Testing creative destruction in an opening economy

This paper analyses the relationship between trade liberalization and economic growth using a Schumpeterian framework of technological innovation and applies it to sector‐level South African data. The framework examines direct and indirect effects of trade liberalization on productivity growth. Indirect impacts operate through a differential impact of trade liberalization on firms conditional on their distance from the international technological frontier. Results confirm positive direct impacts of trade liberalization. Results confirm also that the greatest positive impact of trade liberalization will be on sectors that are close to the international technological frontier and that experienced a low level of product market competition before liberalization.     

Uncertainty,inequality and consumption preferences in urban China

In this paper we present an uncertainty–inequality–consumption model and empirically investigate the effect of uncertainty on the consumption behaviors of urban households with varying levels of socio-economic status in China. We observe that the condition of households that suffered from socio-economic inequality with respect to total consumption, educational expenditures, medical expenditures, and durable consumption worsened relative to other households when faced with income uncertainty. Income uncertainty did not affect the housing consumption of households that suffered from socio-economic inequality, but it substantially decreased their ability to consume other durables. As a result of the introduction of the modern enterprise system and the reform of the housing distribution system, households with a member employed in a management position suffer larger shocks of income uncertainty in total consumption, educational expenditures, medical expenditures, and housing consumption relative to household with all members employed in worker positions in 2002. Uncertainty with respect to medical and educational expenditures had more substantial effects on the non-durables consumption of low-income households than that of other households in 2002.     

Optimal patent length and breadth in an economy with creative destruction and non-diversifiable risk

In this paper, I examine the optimal patent shape in an economy in which R&D firms innovate and imitate, households face non-diversifiable risk and there is externality in production and R&D. With non-diversifiable risk, a household’s consumption and investment decisions are interlinked. This economy contains industries of two kinds: monopoly industries with an innovator only, and duopoly industries with an innovator and an imitator. I define patent length as the expected time in which an innovation is imitated, and patent breadth as the innovator’s profit share in an industry after a successful imitation. The government can control patent length by the requirements for accepting a substitute for a patented good, and patent breadth by imposing compulsory licensing and royalties for the patentee after a successful imitation. I show that the stronger the externality in production relative to R&D is, the slower the optimal growth rate, the larger the optimal proportion of duopoly industries, and the longer and narrower the optimal patent.     

Income inequality and economic growth in an open economy

Income inequality has a strong impact on fiscal policy when majority voting enables those individuals with less-than-average income to decide on tax rates. This study analyzes the impact on economic growth of income inequality in an open economy where tax revenues are partially used for international transfers. In any case, income inequality is harmful for growth. In an economic union, positive effects of international integration raise the growth rate as long as net transfers do not grow proportionally. In a political union, unionwide voting makes distributive politics depending on the union's median voter. In this case, additional output growth on aggregate level is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for a majority of voters to accept union membership.     

The political economy of urban transport-system choice

This paper analyzes the political economy of transport-system choice, with the goal of gaining an understanding of the forces involved in this important urban public policy decision. Transport systems pose a continuous trade-off between time and money cost, so that a city can choose a fast system with a high money cost per mile or a slower, cheaper system. The paper compares the socially optimal transport system to the one chosen under the voting process, focusing on both homogeneous and heterogeneous cities, while considering different landownership arrangements. The analysis identifies a bias toward underinvestment in transport quality in heterogeneous cities.     

Measuring inequality change in an economy with income growth

This paper analyzes how to measure changes in inequality in an economy with income growth. The discussion distinguishes three stylized kinds of economic growth:

• 1.(1) high income sector enrichment,
• 2.(2) low income sector enrichment,
• 3.(3) high income sector enlargement, in which the high income sector expands and absorbs persons from the low income sector.

Th e two enrichment types pose no problem for assessing inequality change in the course of economic growth: for high income sector enrichment growth, inequality might reasonably be said to increase, whereas for low income sector enrichment, inequality might be said to decrease. These adjustments are non-controversial and non-problematical. Where problems arise is in the case of high income sector enlargement growth. In that case, the two alternative approaches have been shown in this paper to yield markedly results:

• 1.(1) The traditional inequality indices generate an inverted-U pattern of inequality. That is, inequality rises in the early stages of high income sector enlargement growth and falls thereafter.
• 2.(2) The new approach suggested here, based on axioms of gap inequality and numerical inequality, generates a U pattern of inequality. That is, inequality falls in the early stages of high income sector enlargement growth and rises thereafter.

