelihood of being self-employed. Analyzing the mechanisms, we provide evidence suggesting that the persistent effects of these historical shocks are due to intergenerational factors and higher schooling infrastructure in areas that were less exposed to the slave trade or more exposed to missionary activity. Consistent with a simple theory, these persistent effects are larger for women, younger cohorts, rural residents, and migrants. Religion does not appear to be especially important, and the �findings rule out an explanation based on simple changes in tastes for schooling. |
| Keywords: | European contact, Africa, Slave Trade, Missions, Development, Education, Nigeria |
| JEL: | I20 N30 N37 N47 O10 O15 Z12 |
| Date: | 2015–08–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:66221&r=all |
| By: | Jeremiah Dittmar |
| Abstract: | This research studies how variations in competition and in media content characterized the use and impact of Gutenberg's printing press technology during the European Renaissance. The research constructs annual firm-level panel data on the publications produced by 7,000+ printing firms operating in over 300 European cities 1454-1600. Evidence on the timing of the premature deaths of firm owner-managers is used to isolate shocks to competition. Firms where owner-managers died experienced large negative shocks to output. However, at the city-level deaths of incumbent managers were associated with significant increases in entrance and with a positive and persistent impact on competition and city output. Variations in city supply induced by heterogeneous manager deaths are used to study the relationship between the diffusion of ideas in print and city growth. A uniquely strong relationship is observed between the new business education literature and local growth. This is consistent with historical research on the transformative impact business education ideas had on commercial practices and European capitalism. |
| Keywords: | Information technology, IO, media, growth, history, business education |
| JEL: | L1 N13 N33 N93 O11 O18 O33 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1365&r=all |
| By: | Schlicht, Ekkehart |
| Abstract: | This note proposes a growth model that is derived from the standard Solow growth model by replacing the neoclassical production function with Kaldor’s technical progress function while maintaining a marginalist theory of factor prices in the spirit suggested by von Weizsäcker (1966, 1966b). The hybrid model so obtained accounts for balanced growth in a way that appears less arbitrary than the Solow model, especially because it directly accounts for Harrod neutral technical change, without any need for further assumptions. |
| Keywords: | directed technical change; directed technological change; bias in innovation; technical progress function; neoclassical production function; Harrod neutrality; Hicks neutrality; Cambridge theory of distribution; marginal productivity theory; Kaldor; Kennedy; von Weizsäcker; Solow model |
| JEL: | O30 O40 E12 E13 E25 B59 B31 |
| Date: | 2015–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:25169&r=all |
| By: | Mehmet Balcilar (Department of Economics, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Northern Cyprus , via Mersin 10, Turkey); Rangan Gupta (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria); Charl Jooste (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria) |
| Abstract: | We try and detect whether there exists a threshold level of inflation for the US economy over 1801-2013, beyond which it has a negative effect on economic growth. We use a combination of nonparametric (NP) and instrumental variable semiparametric (SNP-IV) methods to obtain inflation thresholds for the United States. The results suggest that the relationship between growth and inflation is hump shaped—that higher levels of inflation reduce growth more. Our results consistently show that inflation above two per cent negatively affects growth. |
| Keywords: | Inflation; growth; nonparametric; semiparametric |
| JEL: | E31 O49 C14 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emu:wpaper:15-17.pdf&r=all |
| By: | Morgan Kelly; Cormac Ó Gráda |
| Abstract: | Sustained economic growth in England can be traced back to the early seventeenth century. That earlier growth, albeit modest, both generated and was sustained by a demographic regime that entailed relatively high wages, and by an increasing endowment of human capital in the form of a relatively adaptable and skilled labour force. Healthier and savvier English workers were better equipped to profit from the technological possibilities available to them, and to build on them. Technological change and economic growth stemmed from such human capital rather than Boserupian forces. They were the product of England’s resource endowment and its institutions. |
| Keywords: | Economic history; Industrial revolution |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201418&r=all |
| By: | De-Silva, Tiloka; Tenreyro, Silvana |
| Abstract: | A vast literature has sought to explain large cross-country differences in fertility rates. Income, mortality, urbanization, and female labour force participation, among other socioeconomic variables, have been suggested as explanatory factors for the differences. This paper points out that cross-country differences in fertility rates have fallen very rapidly over the past four decades, with most countries converging to a rate just above two children per woman. This absolute convergence took place despite the limited (or absent) absolute convergence in other economic variables. The rapid decline in fertility rates taking place in developing economies stands in sharp contrast with the slow decline experienced earlier by more mature economies. The preferred number of children has also fallen, suggesting a shift to a small-family norm. The convergence to replacement rates will lead to a stable world population, reducing environmental concerns over explosive population growth. In this paper we explore existing explanations and bring in an additional factor influencing fertility rates: the population programs started in the 1960s, which, we argue, have accelerated the global decline in fertility rates over the past four decades. |
| Keywords: | fertility; macro-development; population policies |
| JEL: | O10 O11 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10782&r=all |
| By: | BRITO, JOÃO ANTONIO |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to analyze empirically if the effect of social cohesion on economic growth is conditioned by country size. Two groups of countries, large and small, were set up, and by using the System-GMM estimator and panel data in a 5-year rolling window, from 1970 to 2010, the impact of civil war and ethnic tension on growth rate of GDP per capita of the two groups of states was estimated. Also, the difference between small and large states in terms of the impact of civil war and ethnic tension on β-convergence rate was analyzed. We conclude that the effects of social cohesion (measured by civil war) in economic growth and in β-convergence rate are influenced by country size, and the positive effect is higher in small states. |
