THE EFFECT OF GOVERNMENT SPENDING ON ECONOMIC GROWTH: TESTING THE NON‐LINEAR HYPOTHESIS

Theoretical models suggest a non‐linear relationship between government size and long‐run economic growth. However, testing this hypothesis empirically in cross‐country studies is complicated by the endogeneity of government spending and the accurate identification of inflexion points. This paper examines the non‐linear hypothesis by incorporating threshold analysis in a cross‐country growth regression. The methodology utilizes a sample‐splitting framework and follows an objective strategy for identifying and testing changes in the slope. The results provide evidence in support of the non‐linear hypothesis for a broad panel of countries.     

我国通胀与经济增长放缓福利 成本的比较研究

经济理论和实践经验通常认为我国经济增长放缓的福利成本远高于通货膨胀的福利成本,因而“保增长”的重要性远高于“防通胀”。本文认为这一判断已经不再适用于我国当前情况,核心原因是当前家庭的财产积累水平较以往有了大幅度提高,通胀将通过财产再分配效应造成严重的社会福利损失。经过计算发现：在各组参数设定下,5%的通胀和经济增速下滑一个百分点所造成的社会总福利成本（对消费的补偿比例）分别平均是18%和59%;通胀福利成本与增长放缓福利成本之比平均为329%,相比之下,在不考虑财产再分配效应的计算方法中,该比例仅为约16%。这说明在中长期“保增长”和“防通胀”都具有重要的社会福利意义,因此宏观调控应该将二者都作为重要的政策目标。     

THE IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE ON GROWTH: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM A HETEROGENEOUS PANEL

This paper investigates the impact of government expenditure on growth, in a heterogeneous panel, for a sample of developing countries. Using generalized method of moments techniques, we show that countries with substantial government current expenditure have strong growth effects, which vary considerably across the nations.     

财政支出结构与经济增长

通过构建理论模型和经验模型,我们可以得出以下结论:(1)财政支出总水平与经济增长负相关,财政生产性支出与经济增长正相关。(2)财政人力资本投资比物质资本投资更能提高经济增长率。(3)用于科学研究的支出所带来的经济增长远远高于物质资本投资和人力资本投资所带来的经济增长。这些结论对政府今后调整财政支出政策,优化财政支出结构,确定财政支出重点,具有重要的政策含义。     

AVAILABILITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND LONG‐TERM ECONOMIC GROWTH*

In the present paper, we examine the economic growth effects of a limited availability of higher education in a simple endogenous growth model with overlapping generations. It is shown that this limited availability might promote economic growth by increasing aggregate savings. If the supply of human capital is restricted, its price remains high and a large share of aggregate output is distributed to young households, which need to save for their old age. When this growth‐enhancing effect is strong enough, an excessive increase in availability leads to a shortage of investable funds, which substantially reduces economic growth.     

MILITARY SPENDING,THREATS AND STOCHASTIC GROWTH

This paper analyses the impact of home military spending and foreign military threat on economic growth in a stochastic endogenous growth model involving the supply‐side and demand‐side effects produced by military spending. The paper states that an increase in home military spending affects economic growth through three channels, including the crowding‐out effect, the spin‐off effect, and the resource mobilization effect. The net effect which depends on these three channels is ambiguous. Hence, we demonstrate that there exists an optimal defence burden that maximizes the economic growth rate. Furthermore, the optimal defence burden depends on the degree of risk preference. Namely, the optimal defence burden of the risk‐loving agent is more than that of the risk‐neutral agent, and in turn is more than that of the risk‐averse agent. At the same time, we prove that the relationship between the volatility in military spending and economic growth also depends on the degree of risk preference. In addition, we show that greater volatility in foreign military spending leads to a decrease in home aggregate consumption, and hence speeds up economic growth in the home country.     

LONG‐RUN GROWTH AND WELFARE EFFECTS OF TAX REFORM

This paper introduces an endogenously‐determined fertility rate into a Romer‐type endogenous growth model and, accordingly, investigates the effects on fertility, economic growth and social welfare of a revenue‐neutral tax reform that involves switching from an income tax to a consumption tax. We show that, in a departure from the existing literature, tax reform could be harmful, rather than favourable, to both growth and welfare, due to an endogenous fertility rate. We also conduct a simple numerical analysis to investigate under what conditions the negative effect on growth and welfare occurs.     