The discrepancy between the familiar indices and the alternative approach based on axioms of gap inequality and numerical inequality bears further scrutiny. Two courses of action are possible. One might try to axiomatize inequality in ways that generate an inverted-U pattern in high income sector enlargement growth, thereby rationalizing the continued use of the usual inequality indices with the inverted-U property. Alternatively, one might retain the axioms proposed here, embed them into a more formal structure, and construct a family of inequality indices consistent with them. Others might wish to pursue the first course; I am at work on the second.     

Dynamics of social networks of urban informal entrepreneurs in an African economy

This paper carries out an analysis of the formation and transformation of social relations and networks of access to resources in the professional trajectory of micro-entrepreneurs operating in an urban informal African economy. The analysis of social networks is rooted in Granovetter’s structural embeddedness framework combined with the dynamic and discursive conception of social relations of Harisson White (embeddedness and decoupling). Life stories of micro and small entrepreneurs in Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina-Faso) are analyzed by mixing qualitative and quantitative methods. Results suggest that the construction of social networks and interpersonal relations of access to resources is a long-term process. A co-construction of social networks and economic activity is observed; it challenges the argument that social capital is a substitute for a lack of personal resources. The growth of small and micro activities is linked to the professionalization and stabilization of a social network, and even to the institutionalization of access to resources.     

Dynamic relationships between oil revenues,government spending and economic growth in an oil-dependent economy

The aim of this paper is to empirically examine the dynamic relationships between oil revenues, government spending and economic growth in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Oil revenues are the main source of financing government expenditures and imports of good and services. Increasing oil prices in the recent years have boosted public expenditures on social and economic infrastructure. In this paper, we investigate whether the huge government spending has enhanced the pace of economic growth or not. To this end, we use a multivariate cointegration analysis and error-correction model and data for 1960–2010. Overall results suggest that oil revenues remain the principal source for growth and the main channel which finance the government spending.     

Financial development and economic growth in an oil-rich economy: The case of Saudi Arabia

We investigate the effect of financial development on economic growth in the context of Saudi Arabia, an oil-rich economy. In doing so, we distinguish between the effects of financial development on the oil and non-oil sectors of the economy. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds test technique, we find that financial development has a positive impact on the growth of the non-oil sector. In contrast, its impact on the oil-sector growth and total GDP growth is either negative or insignificant. This suggests that the relationship between financial development and growth may be fundamentally different in resource-dominated economies.     

人力资本、创意阶层及其区域空间分布研究

文章首先比较了人力资本与创意阶层的区别和联系,随后分析了我国创意阶层的区域空间分布特征。通过分析得出,我国创意阶层的空间分布差异显著,并且呈现与经济发展水平非一致的特性。为了深入分析创意阶层区域空间分布的原因,文章使用岭回归分析方法,并结合2003—2007年中国30个省际面板数据进行实证研究。研究结果表明,城市文化机会、公共服务能力、高等教育能力、生态设施水平、创意产出水平和高科技指标对我国创意阶层的分布具有显著的影响。最后,文章据此提出相关政策建议。     

Learning as an emergent,creative process

In Creating a Learning Society, Joseph Stiglitz and Bruce Greenwald examine the role of knowledge in economic growth. They view economic growth as an impersonal and automatic phenomenon. The history of economic growth, however, suggests that it is a creative and personal process. We argue that the analytical framework deployed by Stiglitz and Greenwald is unsuited to study the creation of new products, new ways of doing things, and the discovery of new markets. While the questions Stigltiz and Greenwald ask are of fundamental importance, their analysis is neutered by the inability of their conceptual toolbox to grapple with creativity and novelty.     

