Critical survey. Endogenous growth theory: a critical assessment

A critical assessment is made of endogenous growth theory fromthe perspective of recent developments within economics as adiscipline. These include its increasing mathematical formalisation,its focus upon microfoundations, the casual use of econometricsto test models, and the incorporation of factors that have traditionallybeen outside mainstream economics. It is found that the theoryfocuses upon market imperfections and technological progressin a variety of ways, and reconstructs their impact upon themacroeconomy as a growth rather than as a level effect. Whilstthe growth rate is endogenised, this leads to the problem ofmultiple equilibria and extremely complex dynamics. The generalisationfrom exogenous growth theory is, however, associated with evenmore extreme assumptions and analytical distance from the socioeconomicprocesses of growth itself.     

欧元区成员国通胀差异成因研究

在欧元区内部,不同国家之间的通胀率存在不容忽视的差别。欧元区各经济体间究竟为什么会存在差别如此之大的通胀率呢?什么因素及在多大程度上影响了通胀率的差异?文章从巴拉萨—萨缪尔森效应、价格的收敛效应、输入性通胀、本国要素市场结构差异、本国财政政策和经济周期等六个方面,使用实证数据和面板数据回归探讨了这些问题。     

From Inflation to Growth

This paper reexamines growth in transition using panel data to 1997. It suggests that output has been strongly affected by export market growth; that inflation has been associated with weaker output only above a threshold inflation rate; that structural reform has been associated with weaker output initially, but that it stimulates higher growth thereafter; and that rapid disinflation has been associated with output losses only in the presence of pegged exchange rates.     

中国经济增长与通货膨胀:非典型滞胀特征

近年来,中国的宏观经济运行出现了高增长、低就业并存,资本存量与收入流量失衡的新局面.这种现象无法用传统的典型滞胀理论来解释说明,因此,构建一种针对中国实际情况的分析视角和方法的需要变得更为迫切.基于纯货币经济的分析方法,本文将中国的经济增长与通货膨胀归纳为一种含有非典型滞胀特征的经济现象.     

Money and growth in a cash-in-advance economy with costly credit

This paper develops a stochastic growth model with a cash-in-advance constraint, costly credit, and intermediary services. We study how the behavior of financial intermediaries affects the relationship between economic growth and the monetary system. We show that the payment that intermediaries charge for providing financial services influences the money–growth relationship. When the intermediation cost increases proportionally with credit purchases, we do not observe any influence of growth on the monetary system. When the intermediation cost is not proportional to credit purchases, growth is responsible for a transformation of the monetary system, i.e. money is relatively driven out of the economy as the economy grows.     

The Costs of Inflation Revisited

Neoclassical treatments of inflation understate the costs associated with inflation, even at very low levels. A comparative institutions perspective that recognizes the epistemological properties of prices and the institutional process by which inflation takes place, reveals the costs of inflation to be both larger and more widespread than standard treatments suggest. This paper makes use of insights from Austrian economics, public choice theory, and the new institutional economics to argue that inflation imposes costs by undermining the coordinative properties of the price system. Not only are there the direct costs of increased economic error, but actors also divert resources away from direct want-satisfaction into attempts to either prevent or cope with the increased degree of uncertainty inflation imposes. These resource costs are best understood from a comparative institutions perspective, as traditional measures of economic well-being, such as GDP, cannot distinguish between exchanges that directly satisfy wants, and exchanges that are attempts to correct or prevent utility-diminishing activities. The analogy between these coping costs and rent-seeking behavior is explored. In addition, inflation imposes costs by undermining the coordinative properties of markets and inducing actors to, on the margin, prefer to seek wealth or allocate resources through the political process.     

Efficiency, depth and growth: Quantitative implications of finance and growth theory

We develop a parsimonious finance and endogenous growth model with microeconomic frictions in entrepreneurship and a role for credit constraints. We demonstrate that though an efficiency–growth relation will always exist, the efficiency–depth–growth relation may not. This has implications for the connection between the theory and empirics of finance and growth. We go on to ask whether the model can account for some historical trends in growth, financial depth and financial efficiency for the UK over the period 1850–1913. The best model of finance and growth is one that departs from the standard depth–growth link.     

