The natural resource curse and economic transition

Using cross-country regressions, we examine the relationship between “point-source” resource abundance and economic growth, quality of institutions, investment in human and physical capital, and social welfare (life expectancy and infant mortality) for all countries and for the economies in transition. Contrary to most literature, we find little evidence of a natural resource curse for all countries. Only the “voice and accountability” measure of institutional quality is negatively and significantly affected by oil wealth. In the economies in transition, there is some evidence that natural resource wealth is associated with lower primary school enrollment and life expectancy and higher infant mortality compared to other resource rich countries. Compared to other economies in transition, however, natural resource abundant transitional economies are not significantly worse off with respect to our indicators.     

The role of MNCs in balancing the human capital 'books' between African and developed countries

The economic imbalance that exists between Western developed economies and African economies has resulted in retardation of human capital development in the African countries. The foreign direct investments that have freely flowed into Western economies have been the stimulus for the creation of jobs and the resulting educational infrastructure to generate qualified employees. Without this increase in human capital stock (i.e. in African countries) the ability of these economies to compete in the global, high tech, information economy of the twenty-first century is severely constrained. The paper examines the development of a human capital encompassing societal, organizational, and individual levels that can be stimulated by multinational organizations. The resulting positive impact on human capital in turn supports the growth not only of the African countries but also of the multinationals doing business in Africa.     

教育人力资本结构对经济增长的贡献研究——基于东中西三大地区的比较

政府对教育资源的配置是人力资本形成的一个主要决定因素,不同数量和质量的教育人力资本对经济增长的贡献也不同。受区域经济发展不平衡的影响,我国东部、中部和西部地区在人力资本数量和质量方面存在显著差别。为深入考察教育人力资本结构对经济增长的贡献,在将教育人力资本结构分为基础教育和高等教育的基础上,实证检验了东中西三大地区的教育人力资本结构对经济增长的贡献,结果表明：经济发展越快的地区,其高等教育人力资本对经济增长的贡献越大。因此,为发挥教育人力资本对经济增长的促进作用,行之有效的办法是提高公共教育支出预算,大力发展各级各类教育。     

POLLUTION'S ROLE IN REDUCING URBAN QUALITY OF LIFE IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD

This paper surveys the recent literature exploring the consequences of urban pollution in the developing world for a city's productivity and resident quality of life. The environmental Kuznets curve literature predicts that developing nations will experience significant environmental degradation as a byproduct of economic development. In contrast, the recent literature that we review reverses this logic by arguing that geographic areas featuring lower levels of pollution will experience economic growth through improvements in health and human capital. In an economy where pollution reduces worker productivity, inhibits child development and repels the skilled from living in such an area, those cities featuring less pollution have a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining the skilled. Given the central role that human capital plays in urban economic growth, such cities will be more likely to achieve sustainable long‐term growth.     

Health human capital and economic growth in Sub-Saharan African and OECD countries

This paper investigates the effects of health human capital on the growth rate of per capita income in Sub-Saharan African and OECD countries. Using an expanded Solow growth model, panel data, and a dynamic panel estimator, we find that the growth rate of per capita income is strongly and positively influenced by the stock of, and investment in, health human capital after controlling for other variables. The stock of health human capital affects the growth rate of per capita income in a quadratic way: the growth impact of health human capital decreases at relatively large endowments of health stock. Our estimates suggest that 22% and 30% of the transition growth rate of per capita income in Sub-Saharan African and OECD countries respectively, can be attributed to health. The structure of the relationship between health human capital and the growth rate of income in Sub-Saharan African countries is similar to the structure of the relationship in OECD countries. This implies that increased stocks of health human capital leads to higher steady state income. Our results have interesting policy implications.     

资本投入对我国经济增长的影响——基于拓展的MRW框架的分析

本文基于同时包含物质资本、教育资本、健康资本和R&D资本的拓展的MRW框架,根据我国31个省(市、自治区)1998~2007年的数据,考察了资本投入对我国人均实际产出以及经济增长的影响。研究发现,物质资本投资、教育投资和R&D投资对我国人均实际产出以及经济增长具有显著的促进作用,健康投资对产出水平有显著的促进作用,但对经济增长的影响不显著。在此基础上,本文估算了我国总量的生产函数以及资本投资的回报率。此外,本文还将全要素生产率内生化,进一步考察了资本投入对我国人均实际产出与经济增长的影响。     

Human capital,investment and growth: Some results from an endogenous growth model

Recent theoretical literature on the sources of economic growth has emphasized the role of human capital as an internal contributing force in the growth process. Empirical results reported in this paper provide support for this theoretical proposition. Cross-country data from 32 developing countries indicate that human capital (as alternatively measured by the primary school enrollment rate or the adult literacy rate) exerts a significant positive impact upon output growth.     