The political economy of resource-driven growth

In recent decades, resource-poor countries have out-performed resource-abundant ones. A stylised facts model of competitive industrialisation describes the long-run development of a resource-poor country with a political state that is developmental. Only minor change is required to adapt the model to trace the development trajectory of a resource-abundant country with a similar political state. However, most resource-abundant countries engender a political state that is factional or predatory and distorts the economy in the pursuit of rents. A staple trap model describes the development trajectory under these conditions. The model predicts a growth collapse from which recovery is protracted, especially for small economies that lack a niche trade link with a large economy.     

Recursive preferences and balanced growth

We study a class of utility functions that are defined recursively by an aggregator W(x,y) where u_t=W(c_t,u_t+1). In single-agent economies it is known that a sufficient condition for the existence of a balanced growth path is that utility should be homogenous of degree γ. In the context of a multi-agent economy we show that this restriction implies that either a balanced growth equilibrium fails to exist or all agents have the same constant discount factor. We suggest a generalization of recursive preferences wherein the intertemporal utility function is time dependent. Within this class we establish that there may exist a balanced growth equilibrium even if agents are different.     

The underground economy and its macroeconomic consequences

This study develops a dynamic general equilibrium model in which optimizing agents evade taxes by operating in the underground economy. The cost to firms of evading taxes is that they find themselves subject to credit rationing from banks. Our model simulations show that in the absence of budgetary flexibility to adjust expenditures, raising tax rates too high drives firms into the underground economy, thereby reducing the tax base. Aggregate investment in the economy is lowered because of credit rationing. Taxes that are too low eliminate the underground economy, but result in unsustainable budget and trade deficits. Thus, the optimal rate of taxation, from a macroeconomic point of view, may lead to some underground activity.     

Corporate taxes, growth and welfare in a Schumpeterian economy

I take a new look at the long-run implications of taxation through the lens of modern Schumpeterian growth theory. I focus on the latest vintage of models that sterilize the scale effect through a process of product proliferation that fragments the aggregate market into submarkets whose size does not increase with the size of the workforce. I show that the following interventions raise welfare: (a) granting full expensibility of R&D to incorporated firms; (b) eliminating the corporate income tax and/or the capital gains tax; (c) reducing taxes on labor and/or consumption. What makes these results remarkable is that in all three cases the endogenous increase in the tax on dividends necessary to balance the budget has a positive effect on growth. A general implication of my analysis is that corporate taxation plays a special role in Schumpeterian economies and provides novel insights on how to design welfare-enhancing tax reforms.     

Inflation,growth, and distribution: The Brazilian economy after the post war

Abstract

Following Marglin and Bhaduri (1990 Marglin, S.A., and Bhaduri, A. “Profit Squeeze and Keynesian Theory.” In S.A. Marglin and J. Schor (eds.), The Golden Age of Capitalism. Reinterpreting the Postwar Experience. Oxford: Clarendon, 1990. [Google Scholar]), the purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically the interaction between income distribution and growth of aggregate demand during the 1951–89 period in Brazil. Applying Hein and Vogel’s (2008) methodology we conclude that the Brazilian economy showed a profit-led demand regime. In a context of high inflation, high concentration of markets, and wage control, retained profits were the main source to finance new capital. In this sense, we found a large sensitivity of investment relative to the wage share, a result that is compatible with a consumption pattern based on high income, which supported the growth trend with low wages observed during the period.     

创造性资本主义与资本主义的创造性消亡

资本主义具有一种内生的创造性,同时又具有一种内生的非创造性,创造性和非创造性悖论根源于资本主义经济的内在矛盾。随着世界市场的不断成熟和全球资本主义经济矛盾的不断加深,资本主义需要寻求新的自我拯救之道。创造性资本主义试图同时利用人性中的利己主义与利他主义。创造性资本主义预示着资本主义终将创造性地消亡,它对未来中国社会主义市场经济体制改革具有重要的启发意义。     

The self and its interests in classical political economy

Because economic affairs involve individual action, they must be understood on the basis of a theory which is both subjective, depending on a conception of individual decision-making and especially private interest, and objective, demonstrating how the objective forces of a system of interaction including a system of production and reproduction shape outcomes of individual action. Economic theory, then, requires a conception of the individual agent or subject of economic activity. In this essay, I explore this conception as it develops in the classical theory exemplified by the work of Adam Smith and Karl Marx.