Does growth cause structural change, or is it the other way around? A dynamic panel data analysis for seven OECD countries

In economic development, aggregate economic growth is accompanied by structural change among the three main sectors of an economy. Nevertheless, the question whether economic growth causes structural change, or changes in the economic structure cause aggregate growth is still unanswered. To shed more light on this question, this article examines a Granger causality test in a panel environment to determine the relationship of economic growth and structural change, measured either in terms of employment shares or real value added shares. Estimation and analysis of the annual data of seven OECD countries, covering the period from 1960?C2004, show that although the causality appears to be heterogeneous among these countries, some general conclusions can be drawn. Aggregate economic growth decelerates structural change in the very short run but accelerates it with some lag in time. The aggregate effect depends on whether structural change is measured in terms of employment or in terms of real value added. Conversely, structural change supports aggregate economic growth, irrespective of which measure of structural change chosen.     

Endogenous induced technical change and the costs of Kyoto

We present a model for climate change policy analysis which accounts for the possibility that technology evolves endogenously and that technical change can be induced by environmental policy measures. Both the output production technology and the emission–output ratio depend upon a stock of knowledge, which accumulates through R&D activities. Two versions of this model are studied, one with endogenous technical change but exogenous environmental technical change and the other with both endogenous and induced technical change. A third version also captures technological spillover effects. As an application, the model is simulated allowing for trade of pollution permits as specified in the Kyoto Protocol and assessing the implications in terms of cost efficiency, economic growth and R&D efforts of the three different specifications of technical change.     

Dynamic modelling of pollution abatement in a CGE framework

This paper deals with the specification of pollution abatement in dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) models and analyses the dynamic feedback mechanisms between economy and abatement in the context of environmental policy. A Ramsey-type economic model is presented, in which bottom-up technical and economic information on abatement techniques is integrated in a top-down dynamic CGE context. The practical suitability of the specification is illustrated by an empirical application for climate change and acidification in the Netherlands. The results show that a mixture of some slowdown of economic growth, a substantial restructuring of the economy and implementation of most technical abatement measures is optimal.     

Institutions,human capital,and growth: The institutional mechanism

This paper contributes to the debate on the relationship between human capital, institutions, and economic growth. The paper first develops a micro-foundation model linking institutions to human capital. The advantage of our modeling strategy is that the human capital accumulation function is derived from an endogenous process. The theoretical model shows that improvements in the quality of institutions foster human capital accumulation, decrease income inequality and change the historical development path. The paper uses cross-country panel data from 1965 to 2005 to test some of the model's propositions and finds that deep structures or structural institutions – which are very persistent and rooted on the historical development path of an economy – affect long-term economic performance, while political institutions are uncorrelated with productivity and long-term economic growth. The empirical estimates also show that growth of physical and human capital – instead of levels – determines long-run economic growth.     

Business Civilization in Decline

Technological change is modeled as endogenous in the sense that it is affected by economic, behavioral, and institutional variables. Technological change is especially affected by changes in relative input prices and their level, of which the price of labor is particularly important. Input prices are affected by institutional variables. Such prices also impact on the firm's efficiency, which in turn affects growth rates as well as the rate of technical change. As relative factor prices or their level increase, firms are induced to innovate or adopt extant technology to remain competitive or to maintain current profit rates. High wage firms can be expected to engage in such induced technological change, leading the growth process thereby yielding lower unit costs and increasing the level of material welfare. Relatively low wage economies can be locked into a state of economic inefficiency and laggard technological progress, especially in the long run.     

Population growth and economic growth: a reconsideration

The relationship between population growth and development has long been a controversial topic in the economic development literature. Early work by Hoover and Coale and more recent work by Blanchet suggest that high fertility suppresses per capita income growth. However, recent work by Kelley and Srinivasan are ambivalent about such a neo-Malthusian relationship between population growth and economic growth. The authors examine these conflicting positions. They emphasize that the rates of both population growth and income growth are endogenous variables within a general equilibrium framework. An endogenous growth model with endogenous fertility is then developed. It is found that when all exogenous variables are controlled for, there exists an inverse relation between population growth and economic growth. However, when some exogenous factors change, such as an improvement in technological progress, the relation becomes ambiguous. This suggests that the conflicting findings in the literature may be because of the presence of substantial heterogeneity in unobserved variables across countries and over time in cross-country panel data sets.     