DOES ICT GENERATE ECONOMIC GROWTH? A META‐REGRESSION ANALYSIS

Despite phenomenal technological progress and exponential growth in computing power, economic growth remains comparative sluggish. In this paper, we investigate two core issues: (1) is there really no connection between ICT and national economic growth? and (2) what factors moderate the ICT–growth relationship? We apply meta‐regression analysis to 466 estimates drawn from 59 econometric studies that explore the Solow or Productivity Paradox that there is little impact of ICT on economic growth and productivity. We explore the differential impact of ICT on developed and developing countries and the differential impact of different types of ICT: landlines, cell phones, computer technology and Internet access. After accommodating potential econometric misspecification bias and publication selection bias, we detect evidence that ICT has indeed contributed positively to economic growth, at least on average. Both developed and developing countries benefit from landline and cell technologies, with cell technologies’ growth effect approximately twice as strong as landlines. However, developed countries gain significantly more from computing than do developing countries. In contrast, we find little evidence that the Internet has had a positive impact on growth.     

The impact of foreign trade issues on economic growth in some developing countries including Iran and Turkey

The issue of foreign trade and economic growth have been on the economic agenda for centuries. Foreign trade is a facilitator of goods and services exchange in the global marketplace and is an engine of economic growth in a country. Moreover, economic growth is a means to improve the output, employment opportunities, and welfare, which in turn could make a favorable impact on the positive foreign trade balance. Economic growth is also an essential component of country competitiveness in international markets. Yet, the objective of this study is to analyze the correlation between foreign trade and economic growth in some developing countries, including Iran and Turkey, by using econometrics applications (panel co-integration method and E-views software), also resting on credible national and international publications. Thus, it is estimated in the study that foreign trade has a positive impact on economic growth, resource allocation, energy and green energy consumption, human capital development, and physical capital consumption.     

陕西文化产业投融资的模式构建

文化产业日益成为发展经济所要关注的重要领域。陕西急需大力发展文化产业以期拉动经济发展,同时为广大群众提供丰富的物质文化产品和服务。现阶段资本的缺乏制约了发展,如何协调各方面利益,拓展投融资渠道,完善投融资体系,形成陕西特色的投融资模式成为亟需解决的问题。     

Stock markets,banks and the sources of economic growth in low and high income countries

This paper studies the effects of stock markets and banks on the sources of economic growth, productivity and capital accumulation, using a large cross country panel that includes high- and low-income countries. Results show that, in low-income countries, banks have a sizable positive effect on capital accumulation. We find that stock markets, however, have not contributed to capital accumulation or productivity growth in these countries. Given the emphasis that has been placed in developing equity markets in developing countries, these findings are somewhat surprising. Conversely, in high-income countries, stock markets are found to have sizable positive effects on both productivity and capital growth, while banks only affect capital accumulation.     

政府债务对经济增长的影响及作用渠道

基于1960～2010年113个国家的面板数据集,运用系统广义矩动态面板方法和稳健性分析,比较发达国家和发展中国家政府债务经济增长效应的差异,并尝试分析政府债务影响经济增长的渠道。研究结果显示,政府债务对经济增长有非线性影响;发达国家政府债务对经济增长、投资以及全要素生产率均无显著影响;发展中国家对政府债务的直接承受力更弱,但在一个宽松的临界点内,政府债务的增加可以提高投资率。     

Gender discrimination in education,health, and labour market: a voice for equality

The objective of the study is to examine the impact of gender discrimination in education, health, and labour market on economic growth in a panel of 20 high-income OECD countries for the period of 1980–2015. In addition, the study proposed an index of pro-equality growth, which is flared with education, health, and labour market initiatives to promote economic growth. The results show that gender parity index for educational attainment significantly promotes economic growth while health and labour market required substantial policy reforms to reduce health and labour market inequalities to sustain long-term economic growth. The results classified three countries as highly equitable growth, one country for equitable growth, two countries are moderate growth, four countries are less equitable growth while remaining 10 countries fall in the category of inequitable growth, where greater inequality promotes economic growth on the cost of education, health, and labour market inequalities.     

