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The Marginal Product of Capital

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Author Info
Francesco Caselli
James Feyrer

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Abstract

Whether or not the marginal product of capital (MPK) differs across countries is a question that keeps coming up in discussions of comparative economic development and patterns of capital flows. Attempts to provide an empirical answer to this question have so far been mostly indirect and based on heroic assumptions. The first contribution of this paper is to present new estimates of the cross-country dispersion of marginal products. We find that the MPK is much higher on average in poor countries. However, the financial rate of return from investing in physical capital is not much higher in poor countries, so heterogeneity in MPKs is not principally due to financial market frictions. Instead, the main culprit is the relatively high cost of investment goods in developing countries. One implication of our findings is that increased aid flows to developing countries will not significantly increase these countries' incomes.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 11551.

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Date of creation: Aug 2005
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11551

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Capital; Investment; Capacity
O11 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
O16 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment
O41 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models

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  7. Cohen, Daniel & Soto, Marcelo, 2002. "Why are Poor Countries Poor? A Message of Hope which Involves the Resolution of a Becker/Lucas Paradox," CEPR Discussion Papers 3528, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Ben S. Bernanke & Refet S. Gurkaynak, 2001. "Is Growth Exogenous? Taking Mankiw, Romer and Weil Seriously," NBER Working Papers 8365, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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