Re‐Visiting Financial Development and Economic Growth Nexus: The Role of Capitalization in Bangladesh

This paper revisits the relationship between financial development and economic growth in Bangladesh by incorporating trade openness in production function using quarter frequency data over the period of 1976‐2012. We applied combined Bayer–Hanck cointegration approach to examine cointegration among the series. Our empirical evidence suggests that development of financial sector facilitates economic growth but capitalization impedes it. In addition, trade openness stimulates economic growth. Labour is also positively linked to economic growth. The vector error correction model Granger causality results divulge that financial development causes real per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and resultantly, real per capita GDP growth causes financial development in a Granger sense. The results also show that trade and labour Granger cause economic growth. The findings of the paper provide insights for policymakers to use financial development and trade openness as a tool for sustained economic growth in the long run. The paper also suggests policymakers to utilise capitalization in a way that is beneficial for economic growth of Bangladesh.     

基于灰色关联分析的国内旅游收入影响因素实证分析——以广西为例

利用灰色关联分析方法对影响广西国内旅游收入相关的9个因素进行了实证分析,结果显示与广西国内旅游收入最为相关的因素排序为:国内生产总值人均国内生产总值国内旅客人数城镇居民人均可支配收入农民纯收入旅客周转量客运量星级饭店旅行社。根据这些分析结果提出提高广西国内旅游收入的对策建议。     

Public Debt and Economic Growth in Emerging Market Economies

This paper empirically studies the relationship between public debt and economic growth for selected emerging market economies by performing panel data estimations. The results reveal a statistically significant positive correlation between public debt and the subsequent growth rate of per capita gross domestic product (GDP). Population and investment are also positively correlated with per capita growth, whereas the initial level of real GDP per capita exerts a negative influence on growth, implying conditional convergence. Other variables such as the inflation rate, the trade balance or the exchange rate do not yield a statistically significant effect with respect to economic growth.     

Outward Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth: Evidence from Japan

Abstract

This article aims at analysing the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) outflows in economic performance and the impact of economic growth on outward FDI with the data from Japan. Bivariate and multivariate Granger causality frameworks have been used in this study. The results suggest that the conclusion of bivariate framework may not be valid because it allows omission of important variables. The results of the multivariate framework show that there is a long-run positive unidirectional causality from outward FDI to gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. In the short-run, both per capita income and outward FDI do not allow Granger causality.     

Chinese Regions in the Great Divergence: Provincial Gross Domestic Product per Capita, 1873–1918

We construct 1912/18 Chinese provincial gross domestic product per capita from primary sources and project cross‐sections for 1873 and 1893. The results fit the historical record. We hypothesise that regionally specific conflicts have a role to play in explaining differential growth rates, and that geography, governance, and sectoral structures explain relative income‐level rankings. China's richest provinces matched Europe's poorest. A divergence did indeed occur, but our estimates show that at a broader economic level, it was perhaps not as dramatic as some of the literature implies.     

An Examination of Labor Productivity Growth and Structural Changes in the Singapore Labor Force*

This paper ?rst examines the sources of growth in the Singapore economy by decomposing real per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth into two components. It is found that, for the period 1974–1999, labor productivity was a signi?cant source of economic growth in Singapore. Conversely, the contribution of the rate of change in employment ratio was only of secondary importance. On further decomposition, the rate of change in employment ratio was due mainly to rate of change in population age‐structure ratio and rate of change in labor‐force participation rate. Growth patterns of the labor force were examined after it has been segregated according to gender, citizenship and age group independently. Labor productivity growth was highest in the transport, storage and communication sector, while labor productivity growth was lowest in the ?nancial, insurance, real estate and business services sector.     

Regional convergence and the role of the neighbourhood effect in decentralised Indonesia

More than a decade since Indonesia's radical decentralisation process commenced, this article examines whether the economic performance of neighbouring regions – the neighbourhood effect – can determine the speed of regional convergence. The results suggest that the inequality of gross regional domestic product per capita, as indicated by the Williamson index of regional inequality, may increase slightly in times of insignificant estimated speeds of convergence – especially because of the growth of Jakarta. In contrast, changes in the Human Development Index numbers for Indonesia indicate that regional convergence is taking place, although its speed is decreasing. The neighbourhood effect could be significant in both cases, but it has had little effect on the speed of convergence.     

