Growth, income distribution, and fiscal policy volatility

The relationship between income distribution and economic growth has long been an important economic research subject. Despite substantial evidence on the negative impact on long-term growth of inequality in the literature, however, there is not much consensus on the specific channels through which inequality affects growth. The empirical validity of two most prominent political economy channels - redistributive fiscal spending and taxes, and sociopolitical instability - has recently been challenged. We advance a new political economy channel for the negative link between inequality and growth, a fiscal policy volatility channel, and present strong supporting econometric evidence in a large sample of countries over the period of 1960-2000. Our finding also sheds light on another commonly observed negative relation between macroeconomic volatility and growth. We carefully address the robustness of the results in terms of data, estimation methods, outlier problem, and endogeneity problem that often plague the standard OLS (ordinary least squares) regression.Income inequality Fiscal policy volatility Growth Robust regression

Technological Upgrading in China and India: What Do We Know?

This paper studies sources of technological upgrading in China and India. What is striking about the impressive growth of China and (to a lesser degree) India is that they export products associated with a high productivity level that is much higher than a country at their income level. China’s export bundle has changed dramatically, diversifying into technologyintensive products. China is now the largest exporter of high-technology products in the world. Exports of India are still significantly less technologically sophisticated, while India has been more successful in exports of business and information technology (IT) services. It presents empirical evidence on the important role of FDI inflows and imported capital goods that embody new technology for TFP growth in a large panel of advanced and developing countries over 1970-2007. Consistent with the cross-country evidence, micro-data and case studies strongly suggest that FDI and import of capital goods have contributed to rapid technological upgrading especially in China. Puzzlingly, however, the TFP level in China is much lower than would be expected from its score on Index of Technological Sophistication of exports, raising a doubt about whether the shift in export bundle towards high-technology products is associated with a technological sophistication of domestic contents of export products. An important explanation appears to be China’s prime role as a final assembler of international production network. The magnitude of reversal in net export position of China across the two categories, intermediate and finished goods, is striking, which implies that more and less developed economies are being affected very differently by China’s rise. With a view to upgrading the capability to absorb advanced technologies and innovate, China and India have increasingly emphasised human capital, skill-intensive industries and R&D efforts. Nonetheless, our analysis shows that there is still an enormous scope for technological catching-up over the next decades. Modernisation technologique en Chine et en Inde : Que savons-nous? Ce papier étudie les sources de modernisation technologique en Chine et Inde. Ce qui est frappant dans la croissance impressionnante de la Chine et, dans une moindre mesure, de l’Inde est que ces pays exportent des produits associés à un haut niveau de productivité qui est bien plus grand qu’un pays de leur niveau de revenu. La structure des exportations de la Chine a fondamentalement changé, se diversifiant en produits intensifs en technologie. La Chine est dorénavant le plus grand exportateur du monde de produits de haute technologie. Les exportations de l’Inde restent significativement moins sophistiquées technologiquement, quoique l’Inde ait connu davantage de succès dans les exportations de services de technologie du commerce ainsi que de l’information et de la communication (TIC). Ce papier présente des preuves empiriques du rôle important des flux entrants d’IDE et des biens de capital importés comprenant la nouvelle technologie pour la croissance de PGF pour un large panel de pays avancés ou en développement sur la période 1970-2007. En ligne avec les preuves longitudinales, données microéconomiques et études de cas, il suggère fortement que les IDE et importations de biens de capital ont contribué à la rapide modernisation de technologie, particulièrement en Chine. Curieusement, cependant, le niveau de PGF en China est bien plus bas qu’espéré au regard de son Indice de Sophistication Technologique des Exportations, faisant naître le doute que la transformation de la structure des exportations vers des produits de haute-technologie est associée avec à une sophistication technologique du contenu national des produits d’exportation. Une explication importante réside dans le rôle de premier plan de la Chine en tant qu’assembleur final de la chaîne de production mondiale. La magnitude du revirement de la position nette des exportations de la China entre les deux catégories, produits intermédiaires et finaux, est saisissante, ce qui implique que les économies développées sont plus ou moins affectées et de façon très différente par la montée de la Chine. Dans l’optique d’améliorer la capacité d’absorber les technologies avancées et les innovations, la Chine et l’Inde ont mis l’accent sur le capital humain, les industries intensives en compétences et les efforts en R&D. Néanmoins, notre analyse montre qu’il reste une place énorme pour le rattrapage technologique dans les prochaines décennies.FDI, technology diffusion, technological classification of export, technological upgrading, TFP, export processing, international production network, growth, traitement des exportations, croissance, chaine mondiale de production, modernisation technologique, PGF, classification technologique des exportations, transfert de technologie

Why Do More Polarized Countries Run More Procyclical Fiscal Policy?