Economic development and the return to human capital: a smooth coefficient semiparametric approach

This paper investigates the impact of human capital on the process of economic growth by allowing the contribution of traditional inputs (capital and labour) as well as that of human capital to vary both across countries and time. The former is accomplished by constructing an index of TFP growth for traditional inputs, while the latter through semiparametric methods. We derive estimates of the output elasticity and social return to human capital for 51 countries at various stages of economic development. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

人力资本投资结构及其经济增长效应——基于扩展MRW模型的内生增长理论与实证研究

本文针对已有的关于人力资本投资的理论研究往往只关注人力资本投资数量而忽视人力投资结构研究的现状，把教育和健康看作是两种资本，分析了人力资本投资的具体构成形式。假设人力资本由教育资本和健康资本按照Cobb-Douglas生产技术形式组合生成。通过扩展Mankiw、Romer和Weil（1992）模型（简称MRW模型），构建了一个内生经济增长模型。理论分析结果表明，人力资本投资结构制约着经济增长，人力资本投资数量和结构都对经济产生重要影响。最后，本文以理论分析为基础构建计量经济模型，利用1978-2004年中国29个省市的面板数据实证分析了教育资本和健康资本对中国经济增长的影响。     

Measuring the efficiency of European education systems by combining Data Envelopment Analysis and Multiple-Criteria Evaluation

Education is considered an important factor of economic growth, employment and social inclusion. However, the economic crisis has put the need to achieve educational goals in the most efficient way ever more to the fore. The main objective of this paper is to assess the spending efficiency of European compulsory educational systems, creating a ranking of countries based on the efficiency scores of their systems using a number of standard variables from the literature. To this end, we also present a methodological innovation that combines Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with discrete Multiple Criteria Evaluation (MCE), two methods that we consider complementary if used for providing a performance analysis. Moreover, both methods identify a set of common variables which are associated with higher levels of efficiency in educational systems (e.g. some characteristics of teachers, the stock of adults’ human capital and lower expenditures per student). The results show that findings using DEA are largely confirmed by MCE.

     

Evaluating the impacts of human capital stocks and accumulation on economic growth: some new evidence

"Various hypotheses have been put forward in recent years concerning the contribution of human capital to economic growth. This paper argues that school enrolment rates--by far the most commonly used human capital measure in growth regressions attempting to test these hypotheses--conflate human capital stock and accumulation effects and lead to misinterpretations of the role of labour force growth. An alternative education-related human capital measure is constructed which is capable of distinguishing between stocks and flows. Applying this measure to samples of developed and less developed countries during the 1960-85 period suggests not only that there are important growth effects associated both with 'initial' stocks of, and subsequent growth in, human capital, but also that this new measure out-performs the simple school enrolment rates used in previous analyses."     

要素质量、中间产品质量提升与后发经济收敛

扩展的要素禀赋理论包括要素数量和要素质量两个维度,它们对后发经济收敛的机理是不一样的。鉴于要素质量直接引入的困难,文章借鉴中间品投入模型,将要素质量的增加转化为中间产品质量的提升,通过内生经济增长模型的推导发现,要素质量,尤其是以人口基数或者人力资本为主体的要素质量成为后发国家或地区经济发展的核心,后发国家或地区要注意培育人力资本,提升技术基础,创造良好的创新环境,降低创新成本,注重经济发展信心的培育,正确引导消费偏好,以加快经济收敛。     

Training,adverse selection and appropriate technology: Development and growth in a small open economy

Recent diffusion models cannot explain why the success of technology diffusion depends so critically on developing countries’ human capital levels. This paper examines three main issues. First, we endogenize both appropriate technologies and human capital formation. Second, we refine the human capital accumulation process by introducing uncertainty about worker quality and training efficiency. Finally, we allow for international diffusion of technology as a function of the host country’s endogenous ability to absorb technological spillovers. The resulting model is one of uneven growth where trade amplifies worker quality problems in laggard countries. In contrast, technology spillovers are shown to generate additional incentives to accumulate human capital in the laggard country, since this allows for faster adoption and diffusion of foreign technology in the future.     

Public and Private Investment and The Growth Process in Developing Countries

This paper examines the relative contribution of public and private investment to per capita GDP growth in developing countries. It extends the basic neoclassical model of growth by separating investment into its public and private components, and estimates this model for a sample of 95 developing countries over the period 1970–90 using both cross-sectional and panel data. Using data on relative supplies of public and private capital stock, rates of return to public and private investment are also computed. The results suggest that once other determinants of growth, such as human capital formation, population growth, and technical progress, are taken into account, public and private investment have different effects on growth, and that these effects are characterized by marked regional and inter-temporal variations.