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on Economic Growth |
| By: | Matthew Curtis (University of Southern Denmark); David de la Croix (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)); Filippo Manfredini (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)); Mara Vitale (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | We present new annual time-series data on academic human capital across Europe from 1200 to 1793, constructed by aggregating individual-level measures at three geographic scales: cities, present-day countries (as of 2025), and historically informed macro-regions. Individual human capital is derived from a composite index of publication outcomes, based on data from the Repertorium Eruditorum Totius Europae (RETE) database. The macro-regional classifications are designed to reflect historically coherent entities, offering a more relevant perspective than modern national boundaries. This framework allows us to document key patterns, including the Little Divergence in academic human capital between Northern and Southern Europe, the effect of the Black Death and the Thirty Years' War on academic human capital, the respective contributions of academies and universities, regional inequality within the Holy Roman Empire, and the distinctiveness of the Scottish Enlightenment. |
| Keywords: | human capital, universities, academies, pre-industrial Europe, long-run growth, Little Divergence |
| JEL: | N33 O47 I23 |
| Date: | 2025–08–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2025012 |
| By: | Leonid V. Azarnert |
| Abstract: | I investigate how taxing immigrants and redistributing the collected funds as educational subsidies influence human capital accumulation and growth in the source economy. The analysis is performed in a two-country growth model with endogenous fertility, in which public knowledge spillovers from the more advanced destination economy amplify the productivity of investment in children’s education in the sending country. I demonstrate that, while in the short run, the source economy accumulates more human capital if the subsidies are provided domestically, if the spillover effect is strong enough, in the long run, it can accumulate more human capital if education is subsidized in the destination country. |
| Keywords: | migration, child education, fertility, human capital, growth, brain drain, brain dilution tax |
| JEL: | D30 F22 J10 J13 J24 O15 O40 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12053 |
| By: | Noda, Hideo; Fang, Fengqi |
| Abstract: | In a knowledge-based economy, innovation plays a significant role in determining the level of economic growth and social welfare. Meanwhile, patent protection is a pivotal factor for research and development (R&D) incentives, and innovation performance depends on the degree of patent protection. Therefore, elucidating the mechanism for impact of patent protection on innovation; and hence economic growth is a crucial issue from the perspective of macroeconomic policy. Our research questions are twofold. (1) What conditions are necessary for patent protection to effectively promote innovation and economic growth? (2) Can strengthening patent protection enhance social welfare? This study addresses these problems using an expanding variety model of R&D-based endogenous growth. Our major findings are summarized as follows: If an economy satisfies conditions that the productivity in the final goods sector and labor force population are relatively large, while the patent duration elasticity of patent fee is relatively small, extending the patent duration fosters on the rate of innovation, the growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, and the growth rate of livelihood-based public infrastructure. Moreover, strengthening patent protection by extending the duration of the patent right does not necessarily enhance social welfare. Furthermore, the patent duration that maximizes social welfare may be shorter than the patent duration that maximizes the growth rate of GDP per capita, the rate of innovation, or the growth rate of livelihood-based public infrastructure. |
| Keywords: | Economic growth, Innovation, Patent duration, Patent fee, R\&D, Social welfare |
| JEL: | E6 O3 O4 |
| Date: | 2025–08–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:125646 |
| By: | Stefano Bosi (UEVE); Cuong Le Van (CNRS, PSE, CES); Ngoc-Sang Pham (EM Normandie) |
| Abstract: | We study an overlapping generations (OLG) exchange economy with an asset that yields dividends. First, we derive general conditions, based on exogenous parameters, that give rise to three distinct scenarios: (1) only bubbleless equilibria exist, (2) a bubbleless equilibrium coexists with a continuum of bubbly equilibria, and (3) all equilibria are bubbly. Under stationary endowments and standard assumptions, we provide a complete characterization of the equilibrium set and the associated asset price dynamics. In this setting, a bubbly equilibrium exists if and only if the interest rate in the economy without the asset is strictly lower than the population growth rate and the sum of per capita dividends is finite. Second, we establish necessary and sufficient conditions for Pareto optimality. Finally, we investigate the relationship between asset price behaviors and the optimality of equilibria. |
