IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ies/wpaper/e200801.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Comparing TFP Catching-up and Capital Deepening in US and European Growths: A Directional Distance Function Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Jean-Philippe Boussemart

    (University of Lille 3, LEM-CNRS (UMR 8179), IESEG School of Management)

  • Hervé Leleu

    (LEM-CNRS (UMR 8179), IÉSEG School of Management)

Abstract

In Solow’s model the income convergence between countries arises from two main sources: a capital deepening effect resulting from the diminishing returns of the production technology and a technological transfer/diffusion effect related to Total Factor Productivity (TFP) differences. A large literature has been devoted to analyze these effects but most of the studies suffer from three weaknesses by defining the US as the a priori technological leader, by using a parametric functional form and by assuming constant returns to scale for the technology. Our paper offers an alternative approach based on a non-parametric programming framework and the estimation of directional distance functions. We explicitly separate country TFP differences into two components: a technology effect and a scale effect to study the catching-up process on each of them. We also analyze the role of the capital deepening effect by introducing a relevant measure of the structural efficiency which reveals inefficiencies due to changes in input-ratio differences. Our empirical work focuses on 15 European countries (EU) and the US over the period 1980-2004. We use time series procedures to test for convergence for individual countries or sub-sets of countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Jean-Philippe Boussemart & Hervé Leleu, 2008. "Comparing TFP Catching-up and Capital Deepening in US and European Growths: A Directional Distance Function Approach," Working Papers 2008-ECO-01, IESEG School of Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:ies:wpaper:e200801
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://my.ieseg.fr/bienvenue/DownloadDoc.asp?Fich=838424604_2008-ECO-1_Boussemart-Leleu.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2008
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Durlauf, Steven N & Johnson, Paul A, 1995. "Multiple Regimes and Cross-Country Growth Behaviour," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(4), pages 365-384, Oct.-Dec..
    2. Young, Alwyn, 1994. "Lessons from the East Asian NICS: A contrarian view," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 964-973, April.
    3. Bernard, Andrew B & Durlauf, Steven N, 1995. "Convergence in International Output," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(2), pages 97-108, April-Jun.
    4. Wolff, Edward N, 1991. "Capital Formation and Productivity Convergence over the Long Term," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(3), pages 565-579, June.
    5. Abramovitz, Moses, 1986. "Catching Up, Forging Ahead, and Falling Behind," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(2), pages 385-406, June.
    6. Taskin, Fatma & Zaim, Osman, 1997. "Catching-up and innovation in high- and low-income countries," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 93-100, January.
    7. Walter Briec & Benoit Dervaux & Hervé Leleu, 2003. "Aggregation of Directional Distance Functions and Industrial Efficiency," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 79(3), pages 237-261, July.
    8. Charles R. Hulten & Edwin R. Dean & Michael J. Harper, 2001. "New Developments in Productivity Analysis," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number hult01-1, March.
    9. Christopoulos, Dimitris K., 2007. "Explaining country's efficiency performance," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 224-235, March.
    10. Evans, Paul & Karras, Georgios, 1996. "Convergence revisited," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 249-265, April.
    11. Nazrul Islam, 2003. "What have We Learnt from the Convergence Debate?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(3), pages 309-362, July.
    12. S. Nahar & B. Inder, 2002. "Testing convergence in economic growth for OECD countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(16), pages 2011-2022.
    13. repec:sae:niesru:v:162:y::i:1:p:57-74 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Timmer, Marcel P. & Ypma, Gerard & Ark, Bart van der, 2003. "IT in the European Union: driving productivity divergence?," GGDC Research Memorandum 200363, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    15. Benoit Dervaux & Gary Ferrier & Herve Leleu & Vivian Valdmanis, 2004. "Comparing French and US hospital technologies: a directional input distance function approach," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(10), pages 1065-1081.
    16. Alwyn Young, 1992. "A Tale of Two Cities: Factor Accumulation and Technical Change in Hong Kong and Singapore," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1992, Volume 7, pages 13-64, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Subodh Kumar & R. Robert Russell, 2002. "Technological Change, Technological Catch-up, and Capital Deepening: Relative Contributions to Growth and Convergence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 527-548, June.
