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Income Levels and Income Growth: Some New Cross-Country Evidence and some Interpretative Puzzles

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  • Charolina CASTALDI
  • Giovanni Dosi

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to bring together two distinct ensembles of evidence concerning, at macro level, international distributions of incomes and their dynamics, and, at micro level, the size distributions of firms and the properties of their growth rates. We also include an intermediate level of observation, namely the properties of sectoral growth. First, our empirical analysis provides a fresh look at the international distributions of incomes and growth rates by investigating more closely at the relationship between the two entities and the statistical properties of the growth process. Second, we take a first step at identifying those statistical properties which are invariant with respect to the scale of observation (country, sector or firm) and those that are instead scale specific. This exercise puts forward a few major interpretative challenges.

Suggested Citation

  • Charolina CASTALDI & Giovanni Dosi, 2004. "Income Levels and Income Growth: Some New Cross-Country Evidence and some Interpretative Puzzles," DEGIT Conference Papers c009_038, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    • Handle: RePEc:deg:conpap:c009_038
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    Cited by:

    1. Carolina Castaldi & Giovanni Dosi, 2009. "The patterns of output growth of firms and countries: Scale invariances and scale specificities," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 475-495, December.
    2. Giovanni Dosi & Giorgio Fagiolo & Andrea Roventini, 2009. "The microfoundations of business cycles: an evolutionary, multi-agent model," Springer Books, in: Uwe Cantner & Jean-Luc Gaffard & Lionel Nesta (ed.), Schumpeterian Perspectives on Innovation, Competition and Growth, pages 161-180, Springer.
    3. Giorgio Fagiolo & Mauro Napoletano & Andrea Roventini, 2008. "Are output growth-rate distributions fat-tailed? some evidence from OECD countries," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(5), pages 639-669.
    4. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/9848 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Slutskin, Lev, 2009. "Statistical Analysis of Inflationary Processes in Manufacturing Sectors of American Economy, 1959-1996," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 13(1), pages 89-104.
    6. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/9848 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Carolina Castaldi & Sandro Sapio, 2008. "Growing like mushrooms? Sectoral evidence from four large European economies," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 509-527, August.
    8. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/9848 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Sandro Sapio & Grid Thoma, 2006. "The Growth of Industrial Sectors: Theoretical Insights and Empirical Evidence from U.S. Manufacturing," LEM Papers Series 2006/09, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.

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