Sector-specific capital, “Bang-bang” investment,and the Filippov solution

Bang-bang investment in a two-sector growth model with immobile capital is rational and leads to a unique and globally stable long-run equilibrium along a sliding trajectory. This steady state coincides with the stationary equilibrium in the traditional model with non-sector-specific capital.This article was written while the authors were visiting scholars at Cornell University. We gratefully acknowledge financial assistance from the Erasmus University Trust Fund and the Netherlands Scientific Organization. We would like to thank, without implicating, two anonymous referees, Martijn Herrmann, Jean-Marie Viaene, Claus Weddepohl, and the participants of seminars at the University of Maryland, the University of Montreal, and Erasmus University Rotterdam for perceptive remarks and useful comments. Jeroen Hinloopen and Rien Wagenvoort provided able graphical assistance. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the World Bank.     

Human capital depletion, human capital formation, and migration: a blessing or a “curse”?

We specify conditions under which a strictly positive probability of employment in a foreign country raises the level of human capital formed by optimizing workers in the home country. While some workers migrate, “taking along” more human capital than if they had migrated without factoring in the possibility of migration (a form of brain drain), other workers stay at home with more human capital than they would have formed in the absence of the possibility of migration (a form of brain gain).     

Firms’ human capital, R&D and innovation: a study on French firms

This article investigates the effects of human capital and technological capital on innovation. While the role of technological capital as measured by research and development (R&D) expenditure has been intensively investigated, few studies have been made on the effect of employee training on innovation. This article explores the relationship between innovation and firm employee training. Our methodological approach contributes to the literature in three ways. We propose various indicators of firm employee training. We build a count data panel with a long time-data series to deal with the issue of firms?? heterogeneity. We propose a dynamic analysis. Using dynamic count data models on French industrial firms over the period 1986?C1992, we find positive and significant effects of R&D intensity and training on patenting activity. Whatever the indicators of training our results show that the firm employee training has a positive impact on technological innovation.     

Does venture capital really foster innovation?

Using panel data of 17 European Union countries, we find robust empirical support for a positive impact of venture capital on innovation. After controlling for the potential endogenous relationship between venture capital and innovation, the results indicate that venture capital fosters innovation but mainly at a later stage.     

When is FDI a capital flow?

In this paper we analyze the conditions under which a foreign direct investment (FDI) involves a net capital flow across countries. For this purpose, we investigate how multinational firms finance their foreign affiliates, globally or locally. We develop a contract theoretical model in which the financing structure is used to govern the incentives of managers. We find that the investment tends to be financed locally if managerial incentive problems are large. Thus, microeconomic governance problems may have macroeconomic implications for the net capital flow to host countries. Our results are consistent with survey data on German and Austrian investment flows of firms to Eastern Europe.     

Learning by exporting and high-tech capital deepening in Singapore manufacturing industries, 1974–2006

A number of fundamental factors enhance the growth of industries’ productivity. Among others, the export-led and high-tech capital deepening strategies are widely adopted by developing economies. This article attempts to empirically investigate the extent to which both industrial development policies affect the Total Factor Productivity Growth (TFPG) in Singapore manufacturing industries during the period from 1974 to 2006. Using the panel data estimations, I find that both development strategies bring about TFPG via nonneutral technological growth, and the former more largely explains TFPG than does the latter. This study captures the measure of learning by exporting by the lagged export intensity and therefore contributes to the literature, in which only the case of whether or not firms are active in export markets is conventionally employed. Methodologically, my main contributions are a more detailed treatment of (nonneutral) technological changes, and an alternative measure of export intensity.     

Analyze Chinese capital escape ＆ international moving capital influx from net errors and omissions in the balance of payments

With the rapid economic development, the imbalance of China＇s balance of payments gets sever gradually, especially in the continuous increase in the net errors and omissions, which even has exceeded the international alert line. Such scale of net errors and omissions have also presented the flaws of the custody of capital flows, leading to huge capital escape and hot money influx, which needs our attention.     

