IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/adbewp/0019.html

Why are Some Countries Richer than Others? A Reassessment of Mankiw-Romer-Weil's Test of the Neoclassical Growth Model

Author

Listed:
  • Jesus Felipe

    (Asian Development Bank)

  • John McCombie

    (Downing College Cambridge)

Abstract

This paper provides evidence of a problem with the influential testing and assessment of Solow's (1956) growth model proposed by Mankiw et al. (1992) and a series of subsequent papers evaluating the latter. First, the assumption of a common rate of technical progress maintained by Mankiw, Romer, and Weil (1992) is relaxed. Solow's model is extended to include the different levels and rates of technical progress of each country. This increases the explanatory power of the cross-country variation in income per capita of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries to over 80%. The estimates of the parameters are statistically significant and take the expected values and signs. Second, and more important, it is shown that the estimates merely reflect a statistical artifact. This has serious implications for the possibility of actually testing Solow's growth model.

Suggested Citation

  • Jesus Felipe & John McCombie, 2002. "Why are Some Countries Richer than Others? A Reassessment of Mankiw-Romer-Weil's Test of the Neoclassical Growth Model," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 19, Asian Development Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:adbewp:0019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.adb.org/publications/why-are-some-countries-richer-others-reassessment-mankiw-romer-weils-test-neoclassical
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    2. Srinivasan, T. N., 1994. "Data base for development analysis Data base for development analysis: An overview," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 3-27, June.
    3. Quah, D., 1990. "Galton'S Fallacy And The Tests Of The Convergence Hypothesis," Working papers 552, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    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. Jesus Felipe & J. S. L. McCombie, 2005. "WHY ARE SOME COUNTRIES RICHER THAN OTHERS? A SKEPTICAL VIEW OF MANKIW–ROMER–WEIL's TEST OF THE NEOCLASSICAL GROWTH MODEL," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 360-392, July.
    2. Kutuk, Yasin, 2022. "Inequality convergence: A world-systems theory approach," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 150-165.
    3. Zhao, Xueting & Burnett, J. Wesley & Lacombe, Donald J., 2014. "Province-level Convergence of China CO2 Emission Intensity," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 169403, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Cristina Brasili & Luciano Gutierrez, 2004. "Regional convergence across European Union," Development and Comp Systems 0402002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Pozzolo, Alberto Franco, 2004. "Endogenous Growth in Open Economies - A Survey of Major Results," Economics & Statistics Discussion Papers esdp04020, University of Molise, Department of Economics.
    6. Edy Yusuf Agung Gunanto & Tri Wahyu & Jaka Aminata & Banatul Hayati, 2021. "Convergence CO2 Emission in ASEAN Countries: Augmented Green Solow Model Approach," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(5), pages 572-578.
    7. Sulekha Hembram & Souparna Maji & Sushil Kr. Haldar, 2019. "Club Convergence among the Major Indian States During 1982–2014: Does Investment in Human Capital Matter?," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 20(2), pages 184-204, September.
    8. Martin Victor & Vazquez Guillermo, 2015. "Club convergence in Latin America," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 791-820, July.
    9. Carmela Martin & Francisco J. Velazquez & Bernard Funck, 2001. "European Integration and Income Convergence : Lessons for Central and Eastern European Countries," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13968, April.
    10. Bruno, Giuseppe & De Bonis, Riccardo & Silvestrini, Andrea, 2012. "Do financial systems converge? New evidence from financial assets in OECD countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 141-155.
    11. Cunado, J. & Perez de Gracia, F., 2006. "Real convergence in Africa in the second-half of the 20th century," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 153-167.
    12. Sulekha Hembram & Sushil Kr. Haldar, 2019. "Beta, sigma and club convergence: Indian experience from 1980 to 2015," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 343-366, December.
    13. Oleg Badunenko & Diego Romero-�vila, 2014. "Productivity Growth across Spanish Regions and Industries: A Production-Frontier Approach," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(7), pages 1242-1262, July.
    14. Cem Ertur & Julie Le Gallo & Catherine Baumont, 2006. "The European Regional Convergence Process, 1980-1995: Do Spatial Regimes and Spatial Dependence Matter?," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 29(1), pages 3-34, January.
    15. 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.
    16. Aparna Lolayekar & Pranab Mukhopadhyay, 2017. "Growth Convergence and Regional Inequality in India (1981–2012)," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 15(2), pages 307-328, June.
    17. Olimpia Neagu, 2013. "Measurement Of Territorial Convergence. An Analysis In The Case Of Romania," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 3, pages 117-125, June.
    18. Donald A. R. George & Les Oxley & Ken Carlaw, 2003. "Economic Growth in Transition," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(3), pages 227-237, July.
    19. Maarten Bosker & Waldo Krugell, 2008. "Regional Income Evolution In South Africa After Apartheid," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 493-523, August.
    20. Carmela Martín & Carlos Mulas-Granados & Ismael Sanz, 2005. "Spatial distribution of R&D expenditure and patent applications across EU regions and its impact on economic cohesion," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 6, pages 41-61.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General

    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:ris:adbewp:0019. 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: Orlee Velarde (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eradbph.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.