Redistribution and growth: Pareto improvements

This paper analyzes the relationship between income distribution and economic growth. It introduces heterogeneous households who have preferences for leisure into Grossman and Helpman's model of endogenous growth (in which income distribution has no effect on economic growth). Wealth distribution affects the endogenous rate of growth as the labor supply of each individual responds inversely to his permanent income. When the labor Engel curve is concave (convex), unequal wealth distribution decreases (increases) the rate of growth. Pareto-improving-growth-enhancing wealth redistributions are characterized.     

浅析如何预防未来的通货膨胀

根据国家统计局的数据显示,自2011年1月份以来,中国居民消费价格指数CPI同比上涨了5.0%。其中,3月份居民消费价格指数(CPI)同比上涨5.4%,创下了32个月来新高。通胀预期明显上升,物价上涨压力也随之明显加大,这成为影响宏观经济增长以及社会稳定的首要问题,而货币政策是治理通货膨胀的最有效方式之一。主要分析了中国改革开放以后,发生的两次严重的通货膨胀,并总结了所实施的货币政策的优缺点。同时本轮通货膨胀与前两次有很多相似之处,在对引发通货膨胀的众多因素进行实证分析之后,根据之前的经验,可以对当前抑制通货膨胀的货币政策进行优化,从而达到更好的治理效果。     

货币增长不确定性与通货膨胀不确定性——“波动溢出”假说与实证检验

文章基于通货膨胀——通货膨胀不确定性关系的理论研究,提出货币增长不确定性向通货膨胀不确定性波动溢出的计量检验假说,并利用中国数据,运用多元GARCH模型进行实证检验。结果发现,存在货币增长不确定性显著向通货膨胀不确定性波动溢出的效应。这意味着,货币增长不确定性具有提供有关预测通货膨胀不确定性信息的能力。同时也表明,货币增长不确定性是通货膨胀不确定性的重要解释变量,其重要性不应被忽视。实证结论的政策含义是:减少货币增长不确定性是降低通货膨胀不确定性的重要途径,我国20世纪90年代中后期稳健的货币政策所带来的通货膨胀不确定性显著降低的现实支持了这个观点。     

Health and infrastructure in a model of endogenous growth

This paper studies the optimal allocation of government spending between infrastructure and health (which affects labor productivity as well as household utility) in an endogenous growth framework. A key feature of the model is that infrastructure affects not only the production of goods but also the supply of health services. The rate of time preference is also endogenously related to health outcomes. The first part considers the case where health enters as a flow in production and utility, whereas the second focuses on a “stock” approach. Growth- and welfare-maximizing rules for income taxation and the allocation of public spending are derived.     

Pollution,abatement and balanced growth

The analysis of endogenous growth models with pollution often concentrates on steady state trajectories, under the assumption that the steady state is in some sense stable. In the present note we provide examples showing that this issue should be dealt with carefully. We use the Rebelo Ak model augmented with a stock of pollutants causing a negative externality. It is found that optimal growth is not necessarily balanced (contrary to the outcome of the standard Rebelo model). Moreover, the existence of the externality may affect long run optimal growth rates.The author is grateful to an anonymous referee for comments. All remaining errors are the author's sole responsibility.     

中国通货膨胀率及其波动关系分析

有关通货膨胀率和通货膨胀率波动影响关系,存在F riedm an-B a ll和Cuk ierm an-M e ltzer两种假说,即存在通货膨胀率及其波动的相互影响关系。使用GARCH和TGARCH模型,选择中国1993~2004年月度通货膨胀率数据,检验结果表明F riedm an-B a ll假说成立,稳健的货币政策对经济发展有积极作用。     

Environmental performance,corruption and economic growth: global evidence using a new data set

