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Endogenous productivity and development accounting

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Roc Armenter
Amartya Lahiri

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Abstract

Cross-country data reveal that the per capita incomes of the richest countries exceed those of the poorest countries by a factor of thirty-five. We formalize a model with embodied technical change in which newer, more productive vintages of capital coexist with older, less productive vintages. A reduction in the cost of investment raises both the quantity and productivity of capital simultaneously. The model induces a simple relationship between the relative price of investment goods and per capita income. Using cross-country data on the prices of investment goods, we find that the model does fairly well in quantitatively accounting for the observed dispersion in world income. For our baseline parameterization, the model generates thirty-five-fold income gaps and six-fold productivity differences between the richest and poorest countries in our sample.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of New York in its series Staff Reports with number 258.

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Date of creation: 2006
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fednsr:258

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Keywords: Productivity Wealth Income Capital

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
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  2. Samuel de Abreu Pess & Rafael Rob, 2002. "Vintage Capital, Distortions and Development," Penn CARESS Working Papers ee2dae6cb07096d09f83c7bca, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Samuel de Abreu Pessôa & Rafael Rob, 2002. "Vintage Capital, Distortions and Development," Economics Working Papers (Ensaios Economicos da EPGE) 447, Graduate School of Economics, Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil). [Downloadable!]
  4. Eaton, Jonathan & Kortum, Samuel, 2001. "Trade in capital goods," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 1195-1235. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Parente, Stephen L & Prescott, Edward C, 1994. "Barriers to Technology Adoption and Development," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(2), pages 298-321, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Jones, Charles I., 1994. "Economic growth and the relative price of capital," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 359-382, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Daron Acemoglu & Jaume Ventura, 2002. "The World Income Distribution," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 117(2), pages 659-694, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. V. V. Chari & Patrick J. Kehoe & Ellen R. McGrattan, 1997. "The poverty of nations: a quantitative exploration," Staff Report 204, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Peter J. Klenow, 2003. "Relative prices and relative prosperity," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Stephen L. Parente & Edward C. Prescott, 1999. "Monopoly Rights: A Barrier to Riches," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1216-1233, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Parente, Stephen L, 1995. "A Model of Technology Adoption and Growth," Economic Theory, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 405-20, November.
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  12. Mankiw, N Gregory & Romer, David & Weil, David N, 1992. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 107(2), pages 407-37, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Douglas Gollin, 2002. "Getting Income Shares Right," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(2), pages 458-474, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Simon Gilchrist & John C. Williams, 2004. "Transition Dynamics in Vintage Capital Models: Explaining the Postwar Catch-Up of Germany and Japan," NBER Working Papers 10732, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Caselli, Francesco & Wilson, Daniel J., 2004. "Importing technology," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 1-32, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Young, Alwyn, 1995. "The Tyranny of Numbers: Confronting the Statistical Realities of the East Asian Growth Experience," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 110(3), pages 641-80, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Charles I. Jones, 2008. "Intermediate Goods, Weak Links, and Superstars: A Theory of Economic Development," NBER Working Papers 13834, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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