| Keywords: | Country Size, Small States, Social Cohesion and Economic Growth |
| JEL: | O47 O57 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:66118&r=all |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)); Sarah Flèche (Centre for Economic Performance - LSE - London School of Economics); Claudia Senik (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), UP4 - Université Paris-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | In spite of the great U-turn that saw income inequality rise in Western countries in the 1980s, happiness inequality has fallen in countries that have experienced income growth (but not in those that did not). Modern growth has reduced the share of both the “very unhappy” and the “perfectly happy”. Lower happiness inequality is found both between and within countries, and between and within individuals. Our cross-country regression results argue that the extension of various public goods helps to explain this greater happiness homogeneity. This new stylised fact arguably comes as a bonus to the Easterlin paradox, offering a somewhat brighter perspective for developing countries. |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:hal-01080877&r=all |
| By: | Noël Bonneuil (EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales, INED - Institut national d'études démographiques); Raouf Boucekkine (AMSE - Aix-Marseille School of Economics - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) - Ecole Centrale Marseille (ECM) - AMU - Aix-Marseille Université, IUF - Institut Universitaire de France - M.E.N.E.S.R. - Ministère de l'Éducation nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche) |
| Abstract: | The mechanism stating that longer life implies larger investment in human capital, is premised on the view that individual decision-making governs the relationship between longevity and education. This relationship is revisited here from the perspective of optimal period school life expectancy, obtained from the utility maximization of the whole population characterized by its age structure and its age-specific fertility and mortality. Realistic life tables such as model life tables are mandatory, because the age distribution of mortality matters, notably at infant and juvenile ages. Optimal period school life expectancy varies with life expectancy and mortality. Applications to stable population models and then to French historical data from 1806 to nowadays show that the population age structure has indeed modified the relationship between longevity and optimal schooling |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01082317&r=all |
| By: | Raouf Boucekkine (AMSE - Aix-Marseille School of Economics - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) - Ecole Centrale Marseille (ECM) - AMU - Aix-Marseille Université, IUF - Institut Universitaire de France - M.E.N.E.S.R. - Ministère de l'Éducation nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche); Fouad El Ouardighi (ESSEC Business School - Essec Business School) |
| Abstract: | We study an optimal AK-like model of capital accumulation and growth in the presence of a negative environmental externality in the tradition of Stokey (1998). Both production and consumption activities generate polluting waste. The economy exerts a recycling effort to reduce the stock of waste. Recycling also generates income, which is fully devoted to capital accumulation. The whole problem amounts to choosing the optimal control paths for consumption and recycling to maximize a social welfare function that notably includes the waste stock and disutility from the recycling effort. We provide a mathematical analysis of both the asymptotic behavior of the optimal trajectories and the shape of transition dynamics. Numerical exercises are performed to illustrate the analysis and to highlight some of the economic implications of the model. |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01126636&r=all |
| By: | Jamal Ibrahim Haidar |
| Abstract: | I investigate the link between business regulatory reforms and economic growth in 172 countries. I create a 5 year dataset on business regulatory reforms from the World Bank?s Doing Business reports. Then, I test the hypothesis that business regulatory reforms increase economic growth, using data on micro-economic reforms. These data do not suffer the endogeneity issues associated with other datasets on changes in economic institutions. The results provide a robust support for the claim that business regulatory reforms are good for economic growth. The paper establishes that, on average, each business regulatory reform is associated with a 0.15% increase in growth rate of GDP. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qsh:wpaper:305086&r=all |
| By: | Hartley, Peter (Rice University and University of Western Australia); Medlock, Kenneth B., III (Rice University); Temzelides, Ted (Rice University); Zhang, Xinya (Rice University) |
| Abstract: | We study the optimal transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy in a neoclassical growth economy with endogenous technological progress in energy production from fossil fuels and renewable energy sources. Innovations keep fossil energy cost under control even as increased exploitation raises mining costs. Nevertheless, the economy eventually transitions to renewable energy. Learning-by-doing in renewable energy production implies that it is optimal to transition to renewable energy before the cost of fossil fuels reaches parity with renewable energy costs. Since energy costs escalate as the transition approaches, growth of consumption and output decline sharply around the transition. The energy shadow price remains more than double current values for over 75 years around the switch time, resulting in a continued drag on output and consumption growth. The model highlights the important role that energy can play in influencing economic growth. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:riceco:14-009&r=all |
| By: | Fulvio Castellacci (TIK Centre, University of Oslo, Norway); Jose Miguel Natera (Universidad Metropolitana, Mexico) |
| Abstract: | The paper carries out an analysis of long-run development paths in Latin America in the period 1970-2010. We focus on three main dimensions – openness, industrial structure and innovation – and analyze how changes in these factors, and the specific combination of them adopted by each country, have affected its income per capita growth. We apply Johansen cointegration approach to time series data for 18 Latin American countries. The analysis leads to two main results. First, we show that Latin American countries have followed different growth trajectories depending on the combination of policies they have adopted to catch up. Secondly, we find a clear correspondence between policy strategies, on the one hand, and growth performance, on the other. Countries that have managed to combine imitation and innovation policy have experienced a higher rate of growth than those economies that have only made efforts to improve their imitation capability. |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tik:inowpp:20150820&r=all |