论经济增长与社会发展的失衡

本文研究了快速增长的中国经济中经济增长与社会发展的失衡问题,认为失衡会严重影响中国经济社会的健康发展。失衡的表现是多方面的,失衡的原因在于单纯的经济增长主义、经济政策与社会政策的混淆和政府与市场功能的错位。本文的结论是应按照转变经济发展方式的要求校正失衡。     

ENVIRONMENTAL DYNAMICS AND THE LINKS BETWEEN GROWTH,VOLATILITY AND MORTALITY

I construct a model of a growing economy with pollution. The analysis of the model shows that the interactions between capital accumulation, endogenous lifetime and environmental quality determine both the long‐run growth rate and the pattern of convergence (i.e., monotonic or cyclical) towards the balanced growth path. I argue that such interactions can provide a possible explanatory factor behind the, empirically observed, negative correlation between growth and volatility. Furthermore, the model may capture the observed pattern whereby economic growth and mortality rates appear to be negatively related in the long run, but positively related in the short run.     

国内外旅游对经济增长影响研究综述

在梳理国内外相关文献的基础上,文章对国内外旅游对经济增长的影响研究进行了较为详细的比较综述。国外的旅游经济增长影响研究始于19世纪末,兴盛于1960年代,研究焦点集中在基于出口驱动型经济增长假说的入境旅游对经济增长的影响、旅游专业化对经济增长的影响及基于收敛假说的旅游对区域经济均衡增长的影响三个方面。国内研究始于1990年代,研究焦点为旅游产业地位及其与经济增长关系的判断。国内外相关研究既有共同点,也有差异。旅游对区域经济增长及其均衡发展的影响开始受到关注。     

FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION AND ECONOMIC VOLATILITY: EVIDENCE FROM STATE‐LEVEL CROSS‐SECTION DATA OF THE USA*

This paper examines the implications of fiscal decentralization for economic stability. It has been discussed that fiscal decentralization reduces the variance of GDP growth, due to the greater diversification of performance across jurisdictions. We examine this theoretical result using a panel data set of the 50 states of the USA over the period of 1992–1997. We show that the theoretical specification of the production function is supported. We also show a negative significant relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic volatility. The results are robust when we take into account the endogeneity of fiscal decentralization.     

GROWTH,INTER‐INDUSTRY AND INTRA‐INDUSTRY COMPETITION AND WELFARE*

In this paper we introduce strategic interaction between firms in an R&D growth model which captures both the intra‐industry competition between firms operating within an industry and the inter‐industry competition between firms in different industries. We show that the more substitutable the goods produced within each industry (across industries) are, that is, the more intense the intra‐industry (inter‐industry) competition, the higher is the growth rate. In the comparison between social optimum and a decentralized economy, it is shown that the market outcome is characterized by inefficiently high entry of firms within each industry and insufficient productivity growth.     

THE MECHANICS OF ECONOMIC GROWTH THROUGH CAPITAL ACCUMULATION AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS*

This study develops a model wherein capital is used in final goods production and research and development (R&D) activities. This arrangement generates changes of the equilibrium capital allocation corresponding to capital endowment, which engenders a regime change from capital based growth with decreasing returns to R&D based perpetual growth. These two growth phases account for the polarization of economies. The model also engenders multiple equilibria on capital allocation—which emerge during the middle stages of capital accumulation—accounting for leapfrogging and the instability of the economic growth of developing countries with medium capital accumulation.     

ENDOGENOUS DEBT‐EQUITY RATIO AND BALANCE‐SHEET CHANNEL: IMPLICATIONS FOR GROWTH AND WELFARE

This paper endogenizes the debt‐equity ratio and embodies financial leverage in a cash‐in‐advance model of endogenous growth. Our analysis finds that the debt‐equity ratio is positively related to the balanced‐growth rate, since it serves as a ‘financial accelerator’ to stimulate investment projects. Compared to previous studies, this positive relationship gives rise to an additional balance‐sheet effect, which substantially affects the macroeconomic consequences of monetary and taxation policies. Due to the existence of the balance‐sheet effect, we also find that the Friedman rule is not necessarily optimal.     

