Parameter Heterogeneity in The Foreign Direct Investment-Income Inequality Relationship: A Semiparametric Regression Analysis

[[abstract]]This article uses the generalized likelihood ratio test to formally test whether the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and income inequality varies with the level of human capital and then uses a flexible semiparametric smooth coefficient partially linear model to provide estimates of the inequality effect of FDI that are specific to the level of human capital in a country. Based on the data of 102 countries over the period 1970–2007, we find the following. First, there exists substantial heterogeneity in the inward FDI-inequality relationship. Inward FDI is inequality-ameliorating in low-income countries where human capital is scarce but is inequality-raising in middle- and high-income countries where human capital is abundant. Second, contrary to the conventional mindset, outward FDI has no significant impact on inequality in low-and high-income countries. Nevertheless, outward FDI is inequality-raising in middle-income countries with low levels of human capital. Our results demonstrate that accounting for parameter heterogeneity is critical to identify the key mechanisms through which FDI affects inequality. Omitting parameter heterogeneity could lead to misspecification and incorrect policy prescriptions.[[notice]]補正完畢[[journaltype]]國外[[incitationindex]]SSCI[[ispeerreviewed]]Y[[booktype]]紙本[[countrycodes]]DE

Human capital contributions to explain productivity differences

Abstract This paper develops a parametric decomposi-tion framework of labor productivity growth relaxing the assumption of labor-specific efficiency. The decomposition analysis is applied to a sample of 121 developed and developing countries during the 1970–2007 period drawn from the recently updated Penn World Tables and Barro and Lee (A new data set of educational attainment in the world 1950–2010. NBER Working Paper No. 15902, 2010) educational databases. A generalized Cobb–Douglas functional specification is used taking into account differ-ences in technological structures across groups of countries to approximate aggregate production technology using Jorgenson and Nishimizu (Econ J 88:707–726, 1978) bilateral model of production. The measurement of labor efficiency is based on Kopp’s (Quart J Econ 96:477–503, 1981) orthogonal non-radial index of factor-specific effi-ciency modified in a parametric frontier framework. The empirical results indicate that the weighted average annual rate of labor productivity growth was 1.239 % over the period analyzed. Technical change was found to be the driving force of labor productivity, while improvements in human capital and factor intensities account for the 19.5 and 12.4 % of that productivity growth, respectively. Finally, labor efficiency improvements contributed by 9.8 % to measured labor productivity growth

Roles played by financial development in economic growth: application of the flexible regression model

Banking development, Economic growth, Stock market development, Flexible nonlinear estimation, E44, G10, O16, O50,