This study investigates the relationship between environmental performance, corruption and economic growth using panel data of 87 countries covering the period from 2002 to 2012. The Environmental Performance Index is used for the first time to evaluate the environmental quality on economic growth. By employing both ‘static’ and ‘dynamic’ panel models, we find that environmental performance is positively related to economic growth and is more significant in non-Organization for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD) countries. Moreover, when corruption is incorporated, the empirical estimation results indicate that although lower corruption helps economic growth in non-OECD countries, the negative coefficients of the three interactive terms show that the positive effect of environment performance on economic growth will drop, while greater environmental performance combined with natural resource abundance inevitably leads to inefficient bureaucracies and hence disadvantageous economic growth. As a result, policymakers in non-OECD countries should carefully ensure better government quality when they exhibit strong environmental performance so as to avoid any disadvantageous impact upon economic growth.     

The growth of university spin-offs: a dynamic panel data approach

Evidence suggests that a significant percentage of the university spin-offs (USOs) have a low growth capacity, putting in question the use of public funds to promote this kind of entrepreneurship. In addition, previous studies of the USOs’ growth have not dealt with the dynamic nature of firm growth, which might have led to questionable results. This paper analyses whether the university origin of a firm conditions its growth by applying a methodology which captures this dynamic nature of growth. Using a sample of 469 Spanish USOs and an equivalently matched group of 469 Spanish non-USOs over the period 2001–2010, we find that USOs have more growth than non-USOs, both in terms of sales and employment. In addition, the USOs’ growth is influenced by a set of determinants that differ from those of non-USOs. On the basis of the results, we propose some policies to foster the USOs.     

基于Markov区制转移模型的通货膨胀动态研究

采用Markov区制转移模型,就我国经济发展过程中通货膨胀的路径动态过程进行了深入研究。我国通货膨胀路径中存在着显著的高通胀区制和低通胀区制,宏观调控政策对于通货膨胀具有显著的治理效应,在此情况下,正确判断通货膨胀所处的运行区制就成为确保经济调控政策科学有效的重要基础。     

Inflation Targeting: Some Extensions

Previous analyses of the implementation of inflation targeting are extended to monetary policy responses to different shocks, consequences of model uncertainty, and effects of interest rate smoothing and stabilization. Model uncertainty, output stabilization, and interest rate stabilization or smoothing all call for a more gradual adjustment of the conditional inflation forecast toward the inflation target. The conditional inflation forecast is the natural intermediate target during inflation targeting. The optimal way of reacting to shocks is hence to check how they affect the inflation forecast and then take the appropriate action.
JEL classification : E 42; E 52; E 58     

服务业FDI对我国服务业增长效应研究

本文运用协整分析和面板数据分析对服务业利用FDI对我国服务业总体和各主要行业增长效应进行实证研究。协整分析结果表明,服务业FDI和我国服务业总体增长之间存在长期稳定的均衡关系,服务业FDI促进了我国服务业总体增长。面板数据变系数模型结果表明,不同服务行业利FDI对行业增长效应存在很大的差异性,调整我国服务业FDI的行业流向具有很大的现实意义。在上述分析的基础上,提出相关政策建议。     

Inflation targeting and inflation expectations in Mexico

In this article we analyse inflation expectations in Mexico. After a review of the theoretical and empirical literature, we apply unit root, normality and cointegration tests to the data provided by Banco de México (Banxico) in the Survey on the Expectations of the Private Sector Economics Specialists. Our results reject the null hypothesis of normality for inflation expectations over the period 2004:01–2011:12. The exchange rate has become one of the most relevant variables in the transmission mechanism of monetary policy in a small open economy. In this regard, we show the existence of a long-run relationship between nominal exchange rate and interest rate where inflation expectations matter for long-term dynamics.     

Explaining divorce rate determinants: new evidence from Spain

This article examines the main determinants of divorce rates in Spain for the period 1995 to 2010. According to the results, the so-called Express Divorce Law (passed in 2005) seems to be positively associated with divorce rates in the short term. Income level and growth, female employment rate, and the proportion of foreign population are also positively related to divorce rates. However, as expected, the percentage of conservative vote seems to have a negative impact.