DEPRECIATION, OBSOLESCENCE, AND THE MEASUREMENT OF THE AGGREGATE CAPITAL STOCK OF THE UNITED STATES 1900–1962

This paper is concerned with the sensitivity of estimates of the aggregate capital stock of the United States to the statistician's choice of depreciation method. The usual depreciation charge can be shown to include allowances both for physical deterioration and for obsolescence. If one interprets the gross stock as the stock of surviving assets, then the various net stocks defined by depreciation accounting may be interpreted as a revaluation of these assets by means of an index of embodied technical change. Estimates of the United States capital stock were generated under eight sets of assumptions. These estimates are compared with respect to level, trend, and implications for other aggregate statistical indicators. The conclusion is reached that the assumptions which define a country's stock of tangible capital are of considerably greater importance than has often been supposed.     

THE ACCOUNTING TREATMENT OF HUMAN INVESTMENT AND CAPITAL

Defining investment as outlays that increase income- and output-producing capacity, the author presents estimates of human investment in the United States 1929–69, comprising rearing costs, education, training, health, safety and mobility outlays. He develops an economic accounting framework to accommodate human investments and research and development in national and sector capital accounts, with appropriate adjustments to the current accounts to provide consistency. The associated balance sheets and wealth statements are also developed.
The wealth and corresponding income estimates are used to compute rates of return on human, non-human, and total capital. In the business economy the average net rate of return on total capital was 10.6 percent in 1969, compared with 10.0 percent in 1929. The average and marginal rates of return on human capital were generally somewhat higher than on non-human capital throughout the period.     

THE ROLE OF FINANCIAL CAPITAL IN PRODUCTION

It is increasingly acknowledged that the financial structure of a firm is an important determinant of its production costs. This paper argues that the use of a firm's liabilities should be seen as a separate input in the production process. At the same time, the input of non-financial assets is limited to the value that is used up during the reference period. The paper elaborates on these ideas and shows their use in empirical work. It is concluded that the approach set out in this paper establishes a much closer relationship of general economic accounting and analysis to business economics.     

THE ROLE OF PREFERENCE SHOCKS AND CAPITAL UTILIZATION IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION*

The article examines the proposition that preference shocks play a central role in our understanding of the Great Depression. I identify a series of unusually large negative shocks that destabilized the U.S. economy during the 1930s. When the artificial economy is paired with variable capital utilization and mildly increasing returns to scale in production, it is able to account for most of the decline in economic activity and it predicts a tepid recovery.     

ALTRUISM,EGOISM, AND THE ROLE OF SOCIAL CAPITAL IN THE PRIVATE PROVISION OF PUBLIC GOODS*

The economic approach to understanding human behavior has encountered serious difficulties when attempting to explain the private provision of public goods, such as voting and charitable contributions to large organizations. To gain insights into these important issues, this study takes an interdisciplinary approach. The individual is modeled formally in terms of dual egoistic/altruistic utilities, and the recursive relation between altruism and the existence and production of social capital is developed. The model is analyzed as a non-cooperative game between the egoistic and altruistic selves. The socialized rational actor that results from the combination of social capital, dual utilities, and non-cooperative behavior resolves a number of public goods paradoxes. Comparative statics and the dynamics of social capital formation are explored.     

ON THE ROLE OF CAPITAL GAINS IN SWEDISH INCOME INEQUALITY

Realized capital gains are typically disregarded in the study of income inequality. We show that in the case of Sweden this severely underestimates the actual increase in inequality and, in particular, top income shares during recent decades. Using micro panel data to average incomes over longer periods and re‐rank individuals according to income excluding capital gains, we show that capital gains indeed are a reoccurring addition to rather than a transitory component in top incomes. Doing the same for lower income groups, however, makes virtually no difference. We also try to find the roots of the recent surge in capital gains‐driven inequality in Sweden since the 1980s. While there are no evident changes in terms of who earns these gains (high wage earners vs. top capital income earners), the primary driver instead seems to be the drastic asset price increases on the post‐1980 deregulated financial markets.     

ON THE ROLE OF THE GROWTH OPTIMAL PORTFOLIO IN FINANCE

The paper discusses various roles that the growth optimal portfolio (GOP) plays in finance. For the case of a continuous market we show how the GOP can be interpreted as a fundamental building block in financial market modeling, portfolio optimisation, contingent claim pricing and risk measurement. On the basis of a portfolio selection theorem, optimal portfolios are derived. These allocate funds into the GOP and the savings account. A risk aversion coefficient is introduced, controlling the amount invested in the savings account, which allows to characterize portfolio strategies that maximise expected utilities. Natural conditions are formulated under which the GOP appears as the market portfolio. A derivation of the intertemporal capital asset pricing model is given without relying on Markovianity, equilibrium arguments or utility functions. Fair contingent claim pricing, with the GOP as numeraire portfolio, is shown to generalise risk neutral and actuarial pricing. Finally, the GOP is described in various ways as the best performing portfolio.     

国际资本流动、增长因素结构变迁与经济增长

在开放经济条件下,国际资本流动对资本、技术、人力资本和制度等经济增长因素的结构变迁有重要的影响,进而对经济增长有重要作用。     

生产率对中国经济增长的贡献:新的估计

在过去的二十年中,中国经济令人瞩目的增长已经吸引了许多的注意,并由此引发了这一领域内大量文献的出现。这些文献关注的一个问题是中国经济增长中生产率的作用。本文希望通过重新考察关于中国经济增长中生产率作用的争论,对生产率增长提供了一个最新的估计,并由此有助于理解近期的中国经济增长。本文的目的是提出并应用一种增长核算技术,来评估中国经济增长绩效,尤其是技术进步在中国经济增长中的作用。而关于后者的发现可能会对中国未来经济增长的持续性有着重要的政策涵义。     

中国的健康人力资本与收入增长

本文首次将人口健康作为人力资本的一种形式,探讨其在中国经济奇迹中的作用。基于中国健康与营养调查(CHNS)数据,我们估计了以家庭为基础的个人收入生产函数,发现以下主要结论。首先,个人健康是决定中国家庭人均收入的重要因素。第二,相对而言,农村人口比城市人口的健康经济回报更大。第三,女性比男性的健康经济回报更大。本文首次将人口健康作为人力资本的一种形式,探讨其在中国经济奇迹中的作用。基于中国健康与营养调查(CHNS)数据,我们估计了以家庭为基础的个人收入生产函数,发现以下主要结论。首先,个人健康是决定中国家庭人均收入的重要因素。第二,相对而言,农村人口比城市人口的健康经济回报更大。第三,女性比男性的健康经济回报更大。     

GROWTH, R&D AND WELFARE: THE ROLE OF PUBLIC POLICY

This paper analyzes the normative side of an R&D growth model in which market structure and growth are jointly determined in the equilibrium of a one‐sector economy under monopolistic competition. We find that a distortion in the allocation of R&D, namely the presence of technological spillovers between firms, generates two market failures: insufficient growth and excessive entry of firms. We show that this result is driven by the interplay between market structure and growth. A simple tax/subsidy scheme to support the efficient solution is proposed.