广西区域经济差距变化与原因研究

本文主要采用基尼指数度量了广西各地区经济差距的状况及变化趋势,分析结果表明广西的地区经济差距在缓慢扩大,但比全国的地区经济差距要小很多。本文进一步用1998～2008年广西各地市多个指标的数据建立面板数据模型进行计量分析,研究结果表明,人均产出增长率与城市化率、投资率和非农产业比重正相关,而与财政支出占GDP的比重负相关,这些因素的综合作用导致了广西区域经济差距的变化。     

系统论视角下的京津冀区域和谐研究

京津冀都市圈是一个复杂、开放的经济地域系统,京津冀区域和谐的实质是系统和谐,包括内环境和谐、外环境和谐与系统总体和谐。文章选择人均地区生产总值、城乡居民收入、投资效果、公共教育投入、公共卫生投入、水资源量等6大指标,分析区域和谐状态。研究结果表明：京津冀地区社会经济发展不平衡,先进的特大城市和落后的腹地,是京津冀都市圈整体布局必须解决的重大问题之一。     

Does GDP Distort Mexico's Economic Performance?

Between 1961 and 1980, Mexico's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita grew nearly 3.50% annually. During the 1980s, however, it shrank about 0.50% per year. GDP figures suggest that there was sustained economic growth for the 1960s and 1970s, changing suddenly to contraction in the 1980s. This impression may be misleading. GDP does not account for housework or informal production outside households. Further, GDP also may be distorted by transactional activities, which are expenditures to support transactions, not actual output consumed. This study recalculates output for Mexico for the 1961-1990 sample period, controlling for transactional activities and nonmarket production. We find that GDP misstates Mexico's “actual” economic growth. In the 1960s, the economy expanded more quickly than GDP suggests. But in the 1970s, growth was less than half that of the 1960s. The economy indeed slumped in the 1980s, but not as terribly as the official figures indicate. Mexico's economy did not collapse suddenly in the early 1980s; actual economic growth had slowed dramatically during the 1970s.     

Are Real GDP Levels Stationary in African Countries?

In this study, we apply flexible Fourier stationary unit root test proposed by Enders and Lee (2012) to assess the non‐stationary properties of the per capita real gross domestic product (GDP) for 32 African countries. We find that Fourier stationary unit root test has higher power than linear method if the true data‐generating process of per capita real GDP is in fact a stationary nonlinear process of an unknown form with structural change using the low frequency components. We investigate the stationarity of per capita real GDP from the nonlinear point of view and provide robust evidence that clearly indicates that real output is well characterised by a nonlinear, mean‐reverting process, namely Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Senegal, Sierra Leone and South Africa. Our evidence points that these seven countries are nonlinear stationary, implying that per capita real GDP follows a steady rate of growth, and policy innovations then have temporary effects. These results have important policy implications for African countries.     

贵州省保险业发展对区域经济增长的影响分析

运用协整分析和误差修正模型，实证分析贵州省保险业发展对区域经济增长的影响态势。结果显示：贵州省GDP与保费收入、固定资产投资、城镇居民人均消费性支出之间存在长期均衡关系；长期中，保费收入对GDP存在显著的正向影响，但力度低于投资和消费；短期内，保费收入滞后一期对GDP有显著影响，投资对GDP无显著影响，消费仍是经济增长的主要动力。贵州省有关部门可积极支持保险业发展．全面提升保险密度和保险深度，为贵州省经济增长提供更强动力。     

African Development: Beyond Income Convergence

In examining some big questions on African development, I provide evidence that the dynamics of some development indicators could support both endogenous and neoclassical growth theories in the convergence debate. This paper investigates convergence in real per capita gross domestic product and inequality‐adjusted human development in 38 African countries, disaggregated into 10 homogenous panels based on regions (Sub‐Saharan and North Africa), income levels (low, middle, lower middle and upper middle), legal origins (English common law and French civil law) and religious dominations (Christianity and Islam). The main finding is that the income component of the Human Development Index moves slower than others in the convergence process, and thus requires a more focused policy intervention. As a policy implication, looking beyond income convergence can provide a concrete agenda for development involving all aspects of economic, institutional and social life.     

GDP in the Dutch Cape Colony: The National Accounts of a Slave‐Based Society

New estimates of the gross domestic product of the Dutch Cape Colony (1652‐1795) suggest that the Cape was one of the most prosperous regions during the eighteenth century. This stands in sharp contrast to the perceived view that the Cape was an “economic and social backwater,” a slave economy with slow growth and little progress. Following a national accounts framework, we find that Cape settlers' per capita income is similar to the most prosperous countries of the time – Holland and England. We trace the roots of this result, showing that it is partly explained by a highly skewed population structure and very low dependency ratio of slavery, and attempt to link the eighteenth‐century Cape Colony experience to twentieth‐century South African income levels.     

