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The Composition of Capital and Cross-Country Productivity Comparisons

Author

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  • Robert Inklaar
  • Pieter Woltjer
  • Daniel Gallardo Albarrán

Abstract

The role of physical capital is typically found to be limited in accounting for differences in GDP per worker, but this result may be because capital is customarily assumed to be a homogenous unit. This assumption is misleading, as different types of capital assets have different marginal products and richer countries tend to invest more in high-marginal product assets. We take this perspective to a global dataset, the Penn World Table, to improve cross-country productivity comparisons. We show that, properly measured, differences in capital input can account for a greater share of income variation, but (total factor) productivity differences remain dominant.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Inklaar & Pieter Woltjer & Daniel Gallardo Albarrán, 2019. "The Composition of Capital and Cross-Country Productivity Comparisons," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 36, pages 34-52, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:sls:ipmsls:v:36:y:2019:2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Matthew Higgins, 2020. "China's Growth Outlook: Is High-Income Status in Reach?," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 26(4), pages 69-97, October.
    2. Giorgio Calcagnini & Germana Giombini & Giuseppe Travaglini, 2021. "The Productivity Gap Among Major European Countries, USA and Japan," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 7(1), pages 59-78, March.
    3. Bakker, Bas & Ghazanchyan, Manuk & Ho, Alex & Nanda, Vibha, 2020. "The Lack of Convergence of Latin-America Compared with CESEE: Is Low Investment to Blame?," MPRA Paper 101287, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Dale W. Jorgenson, 2019. "Introduction," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 36, pages 1-6, Spring.
    5. Thomas Ziesemer, 2023. "Labour-augmenting technical change data for alternative elasticities of substitution: growth, slowdown, and distribution dynamics," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 449-475, May.
    6. Mauricio A. Grotz, 2020. "Productividad total de los factores: revisión conceptual y tendencias en la literatura," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4353, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    7. Francisco J. Buera & Joseph P. Kaboski & Martí Mestieri & Daniel G. O'Connor, 2020. "The Stable Transformation Path," NBER Working Papers 27731, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Ugur, Mehmet, 2023. "Innovation, market power and the labour share: evidence from OECD industries," Greenwich Papers in Political Economy 38374, University of Greenwich, Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre.
    9. Yan Meng & Christopher F. Parmeter & Valentin Zelenyuk, 2023. "Is newer always better? A reinvestigation of productivity dynamics using updated PWT data," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 1-13, February.
    10. Fernald, John, 2022. "Dale W. Jorgenson: An intellectual biography," CEPR Discussion Papers 17320, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Takeuchi, Fumihide, 2023. "Intermediate goods-skill complementarity and income distribution," MPRA Paper 116372, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Reitze Gouma & Robert Inklaar, 2023. "Capital Measurement and Productivity Growth Across International Databases," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 44, pages 67-88, Fall.
    13. Francisco J. Buera & Joseph P. Kaboski & Robert M. Townsend, 2023. "From Micro to Macro Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(2), pages 471-503, June.
    14. Zhang, Yifei & Fang, Heyang, 2020. "Does China's overseas lending favor One Belt One Road countries?," MPRA Paper 97954, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Dieppe,Alistair Matthew & Kilic Celik,Sinem & Okou,Cedric Iltis Finafa, 2020. "Implications of Major Adverse Events on Productivity," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9411, The World Bank.
    16. Zhang, Yifei & Fang, Heyang, 2019. "Does China's overseas lending favors One Belt One Road countries?," MPRA Paper 97785, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cross-Country Productivity Comparisons; Total Factor Productivity; Capital;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity

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