| Date: | 2025–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2508.03230 |
| By: | Noda, Hideo; Fang, Fengqi |
| Abstract: | Devising effective economic policies that promote investment in human capital is essential for economic development. Government subsidy for student loans is often discussed as one of the various policy instruments that support human capital accumulation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between a government's subsidy rate for student loans and economic growth from a theoretical perspective. This study also considers how changes in life expectancy and the labor force population affect economic growth. To address these issues, we construct an overlapping-generations model with uncertain lifetime. Our model suggests that increasing the government's subsidy rate for student loans promotes economic growth. Moreover, there is a positive relationship between improved life expectancy among individuals with sufficient investment in human capital and economic growth. Furthermore, a decline in the labor force population decreases economic growth, even when negative peer effects are predominant in human capital formation. |
| Keywords: | Economic development, Human Capital, Life expectancy, Peer effects, Student loans |
| JEL: | H2 I25 O40 |
| Date: | 2025–08–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:125649 |
| By: | Pham, Ngoc Sang; Le Van, Cuong; Bosi, Stefano |
| Abstract: | We study an overlapping generations (OLG) exchange economy with an asset that yields dividends. First, we derive general conditions, based on exogenous parameters, that give rise to three distinct scenarios: (1) only bubbleless equilibria exist, (2) a bubbleless equilibrium coexists with a continuum of bubbly equilibria, and (3) all equilibria are bubbly. Under stationary endowments and standard assumptions, we provide a complete characterization of the equilibrium set and the associated asset price dynamics. In this setting, a bubbly equilibrium exists if and only if the interest rate in the economy without the asset is strictly lower than the population growth rate and the sum of per capita dividends is finite. Second, we establish necessary and sufficient conditions for Pareto optimality. Finally, we investigate the relationship between asset price behaviors and the optimality of equilibria. |
| Keywords: | exchange economy, overlapping generations, asset price bubble, fundamental value, low interest rate, Pareto optimal |
| JEL: | C6 D5 D61 E4 G12 |
| Date: | 2025–08–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:125605 |
| By: | Johan Gustafsson (Department of Economics, Umea University); Klaus Prettner (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Fei Xu (Department of Economics, Umea University) |
| Abstract: | We explore the effects of anti-corruption policies on economic growth and welfare within an R&D-based economic growth framework. The government taxes households to fund infrastructure that can be used in the production of final goods and in R&D. Government officials can embezzle funds and use them for their own consumption purposes. However, this comes at the cost of potentially being detected and facing a corresponding punishment. While public officials endogenously decide on the level of corruption, the state decides on the extent of anti-corruption policies, how severe the punishment is, and the income tax level. We show that there is an interior welfare-maximizing level of the tax rate and of anti-corruption effort. The effect of anti-corruption policies on growth and welfare critically depends on the effectiveness of policies in increasing crime detection and the productivity of infrastructure. If the state decides to invest more in anti-corruption measures or increase the pecuniary punishment, economic growth and welfare may actually decrease. |
| Keywords: | Corruption, Fiscal Policy, Long-Run Economic Development, Infrastructure, Welfare |
| JEL: | D73 H54 O18 O30 O41 |
| Date: | 2025–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp380 |
| By: | Avner Greif; Joel Mokyr; Guido Tabellini |
| Abstract: | Why did the industrial revolution occur in Europe and not in China, despite China being well ahead of Europe in terms of economic and technological achievements several centuries earlier? We revisit this long-standing question from a new perspective. We emphasize the importance of the different social organizations that diffused in these two parts of the world in the centuries that preceded the industrial revolution: kin-based organizations in China, vs corporations in Europe. We explain their cultural origins, and discuss how these different organizations shaped the evolution of legal systems, political institutions and human capital accumulation in these two parts of the world. Our main argument is that European corporations played a crucial role in the scientific and technological innovations that ultimately led to the industrial revolution. |
| Keywords: | industrial revolution, China, Europe, culture, institutions, organizations |
| JEL: | N00 P00 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12023 |