    18. Nazrul Islam, 2001. "Different Approaches to International Comparison of Total Factor Productivity," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 465-508, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Alwyn Young, 1995. "The Tyranny of Numbers: Confronting the Statistical Realities of the East Asian Growth Experience," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(3), pages 641-680.
    20. Dowrick, Steve & Nguyen, Duc-Tho, 1989. "OECD Comparative Economic Growth 1950-85: Catch-Up and Convergence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(5), pages 1010-1030, December.
    21. Peter J. Klenow & Andrés Rodríguez-Clare, 1997. "The Neoclassical Revival in Growth Economics: Has It Gone Too Far?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1997, Volume 12, pages 73-114, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Chambers, Robert G. & Chung, Yangho & Fare, Rolf, 1996. "Benefit and Distance Functions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 407-419, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Boussemart, Jean-Philippe & Leleu, Hervé & Mensah, Edward & Shitikova, Karina, 2020. "Technological catching-up and structural convergence among US industries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 135-146.
    2. Boussemart, Jean Philippe & Leleu, Hervé & Shen, Zhiyang, 2015. "Environmental growth convergence among Chinese regions," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-18.
    3. Y. Wu, 1997. "Productivity & Efficiency: Evidence from the Chinese regional economies," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 97-18, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    4. Wu, Yanrui, 2000. "Is China's economic growth sustainable? A productivity analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 278-296.
    5. Shen, Zhiyang & Boussemart, Jean-Philippe & Leleu, Hervé, 2017. "Aggregate green productivity growth in OECD’s countries," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 30-39.
    6. Rassekh, Farhad & Panik, Michael J. & Kolluri, Bharat R., 2001. "A test of the convergence hypothesis: the OECD experience, 1950-1990," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 147-157.
    7. Capolupo, Rosa, 2009. "The New Growth Theories and Their Empirics after Twenty Years," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 3, pages 1-72.
    8. Amélie Charles & Olivier Darne & Jean-François Hoarau, 2012. "Convergence of real per capita GDP within COMESA countries: A panel unit root evidence," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 49(1), pages 53-71, August.
    9. Rosa Bernardini Papalia & Silvia Bertarelli, 2010. "Evaluating Total Factor Productivity Differences by a Mapping Structure in Growth Models," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 33(1), pages 31-59, January.
    10. Li, Hongyi & Wei, Xiangdong & Xie, Danyang, 2009. "Competitiveness of the Hong Kong economy," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 573-586, September.
    11. Chowdhury, Khorshed & Mallik, Girijasankar, 2007. "SPair-Wise Output Convergence in East Asia and the Pacific: An Application of Stochastic Unit Root Test," Economics Working Papers wp07-07, School of Economics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
    12. Bos, J.W.B. & Economidou, C. & Koetter, M. & Kolari, J.W., 2010. "Do all countries grow alike?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 113-127, January.
    13. Veloso, Fernando A. & Ferreira, Pedro Cavalcanti & Pessôa, Samuel de Abreu, 2004. "On the tyranny of numbers: East Asian miracles in world perspective," FGV EPGE Economics Working Papers (Ensaios Economicos da EPGE) 569, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil).
    14. Giovanni Caggiano & Leone Leonida, 2009. "International output convergence: evidence from an autocorrelation function approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(1), pages 139-162.
    15. Eftychia Tsanana & Constantinos Katrakilidis, 2014. "Do Balkan economies catch up with EU? New evidence from panel unit root analysis," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(4), pages 641-662, November.
    16. Ferreira Paulo & Dionísio Andreia, 2016. "GDP growth and convergence determinants in the European Union: a crisp-set analysis," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 16(4), pages 279-296, December.
    17. Hulten, Charles R., 2010. "Growth Accounting," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 987-1031, Elsevier.
    18. Joseph Byrne & Giorgio Fazio & Davide Piacentino, 2009. "Total Factor Productivity Convergence among Italian Regions: Some Evidence from Panel Unit Root Tests," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 63-76.
    19. Penna, Christiano Modesto & Linhares, Fabricio Carneiro, 2013. "Há controvérsia entre análises de beta e sigma-convergência no Brasil?," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 67(1), April.
    20. Jonathan Temple, 1999. "The New Growth Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(1), pages 112-156, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    TFP Catching-up; Capital Deepening; Convergence; Directional Distance Function. Running title: Comparing TFP Catching-up and Capital Deepening;
    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
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ies:wpaper:e200801. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Lies BOUTEN (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iesegfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.