Interest rates,distribution and capital accumulation – A post-Kaleckian perspective on the US and Germany

We analyse the effects of interest rate variations on the rates of capacity utilisation, capital accumulation and profit in a simple post-Kaleckian distribution and growth model. This model gives rise to different potential accumulation regimes depending on the values of the parameters in the investment, saving and distribution function. Estimating these core behavioural equations for the US and Germany in the period 1960–2007, we find significant and robust effects of interest payments with the expected sign in each of the equations. Our estimation results imply, both for the US and for Germany, that the effects of changes in the real long-term rate of interest on the equilibrium rates of capacity utilisation, capital accumulation and profits, are characterised by the ‘normal regime’: rising long-term real rates of interest cause falling rates of capacity utilisation, capital accumulation and profits, as well as redistribution at the expense of labour income and hence an increasing profit share in both countries.     

Does R&D,human capital and FDI matter for TFP in OECD countries?

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the interplay between research and development (R&D), human capital (HC), foreign direct investment (FDI) and total factor productivity (TFP) in OECD countries. We divide the sample into two sub-groups; the European and the non-European states so as to account for underlying country heterogeneity. The analysis follows a panel data approach over the period 1995–2015, taking into account the modelling on non-stationarity, long-run relationships and short-run dynamics with a panel VAR. Both R&D and HC have a positive effect on TFP, whilst FDI has a positive and significant effect only in the case of non-European countries. Moreover, the contribution of R&D is higher than that of HC and FDI in all cases. Thus, based on these findings, policymakers should design and implement policies to increase resources invested in R&D, with a consistent ongoing spending review, to attract foreign direct investment, especially for the majority of the European and some of the non-European countries and to improve education system on a more productive innovation and research base.     

To market,to market: imperial capitalism’s destruction of social capital and the family

The market, far from being the sine qua non for modern society in general, and the family in particular, has eroded the social fiber that gives shape and resilience to the experiences of individuals, families, and ultimately, the market itself. Reviewing both historical and feminist analysis of the family in a capitalist market society, it is clear that the modern market is imperial. Not only does it transform every human interaction into a transient market exchange, it undermines the basis for social reproduction through the family. Using the concept of social capital as a primary analytical tool, this paper argues that the distinction between home and market labor has been unnecessarily polarized, limiting policy options. Thus, society’s ability to produce and maintain long-standing social networks is put at risk, paradoxically reducing the market’s ability to perform efficiently.JEL Categories: D10; J22; J16     

What happened to the transatlantic capital market relations?

This paper investigates the capital market relations between Euroland and the USA from 1990 until 2006. The UIP-implied long-run relation between European and US government bond yields is shown breaking down in the mid-1990s. However, contrasting with conventional theory, a stationary equilibrium exists additionally including the exchange rate. The reason proves to be a stochastic trend common to the European interest and the euro/dollar rate, which is explained by central bank reactions and unfinished learning processes on the role of the euro. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates a striking reduction in the US capital market dominance, leading to transatlantic interdependence at eye level.     

Should mobile capital pay for public infrastructure investment?

The paper contributes to the discussion of fiscal competition with infrastructure goods. We explicitly focus on the costs of providing public infrastructure capital that appear in the public budget as investment. Thus we analyse the problem in a dynamic framework. Public infrastructure is considered as a marginal product complement to private capital. A central result of the model is that the fact that public capital is a complement to private capital, so that an increase in the supply of public capital ceteris paribus improves the marginal productivity of private capital, cannot be used as an argument to support a source tax. The so-called indirect productivity effect on private capital induced by public inputs does not justify the taxation of mobile capital. Rather, the efficiency of a source tax on mobile capital income depends on the question of whether or not the public input generates a factor rent to private capital.

Are price-based capital account regulations effective in developing countries?

