Externalities of investment, education and economic growth

We present a growth model in which investment in physical capital shows positive externalities which build up knowledge capital. A prerequisite for these spillovers to take place is that a country devotes time to education. Externalities associated with investment need education to raise the stock of knowledge capital. Analysing the competitive economy we demonstrate that the model may explain why some low-income countries show convergence whereas others do not. Furthermore, we demonstrate that in the social optimum the level of investment is always higher than in the competitive economy whereas the time spent for education may be lower or higher. We also show how the competitive economy may replicate the social optimum for an appropriate choice of a lump-sum tax and an investment subsidy. Empirical evidence is provided in order to demonstrate the plausibility of our model.     

Brand capital and firm value

We study the role of brand capital – a primary form of intangible capital – for firm valuation and risk in the cross section of publicly traded firms. Using an empirical measure of brand capital stock constructed from advertising expenditures accounting data, we show that: (i) firms with low brand capital investment rates have higher average stock returns than firms with high brand capital investment rates, a difference of 5.2% per annum; (ii) more brand capital intensive firms have higher average stock returns than less brand capital intensive firms, a difference of 5.1% per annum; and (iii) investment in both brand capital and physical capital is volatile and procyclical. A neoclassical investment-based model in which brand capital is a factor of production subject to adjustment costs matches the data well. The model also provides a novel explanation for the empirical links between advertising expenditures and stock returns around seasoned equity offerings (SEO) documented in previous studies.     

Evidence of public capital spillovers and endogenous growth in Taiwan

This study reaffirms the empirical evidence of public capital spillovers and endogenous growth by using data for the period 1966Q3–2012Q3 in Taiwan. Avoiding the use of a 100% depreciation rate for generating public and private capital stock series that is applied in some related studies, this study estimates these series by using disaggregate data of various investment assets and applying their individual depreciation rates, as calculated by Jorgenson and Stiroh (2000). The results show that, first, (per capita) output, private capital stock, and public capital stock cointegrated in the sample period. Second, the contribution of private capital to output is 50% higher than that of public capital. Third, in the presence of significant and sizeable public capital spillover effects, growth in Taiwan is strictly endogenous. Finally, the dynamic model with a cointegration equation helps in studying some sensible short-run properties of the model and bi-directional effects among variables.     

Optimal social security in a dynastic model with human capital externalities,fertility and endogenous growth

In this paper we investigate the optimal scale of pay-as-you-go social security in a dynastic family model with human capital externalities, fertility and endogenous growth. Human capital externalities reduce the return to human capital investment and hence lead to under-investment in human capital and over-reproduction of the population. If the taste for the number of children is sufficiently weak relative to the taste for the welfare of children, social security can be welfare enhancing by reducing fertility and raising human capital investment per child.     

Population and Economic Growth Under Different Growth Engines

Using a growth model with physical capital accumulation, human capital investment and horizontal R&D activity, this paper proposes an alternative channel through which an increase in the population growth rate may yield a non‐uniform (i.e., a positive, negative, or neutral) impact on the long‐run growth rate of per‐capita GDP, as available empirical evidence seems mostly to suggest. The proposed mechanism relies on the nature of the process of economic growth (whether it is fully or semi‐endogenous), and the peculiar engine(s) driving economic growth (human capital investment, R&D activity, or both). The model also explains why in the long term the association between population growth and productivity growth may ultimately be negative when R&D is an engine of economic growth.     

自然灾害对长期经济增长的影响

本文构建了一个包含自然灾害的两部门内生增长模型。研究发现,自然灾害对长期增长的影响幅度取决于其造成的人力资本存量损失。同时,灾害发生会促使经济主体更多地投资于人力资本。本文应用跨国数据分析了自然灾害风险、经济增长和人力资本投资间的长期关系,发现自然灾害对宏观经济活动有重要影响,并主要通过影响人力资本投资行为发生作用。     

Measuring Human Capital Like Physical Capital: What Does It Tell Us?