经济增长动力是研发的直接效应还是溢出效应

通过改进的菲德模型,分离出研发的直接效应和溢出效应,分别讨论了研发的总效应、直接效应和溢出效应与经济增长的关系,最终识别出经济增长的动力。理论模型表明：研发的溢出效应促进经济增长,而研发的直接效应与经济增长的关系取决于在要素边际收益上研发部门与生产部门的相对大小;短期内,研发与经济增长的关系不明确,但长期看,研发驱动经济增长,动力来自研发的溢出效应;应用研发始终促进经济增长,而基础研发与经济增长的关系不明确;经济政策不会改变研发的溢出效应,但可以改变研发的直接效应,进而影响经济增长。实证分析表明：中国经济增长的动力来自基础研发的溢出效应和应用研发的直接效应。     

双顺差条件下的中国经济增长

在构建一个双顺差约束条件下经济增长模型的基础上,对我国的国际收支平衡状况与经济增长率之间的关系进行实证分析.研究结果表明,双顺差的国际收支结构对经济增长具有双重的效应,对经济增长是否具有积极影响取决于条件的变化.近年来我国国民经济增长与国际收支双顺差之间已经形成高度的相关性,双顺差的结构反映出经济运行过程中存在着的潜在问题,同时,经常项目顺差与资本项目顺差之间已经开始出现相互强化的关系,降低国内资源配置效率的消极作用日趋明显,将会严重地增加我国经济运行的外部风险.     

中国养老保险制度变迁的经济效应

本文针对中国目前正在进行的社会养老保险制度变迁 ,在一般均衡框架下构建了一个两期的动态生命周期模拟模型。我们从宏观经济、微观经济生产者、微观经济消费者、经济公平和转轨代价五个方面对制度变迁的经济效应进行了模拟量化分析。分析表明 ,制度变迁将使资本量和产量增加 ,资本 -产出比提高 ,利率下降 ,工资率上升 ;两类劳动者个人效用上升 ,养老金替代率上升 ,收入分配差距缩小 ;同时发生一定转轨代价。总的来看 ,此次中国养老保险制度变迁的经济效应是正面的。     

以发展看经济增长质量： 概念、测度方法与实证分析 ——一种发展经济学的微观视角

中国经济增长开始步入新常态,应该特别关注经济增长质量。本文从发展理念出发将经济增长质量界定为经济增长过程中所蕴含的发展质变即可行能力的提升,提出了经济增长质量的分析模型。然后,以结构方程模型为工具,依据全国样本数据测算了经济增长质量指数,并对东部、中部和西部经济增长质量进行了比较分析。结果表明,经济增长与可行能力之间呈现倒U型关系,过度追求GDP反而会偏离发展的根本目的;教育对于提高人们的可行能力贡献最大;过大的收入差距有碍人们可行能力的提升;我国人口的可行能力分布存在着显著的结构特征;西部经济增长质量指数最高,中部最低。     

Corporation tax revenue growth in the UK: A microsimulation analysis

This paper examines the built-in flexibility properties — as measured by the elasticity of revenue with respect to profits — of the UK corporation tax system. Emphasis is placed on determining some of the major influences on the extent to which total corporation tax revenue changes when profits change over the economic cycle. A microsimulation model, CorpSim, is constructed and used to obtain numerical results. In the model, corporations use group relief, capital allowances and losses in a tax-minimising manner. The growth of aggregate corporation tax revenue in practice in the UK appears to be highly volatile in relation to the growth of profits. High volatility in revenue elasticities is found to be especially associated with economic downturns. In mild economic downturns, corporation tax revenue elasticities may rise (because tax growth falls less than profit growth), but in more severe downturns, large but temporary decreases in revenue elasticities (and even negative elasticities) can be expected.     

Economic development by the creation of new sectors

The basic theme underlying this paper is qualitative change taking place during economic development. These changes in the composition of the economic system should become one of the most important variables in models of economic growth and development. Our knowledge of the relationship between economic development and qualitative change, however, is still very limited. This paper attempts to shed light on some important aspects of the role played by qualitative change in economic development, by laying the foundations of a model in which changes in the composition of the economic system are endogenously generated by the evolution of the system itself and, in turn, affect its future development. The model has a strong Schumpeterian flavour in that the first entrepreneur entering a market enjoys a temporary monopoly. This temporary monopoly is eroded by the entry of imitators, that gradually increases the intensity of competition. The saturation is reinforced as the demand for what was a new product comes to be satisfied. In this way the adjustment gap initially created by the innovation is eliminated transforming a niche into a mature market, which becomes one of the routines of the economic system. As soon as a sector becomes saturated there is an increasing inducement for incumbent firms to exit and to create a new niche, where once more they will have a temporary monopoly. To put it in another, slightly different, form, we can say that economic development is a process in which new activities emerge, old ones disappear, the weight of all economic activities and their patterns of interaction change.JEL Classification: O0, O12; O30Correspondence to: Pier Paolo Saviotti     

Beyond the Linearity Critique: The Knife-edge Assumption of Steady-state Growth

The “linearity critique” of endogenous growth models is presented in a general context of an arbitrary growth model and reassessed. It is argued that presence of linearities is not a valid criterion for rejecting growth models. Existence of exponential/geometrical steady-state growth (i.e. of a balanced growth path with strictly positive growth rates) necessarily requires some knife-edge condition which is not satisfied by typical parameter values. Hence, balanced growth paths are fragile and sensitive to smallest disturbances in parameter values. Adding higher order differential/difference equations to a model does not change the knife-edge character of steady-state growth.     