We study the cyclical behavior of fiscal policy to explain why some countries exhibit procyclical fiscal policy stances-being expansionary in good times and contractionary in bad times. We develop a model that links the polarization of preferences over fiscal spending to the procyclicality bias. We then present evidence that social polarization as measured by income inequality and educational inequality is consistently and positively associated with fiscal procyclicality, even after controlling for other determinants from existing theories. We also find a strong negative impact of fiscal procyclicality on economic growth. Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Public Debt and Growth

This paper explores the impact of high public debt on long-run economic growth. The analysis, based on a panel of advanced and emerging economies over almost four decades, takes into account a broad range of determinants of growth as well as various estimation issues including reverse causality and endogeneity. In addition, threshold effects, nonlinearities, and differences between advanced and emerging market economies are examined. The empirical results suggest an inverse relationship between initial debt and subsequent growth, controlling for other determinants of growth: on average, a 10 percentage point increase in the initial debt-to-GDP ratio is associated with a slowdown in annual real per capita GDP growth of around 0.2 percentage points per year, with the impact being somewhat smaller in advanced economies. There is some evidence of nonlinearity with higher levels of initial debt having a proportionately larger negative effect on subsequent growth. Analysis of the components of growth suggests that the adverse effect largely reflects a slowdown in labor productivity growth mainly due to reduced investment and slower growth of capital stock.Economic growth;Gross domestic product;Labor productivity;Low-income developing countries;Public debt;real gdp, gdp growth, dynamic panel, growth accounting, panel regression, panel regressions, growth regressions, growth rates, country regression, regression results, cross-country regression, growth rate, gdp per capita, cross-country regressions, country regressions, business cycle, business cycle fluctuations, econometrics, growth regression, growth model, total factor productivity, econometric techniques, cross-country growth regression, econometric methodologies, national income, country growth regression, gdp growth rates, regression coefficient, dynamic panel data, country growth regressions, econometric analysis, dynamic panel data models, baseline regression, econometric results, cross-country growth regressions, dynamic panels, gdp growth rate, econometric methodology, regression model, regression estimation, econometric issues, dynamic panel regression, economic statistics, least squares regression, econometric problem

The Puzzle of Persistently Negative Interest Rate-Growth Differentials

The interest rate-growth differential (IRGD) shows a marked correlation with GDP per capita. It has been on average around 1 percentage point for large advanced economies during 1999-2008; but below -7 percentage points among non-advanced economies - exerting a powerful stabilizing influence on government debt ratios. We show that large negative IRGDs are largely due to real interest rates well below market equilibrium - possibly stemming from financial repression and captive and distorted markets, whereas the income catch-up process plays a relatively modest role. We find econometric support for this conjecture. Therefore, the IRGD in non-advanced economies is likely to rise with financial integration and market development, well before their GDP per capita converges to advanced-economy levels.Real interest rates;Developed countries;Developing countries;Economic growth;Economic models;Interest rate differential;Public debt;inflation, government debt, real interest rate, private credit, debt dynamics, foreign currency, debt ratio, currency debt, foreign currency debt, domestic currency, debt crisis, sovereign debt, high inflation, currency crisis, private bank, debt ratios, sovereign bond, debt crises, central banks, debt servicing, debt outstanding, central bank, concessional debt, sovereign debt crises, sovereign debt crisis, public and publicly guaranteed, ratio of debt, capital account liberalization, domestic financial market, public finances, price level, domestic financial markets, high inflation episodes, debt burden, debt management, domestic debt, debt structure, public and publicly guaranteed debt, increase in inflation, debt stock, public finance, debt stocks, debt sustainability, stock of debt, nominal interest rates, external debt, debt defaults, global liquidity, nominal interest rate, debt service, currency crises, inflation tax