In this paper, I develop a measure of human capital stock that is similar to measuring physical capital by its replacement cost. This measure builds on measures of average educational attainment of the labour force. While it is far from an ideal measure, it is an interesting complement to the educational attainment series and other existing measures of human capital accumulation. In cross–country panel regressions, use of this measure of human capital accumulation yields a positive and significant, but relatively small (about ten per cent) elasticity with percapita GDP growth. Unlike physical capital, the stock of human capital as a share of GDP increases with GDP. This is consistent with the Barro et al . (1995) model of growth with non–mobile human capital and with some predictions of Romer's (1990) model of endogenous growth, but it is not consistent with the predictions of some other growth models.     

Duplication externalities in an endogenous growth model with physical capital,human capital,and R&D

This paper devises an endogenous growth model with physical capital, human capital and product variety. Differently to previous works, innovation is subject to externalities associated to the duplication of research effort, as well as to R&D spillovers. We provide conditions for the existence of a unique feasible steady-state equilibrium with positive long-run growth. For appropriate parameter values, the transitional dynamics of the model is represented by a two-dimensional stable manifold. Numerical simulations show that the incorporation of duplication externalities significantly increases the ability of the model to fit the observed data.     

Externalities,Productivity and Sustained Growth

This paper shows that the existence of endogenous growth, in the closed‐form solution, in a single sector economy with a convex technology in an overlapping generations (OLG) framework, which attempts to fill the current gap in endogenous growth theory. It finds there is an unbounded growth when trade, in the form of knowledge spillover, affects labor productivity through the formation of human capital with self‐education that is not an independent sector but builds the human capital here. This conclusion holds even though there is the “limited income” expressed as the “non‐increasing wage/investment ratio” for each generation. Moreover, it shows the convergence of growth rates for each country, which is unique and constant, while the growth rate per capita negatively relates with each country's population growth rate. Also, there is no “poverty trap” with the introduction of externalities that is different from existing literature.     

Do news shocks increase capital utilization?

Using the workweek of capital as a measure of capital utilization, we empirically test whether news shocks actually increase capital utilization. To this end, by estimating a panel VAR on two-digit manufacturing data identifying news shocks as innovations to stock returns orthogonal to the variations in current-period TFP growth, we find the positive response of capital utilization to news shocks. Moreover, to explain the positive response of capital utilization to news shocks in terms of plant-level investment behavior, we propose a heterogeneous plant model that combines the fixed cost of capital adjustment and an endogenous capital utilization choice. With the presence of fixed costs, except for the plants that have recently adjusted capital stock, news shock shortens the effective time horizon of currently installed capital stock and increases capital utilization. When the model economy is calibrated to match the salient features of the plant-level investment rate distribution, the economy generates a news-driven positive response of capital utilization.     

资本性支出分权、公共资本投资构成与经济增长

本文建立一个财政分权框架下的两部门内生增长模型,从理论上分析最优公共资本投资配置及其对经济增长的影响,并以我国全国和省份经济数据为基础对本文理论分析进行实证检验。分析表明,我国公共资本投资构成不尽合理,全国和地方公共物质资本投资比重明显偏低;中央和地方政府间公共资本投资事权划分也欠妥,资本性支出分权水平明显过高。这些结论对于我国今后财政政策的合理调整、政府间事权的科学划分具有重要意义。     

Factors of production,productivity, institutions,and development: Evidence from Brazil

The economic growth and development literature emphasizes that investment in technology and physical and human capital is essential for achieving higher levels of development. Political and economic institutions are also relevant in this process. With a sample of 5,503 Brazilian municipalities, this study carries out a development accounting exercise and measures the effects of institutional quality on per capita gross domestic product (GDP), physical capital intensity, human capital stock, and productivity. The empirical results indicate that institutional quality affects GDP per capita mainly through human capital accumulation and total factor productivity.     

Do Multinational Enterprises Contribute to Convergence or Divergence? A Disaggregated Analysis of US FDI*

It is widely held that foreign direct investment (FDI) has a positive effect on economic growth. To test this hypothesis, we perform convergence regressions derived from a theoretical model on the impact of FDI on endogenous technological change in small economies. The model includes FDI externalities that enhance growth, but also shows that FDI can crowd out host country income and reduce local innovation. The empirical analysis employs disaggregated US data for various FDI‐related activities—in addition to the conventionally used aggregate FDI stocks and flows. We estimate the net FDI impact on the convergence rate of per‐capita income to US levels, controlling for human development, financial development, and trade. We find that FDI accelerates convergence for high‐income countries only, otherwise slowing it down.     