China's economic system reform: Underlying factors and prospects

Three important determinants of economic growth in the Chinese context are: the motivation of economic units, the absorption of foreign technology and its diffusion and agricultural productivity. The Stalin model of the 1950s served China well, especially when sustained by ‘Chinese sub-models’ such as ties of trust with rural brigades, workers' innovation etc. After that investment effectiveness declined, and today the structural changes necessary point to the need to alter existing institutions which have become obsolete. In agriculture, the use of cash inputs is more common now and a sense of economic efficiency is increasingly required. Care should be taken in comparing China with East European countries given that China's per capita gross domestic product is much lower as is the percentage of agricultural output reaching the market. The comprehensiveness of the economic reform likely in China means that it will only be possible to judge it over a time horizon longer than five years. For such economic reforms to be wholly successful, they need to continue to incorporate Chinese ‘sub-models’ mentioned in the paper and must develop a network of supplying industries and inter-dependent factories.     

Carbon emissions,trade liberalization,and the Japan–ASEAN interaction: A group-wise examination

As in any modern economy, trade is central to the progress of the economy in the Association of Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN) region, but environmental degradation occurs with globalization. Using panel data from the period 1970–2006, this study examines the interaction between trade and the environment in terms of carbon emissions for the group of ASEAN countries. The results demonstrate that CO₂ emissions display an inverted-S shape in the region. In general, exports as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) are main contributors to carbon emissions in the developed, developing and late-developing ASEAN countries. The study found no evidence for the Foreign Direct Investment’s (FDI) deteriorating impact on environmental quality. Moreover, Japan’s imports from the region do not cause pollution while China’s imports stimulate the pollution per capita.     

Economic Convergence in the African Continent: Closing the Gap

The paper attempts to analyse the conditional β‐convergence and its sources for 32 African countries over the period 1960‐2008. The augmented Solow model with both gross domestic product (GDP) per worker and per capita income is estimated using the dynamic system generalized methods of moments (GMM) technique with the panel data. This is the first study on the sources of conditional β‐convergence for African countries. According to the results of the augmented Solow model, income convergence rates are lower than those of GDP per worker. Moreover, total factor productivity convergence, human capital convergence and capital labour convergence are contributing towards the convergence of GDP per worker in Africa. This means that growth in the poorest African countries is being augmented by “catch‐up factor,” which is good news for them. However, convergence in terms of GDP per worker is not being fully translated into income per capita convergence. The demographic structure in the African continent with its record of persistent population growth has played an important role in lowering the income convergence of its countries.     

国民总财富的估算与结构分析——以安徽省为例

国民总财富把经济发展、社会进步和资源环境变化结合起来,更好地代表了经济主体可持续发展的程度。文章依据世界银行提出的方法估算出了1990-2011年安徽省人均财富以及总财富的各项构成部分,结果表明:现阶段安徽省仍然大量使用自然资本来推动人均GDP和人均财富的增长。且现阶段,安徽省财富的积累还是以自然资本为主,但是自然资本的比例越来越低,生产资本所占财富的比重正缓慢上升。人力资本比重最小,这不利于经济的可持续发展。     

中国研究与发展经费水平的变动分析

以研究与发展(R&D)经费总额、R&D经费总额占国内生产总值的比重和人均R&D经费三个指标的变化为标准进行分析,把20世纪90年代以来中国R&D经费水平的变动分为三个阶段,在分析中也把中国与主要国家的R&D经费水平进行了对比,并展望了中国R&D经费水平的变动趋势。     

On the Impact of Transportation Costs on Trade in a Multilateral World

This article proposes to account for the differences in the importance of transport costs, depending on characteristics of trading partners. In a multiregion model of trade in differentiated goods we expect a smaller impact of transport costs on a country's exports as a share of importer gross domestic product (GDP) the more (less) relatively capital-abundant the exporter (importer) is and the lower (higher) production costs are as captured by GDP at given factor endowments and diversity, all else equal. Empirically, this requires four interaction terms in addition to the direct impact of transport costs when estimating log-linear gravity models: one with the exporter GDP per capita or capital-labor ratio, a second one with the importer GDP per capita or capital-labor ratio, and a third and fourth with exporter and importer GDP, respectively. The hypotheses are strongly supported by the evidence from a large panel of bilateral trade between 1970 and 2000.