In this article, we evaluate the effectiveness of policy measures adopted by Chile and Colombia aiming to mitigate the deleterious effects of pro-cyclical capital flows. In the case of Chile, according to our GMM analysis, capital controls succeeded in reducing net short-term capital flows, but did not affect long-term flows. As far as Colombia is concerned, the regulations were capable of affecting total flows and also long-term ones. In addition, our cointegration models indicate that the regulations did not have a direct effect on the real exchange rate in the Chilean case. Nonetheless, the model used for Colombia did detect a direct impact of the capital controls on the real exchange rate. Therefore, our results do not seem to support the idea that those regulations were easily evaded.     

Sovereign defaulters: Do international capital markets punish them?

We empirically study whether countries that default on their debt experience a reduction in their capital inflows, as suggested by the literature. Our data contain information on (i) the defaulter countries and their creditors and (ii) bilateral foreign direct investment (FDI) flows. With these we can study how FDI flows are affected by sovereign default by distinguishing between those flows coming from defaulters' creditor countries and others. According to our estimations, this distinction is crucial since the decline of FDI in flows after default is markedly concentrated on those flows originating in defaulters' creditor countries. The decay in FDI flows is higher in the years closer to the default date and for countries that have defaulted more times. We do not find evidence that countries shut their doors to defaulters' investment abroad, which is also a cost of default suggested in the literature.     

Social capital and rural institutions in Kenya Is Machakos unique？

In Eastern Africa, the experience of Machakos has been heavily debated between Malthusians and the more optimistic Boserupians. Machakos was the epitome of overpopulation and resource degradation in the 1950s, but has since thrived. The Boserupians view Machakos as an illustration of how population growth can solve rather than exacerbate the vicious cycle of poverty and resource degradation. The question arises whether Machakos is unique. This study investigates the role of social capital in Machakos. Using principal component analysis, the authors estimate various dimensions of social capital and find significant differences between Machakos and two other Kenyan regions particularly when it comes to the formation of associations.     

The simultaneity in human capital estimations： The case of China

Existing papers on human capital and growth in China has been using single equation estimations. This might cause a simultaneity bias if a two-way causality between the two variables exists. In this paper, the author performs vector autoregressive estimations using panel data on the number of graduates at each level of education as a proxy for human capital in China during 1991-2005. The results show that investment in human capital increases output per worker at all three levels of education. Regarding the effects of output per worker on the accumulation of human capital, the author finds mixed results with the primary-school graduates＇ benefits the most from increases in per capita output.     

Walras’ theory of capital formation: an intertemporal equilibrium reformulation

We develop a mainstream reformulation of the original Walras?? model of capital accumulation. We overcome the shortcomings of the original model. First, we prove the existence of intertemporal competitive equilibria. Our proof combines a well known theorem due to Yannelis and Prabhakar (J Math Econ 12:233?C245, 1983) with a lemma due to Geanakoplos (Econ Theory 21:585?C603, 2003). Secondly, we remedy the indeterminacy of allocation of savings across multiple types of capital goods by introducing a storage technology. Finally, we show that, for stored capital goods, the equality of rates of returns emerges endogenously in equilibrium, while it was imposed by Walras from the outset in his original contribution.     

From the ‘econometrics of capital punishment’ to the ‘capital punishment’ of econometrics: on the use and abuse of sensitivity analysis

The academic debate over the deterrent effect of capital punishment has intensified again with a major policy outcome at stake. About two dozen empirical studies have recently emerged that explore the issue. Donohue and Wolfers (2005 Donohue, J and Wolfers, J. 2005. Uses and abuses of empirical evidence in the death penalty debate. Stanford Law Review, 58: 791–845. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) claim to have examined the recent studies and shown the evidence not to be robust to specification changes. We argue that the narrow scope of their study does not warrant this claim. Moreover, focusing on our two studies that they have examined, we show the deterrence findings to be robust, while their work has serious flaws and their reporting appears to be selective. The selectivity is biased towards showing ‘no deterrence’.