政府消费规模对经济增长的阈值效应

揭示政府消费规模对经济增长的效应变化是合理调控政府消费规模和有效配置政府公共资源的重要依据。本文利用1978-2011年的数据,运用阈值协整模型对我国政府消费规模与经济增长关系进行了实证研究。本文发现,二者存在阈值协整关系,且政府消费规模对经济增长的效应始终为负,当政府消费占GDP的比重下降至0178 2（1978-1986年）,政府消费规模对经济增长的促进效应较小;当政府消费占GDP比重下降至0178 2（1987年左右）,政府消费规模对经济增长的效应发生非线性转移;随着政府消费规模的进一步降低（1996-2011年）,政府消费规模对经济增长的促进效应显著加强。实证结论表明,不断压缩政府消费规模有助于经济效率提升,尤其是将政府消费规模合理控制在临界值0178 2以下,可以更好地发挥政府消费对经济增长的促进作用。     

FOREIGN AID,TERRORISM AND GROWTH: CONDITIONAL EVIDENCE FROM QUANTILE REGRESSION

In this study, we investigate the role of development assistance in reducing a hypothetically negative impact of terrorism on economic growth, using a panel of 78 developing nations with data for the period 1984–2008. The empirical evidence is based on interactive quantile regressions. Domestic, transnational, unclear and total terrorism dynamics are employed while development assistance measurements comprised bilateral and multilateral aid variables. With regard to the investigated hypothesis, we consistently confirm that: (i) In quantiles where terrorism is found to increase (decrease) economic growth, its interaction with foreign aid decreases (increases) economic growth. (ii) Comparing thresholds of the modifying aid variables for which the hypothesis is either rejected or accepted reveals that higher levels of multilateral (bilateral) aid are needed to reverse the negative effect of total (unclear) terrorism on growth, than the quantity needed to reverse the positive impact of transnational (domestic and total) terrorism(s) on growth. (iii) There is scant evidence of positive net effects. Overall the findings broadly indicate that foreign aid is a necessary but not a sufficient policy tool for completely dampening the effects of terrorism on economic growth.     

外资对我国区域经济增长的影响

本文分析了我国利用外资的基本形势和区域分异,并利用Granger因果性检验法检验了我国各区域外资对区域经济增长的影响,发现外资对我国区域经济增长并没有决定性的影响,而西部地区较之东部沿海地区,外资对区域经济增长有着较为显著的影响。据此,笔者从改革开放后我国区域发展的基本格局和外资的经济影响的角度给予了初步的解释。     

金融危机背景下我国经济增长的区域差异及原因

金融危机对我国的经济影响已经日益显现,但由于我国各区域的经济结构特点不同,金融危机背景下,我国经济增长必然表现出一定的区域差异。从金融危机对我国经济产生的整体影响出发,通过选取主要经济发展指标分析2009年第一季度我国经济增长的区域差异,对区域差异的原因进行了分析,并提出相关的建议。     

对我国经济增长方式转变的新思考

我国经济增长方式长期存在着由粗放型向集约型转变的困扰,表现为经济增长过度依赖于投入的增加,生产技术水平偏低,劳动者素质结构改善缓慢,经济比例关系没有理顺,产业结构不合理现象突出等。转变增长方式的关键在于增强国内自主创新能力,调整和优化产业结构,以科技进步推动经济增长由低质低效向高质高效的转化,以产业结构的调整和优化保障增长目标的实现。     

中国教育规模与质量影响经济增长的内生路径分析

中国目前教育规模的扩大提升了经济增长率,但教育质量的滑坡降低了经济增长率,教育总体上还是促进了经济增长。从教育影响经济增长的内生增长路径来看,中国的教育还未达到最优规模,仍需继续扩大,同时要注意发展初等教育和职业技术教育等,平衡教育结构。教育质量的提高总是有利于经济增长,因此提高教育质量应成为教育政策的重点。