Demography, growth, and inequality

We extend the single-sector endogenous growth model to allow for a general demographic structure. The model shows that due to the “generational turnover term,” the equilibrium growth rate is less than that of a representative agent model. We find the local dynamics about the balanced growth path (bgp) to be unstable, implying that the bgp is the only viable equilibrium. Using numerical simulations, we analyze how economic consequences of a change in the population growth rate differ, depending on the source of the demographic change. In addition, we analyze the relationship between changes in the demographic structure and what we call the “natural rate of wealth inequality”. Finally, we use our model to study how the demographic transition experienced by the United States has affected the economic growth rate and the degree of wealth inequality.     

On the short-run relationship between the income distribution-growth and debt-growth regimes

This paper examines the short-run relationship between the income distribution-growth and debt-growth regimes using a simple, post-Keynesian, demand-driven model. While mechanisms of wage-led and profit-led growth have been revealed, their relationship with debt-led and debt-burdened growth is yet to be clarified, because arguments on these growth regimes were developed separately. This paper shows that the growth regimes transform as the regime-switching parameters in the IS balance change. By way of theoretical analysis, this paper presents some important implications for (i) the possibility of the combination of growth regimes; (ii) the features of post-Keynesian economic analysis of income distribution, debt, and demand-led growth, which sharply contrast with the basic neo-classical theory; and (iii) theoretical validation of recent empirical results. Moreover, this paper also suggests some policy implications or lessons for the combination of economic growth regimes.     

Accounting for technical substitution in the input-output model

Input-output analysis is a general equilibrium economic model that is being applied with increasing frequency to situations in which the input patterns of various economic activities are bound to change. Applications of the model in this context unduly strain the model's customary assumption of fixed coefficients, an assumption which precludes the substitution of inputs in production processes. The focus here is on the development of a general procedure for incorporating input substitution under various sets of conditions into the input-output model.     

Growth,economic structure,and residential distribution of a small city

This article presents a growth model of a small open city with economic structure and geography. The city which is located along a line segment has three, industrial, services and housing, sectors. The spatial growth model of a small city synthesizes the main ideas in some important models in the neoclassical growth theory, urban economics, and the literature of economic growth of small open economies. We show that the dynamic system has a unique equilibrium. We also simulate the motion of the urban economy over time and space. The unique feature of our approach is to treat production activities, economic structure, residential distribution, capital accumulation, and consumption on the basis of microeconomic mechanism as an integrated whole. Our simulation provides some important insights into the processes of the urban economic growth. For instance, under certain conditions, when the industrial sector’s productivity is increased, the wage rate, price of services, capital intensities of the services and industrial sectors, and per-worker output levels of the two sectors are increased. The total labor supply, the capital stocks employed by the three sectors and the labor forces by the service and industrial sectors are all increased. The shares of the three sectors are not affected by the technological change in the long term, even though the shares are initially affected. The per capita consumption level of the industrial goods rises and the consumption level of services falls. The land and housing rents are increased and the consumption of housing per household falls. Moreover, the current account balance tends to be more in surplus and the growth rate is increased.     

DOES THE KYOTO PROTOCOL COST TOO MUCH AND CREATE UNBREAKABLE BARRIERS FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH?

We look to the literature on short-term cost models, long-term models based on endogenous growth, and long-term models that assume induced technical change, in order to demonstrate the current understanding of costs, which is the focus of the debate on abating climate change. Using these insights as well as other results—like the role of ancillary benefits and the lack of a relationship between decarbonization and economic growth—our contribution to this debate will be to help policy makers understand how economic analyses are conducted and how they should be used in the subsequent political discussions. (JEL Q52, Q54, Q58 )     

Potential socio-economic implications of future climate change and variability for Nigerien agriculture: A countrywide dynamic CGE-Microsimulation analysis

This study explores the potential economic and social effects induced by a possible future deterioration of weather conditions on Niger's agriculture. Our scenarios over a 25 year period rely on both long term climate change deterministic features and climate variability stochastic features which take into account a higher than normal frequency of severe droughts. Using a microsimulated Dynamic Recursive Computable General Equilibrium model, we show how a long run mean decrease in main crop yields could adversely affect growth, poverty and food security in the country and how more severe drought would worsen these negative effects. However, we also show that there would appear to be some room for manœuvre for coping strategies for Niger such as improving the rural road network, adopting modern crop varieties or, to a lesser extent, extending irrigation capacity.     

影响中国税收增长率变动的经济因素分析——基于1978—2006年中国税收收入时间序列数据

近年来,中国税收呈现高增长态势。税收增长率远超经济增长率,税收高速增长以及税收结构不合理在一定程度上抑制了消费增长。然而,影响税收增长率变动的经济因素是多元的,主要受到经济增长水平、价格水平等影响。实证分析表明,经济波动决定税收增长率的变动,经济波动与税收增长率变动存在长期均衡变动关系,价格对税收增长率也有较大影响。