我国省级公共资本经济效应分析——基于面板VAR模型的实证分析

在现有文献研究的基础上,利用1999—2010年我国29个省(自治区、直辖市)的面板数据,基于内生增长理论构建计量经济模型,检验了公共资本存量、私人资本存量与经济增长之间的面板Granger因果关系。构建面板VAR模型度量公共资本存量对经济的冲击。结果表明:公共资本存量的冲击对人均私人资本存量和人均GDP都产生正向影响,但长期看该影响不具有持续效应。     

知识外部性、研究开发与经济可持续增长——理论分析与基于中国数据的实证研究

文章在一个具有Marshall-Arrow-Romer知识外部性的四部门经济中,通过研究代表性家庭的动态最优化问题,考察了人力资本投资、研究开发和经济可持续增长之间的内在关系以及相应的政策含义问题,得出的主要结论是:1.人力资本的积累效率和知识外部性的大小会影响经济稳态增长率的高低;2.主观时间偏好率越大、边际效用弹性参数越小的国家稳态增长率越低;经济中技术创新率的提高和教育部门生产效率的改进会提高一国的稳态增长率,反之则反是;3.知识的外部性越大,最终产品部门的产出和研究开发部门的知识增量越高,稳态的经济增长率越高,反之则越低;4.政府应该建立、健全和完善尊重知识产权、激励创新的政策环境,以引导经济达到可持续的稳定增长状态.文章运用1978-2006年的时间序列数据进行实证研究,命题的主要结论得到了经验证据的支撑;同时,也发现了一些不同于已有命题的现象.     

The impact of public capital on the US private economy: new evidence and analysis

This paper presents new evidence on the impact of public capital on the productivity of the US private sector. Using a production function approach, we estimate the impact of public investment on private capital productivity, specifically addressing the empirical critiques of earlier studies. We find evidence of a cointegrating relationship in a dynamic specification of an empirical model that includes public infrastructure as a factor of production, indicating the existence of a long‐run relationship between the US public capital stock and the productivity of the private capital stock. The results are used to explore how the decline in the growth rate of the public capital stock would have affected the performance of the private sector.     

人力资本投资结构与经济增长——基于包含教育资本、健康资本的内生增长模型理论研究

文章针对已有的关于人力资本投资的理论研究往往只关注于人力资本投资数量而忽视人力资本投资结构的现状,把教育和健康看作两种资本,分析了人力资本投资结构的具体构成形式。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,在扩展MRW模型的基础上,文章构建了一个内生经济增长模型。分析结论表明人力资本投资结构制约着经济增长,人力资本投资结构和数量(存量)都对经济产生重要影响。     

Public capital and patterns of growth in the presence of threshold externalities

This paper studies the relation between public capital accumulation and long-run economic growth. We emphasize three phenomena that may be accompanied by the presence of public capital: increasing returns, rivalry, and threshold externalities. We formulate a simple growth model that captures these features of public capital in a tractable manner. Assuming that investment for public capital financed by income taxation, we show that the threshold externalities may generate multiple equilibria, so that the pattern of growth and the realization of a specific steady-growth equilibrium are quite sensitive to the rate of income tax as well as to expectations of agents.     

Intangible capital in a real business cycle model

Recent empirical studies have shown that intangible capital plays an important role in explaining productivity gains that have occurred during the last two decades. By introducing intangible capital in an otherwise standard theoretical real business cycle model, this paper aims to provide a theoretical foundation of the empirical findings. Our results indicate that investment in intangible capital is pro-cyclical. Both transitory as well as permanent productivity shocks increase investment in intangible capital. However, in case of a permanent technology shock we learn that firms allocate more labor and physical capital to the creation of intangible capital which increases future profits at the cost of current profit. We also find that investment in intangible capital plays an important role in producing endogenous movements in productivity.     

CONFORMISM AND STRUCTURAL CHANGE

Using a simple, multisector model of endogenous growth, we show that commodity‐specific consumption externalities can be a source of structural change. When the degrees of consumption externalities are different between goods, each sector grows at a different rate. However, the aggregate economy exhibits balanced growth in that capital stock and expenditure grow at the same constant rate. A three‐sector version of our model may reconcile Kaldor's stylized facts with empirically plausible profiles of industrial structure transformation.