Growth, Sectoral Composition, and the Wealth of Nations

We characterize the dynamic equilibrium of a two-sector endogenous growth model with constant returns to scale. We assume that both sectors produce consumption and investment goods, and we introduce a minimum consumption requirement. In this model, economies with the same fundamentals but different endowments of capitals will converge to a common growth rate, although the long run level and sectoral composition of GDP will be different. Because total factor productivity depends on sectoral composition, capital endowments will also contribute to GDP by means of changing the sectoral composition. This suggests that the development accounting exercises should consider the endogeneity of total factor productivity when measuring the contribution of capital to GDP. Along the transition, the slope of the policy functions depends on the initial values of the capital stocks and of the minimum consumption requirement. This implies that the minimum consumption is a barrier to development and that economies initially similar may diverge along the transition.sectorial composition, human capital, endogenous growth, two-sector growth model

Factor shares, the price markup, and the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor

price markups, factor shares, elasticity of substitution

Employment and Public Capital in Spain

This paper analyses the e¤ects on employment of increasing the stock of public capital. To this end, we derive a wage equation so that wages are endogenized. This allows us to show that, by means of a higher elasticity of labour demand with respect to wages, a rise in public capital increases employment. The estimation of a structural model for the Spanish private sector tests and con…rms empirically this relationship. The results show that an increase in public capital has a significant and positive direct influence on employment, and indirect e¤ects derived from lower wages and higher economic growth. Finally, we undertake a simulation exercise to assess the long run efects on employment and economic growth of increasing public capital.employment, wage equation, public capital, economic growth.

Factor Shares, the Price Markup, and the Elasticity of Substitution between Capital and Labor

In a Walrasian labor market, the labor income share is constant under the assumptions of a Cobb-Douglas production function and perfect competition. Given the observed decline of the labor share in recent decades, this paper relaxes these assumptions, proposes a time-series calculation of the aggregate price mark-up reflecting the degree of imperfect competition in the product market, and provides estimates of the elasticity of substitution under such product market imperfections. We focus on Spain and the U.S. and show that the elasticity of substitution is above one in Spain and below one in the U.S. We also show that the price markup drives the elasticity of substitution away from one, upwards in Spain, downwards in the U.S. These results are used to explain the declining path of the labor income share, common to both economies, and their contrasted patterns in terms of capital deepening.elasticity of substitution, price markup, factor shares, capital deepening

On the Interplay Between Speculative Bubbles and Productive Investment

Ce Working Paper fait l'objet d'une publication in European Economic Review, Elsevier, 2019, 111, pp.400-420. 〈10.1016/j.euroecorev.2018.11.002〉〈hal-02010648〉The aim of this paper is to study the interplay between long term productive investments and more short term and liquid speculative ones. A three-period lived overlapping generations model allows us to make this distinction. Agents have two investment decisions. When young, they can invest in productive capital that provides a return during the following two periods. When young or in the middle age, they can also invest in a bubble. Assuming, in accordance with the empirical evidence, that the bubbleless economy is dynamically efficient, the existence of a stationary bubble raises productive investment and production. Indeed, young agents sell short the bubble to increase productive investments, whereas traders at middle age transfer wealth to the old age. We outline that a technological change inducing either a larger return of capital in the short term or a similar increase in the return of capital in both periods raises productive capital, production and the bubble size. This framework also allows us to discuss several economic applications: the effects of both regulation on limited borrowing and fiscal policy on the occurrence of bubbles, the introduction of a probability of market crash and the effect of bubbles on income inequality

Estate Taxes, Consumption Externalities, and Altruism

We study how the introduction of consumption externalities affects the efficiency of the dynamic equilibrium in an economy displaying dynastic altruism. When the bequest motive is inoperative consumption externalities affect the intertemporal margin between young and old consumption and thus modify the intertemporal path of consumption and capital. The optimal tax policy that solves this intertemporal inefficiency consists of a tax on capital income and a pay-as-you-go social security system. The later solves the overaccumulation of capital due to the inoperativeness of the bequest motive and the former solves the inefficient allocation of consumption due to consumption externalities. When the bequest motive is operative consumption externalities only cause an intratemporal inefficiency that affects the allocation of consumption between the generations living in the same period but do not affect the optimality of the capital stock level. This suboptimal allocation of consumption implies in turn that the path of bequest is also suboptimal. The optimal tax policy in this case consists of an estate tax and a capital income tax. The estate tax corrects the intratemporal inefficiency but generates an intertemporal inefficiency which is corrected by means of an appropriate capital income tax.Consumption externalities, bequests, optimal tax rates

Growth, unemployment and wage inertia [WP]

We introduce wage setting via efficiency wages in the neoclassical one-sector growth model to study the growth effects of wage inertia. We compare the dynamic equilibrium of an economy with wage inertia with the equilibrium of an economy without it. We show that wage inertia affects the long run employment rate and that the transitional dynamics of the main economic variables will be different because wages are a state variable when wage inertia is introduced. In particular, we show that the model with wage inertia can explain some growth patterns that cannot be explained when wages are flexible. We also study the growth effects of permanent technological and fiscal policy shocks in these two economies

Growth, unemployment and wage inertia

We introduce wage setting via efficiency wages in the neoclassical one-sector growth model to study the growth effects of wage inertia. We compare the dynamic equilibrium of an economy with wage inertia with the equilibrium of an economy without it. We show that wage inertia affects the long run employment rate and that the transitional dynamics of the main economic variables will be different because wages are a state variable when wage inertia is introduced. In particular, we show that the model with wage inertia can explain some growth patterns that cannot be explained when wages are flexible. We also study the growth effects of permanent technological and fiscal policy shocks in these two economies. During the transition, the growth effects of technological shocks obtained when wages exhibit inertia may be the opposite of those obtained when wages are flexible. These technological shocks may have long run effects if there is wage inertia

Leisure Time and the Sectoral Composition of Employment [WP]

We observe the following patterns in the US economy during the period 1965-2015: (i) the rise of the service sector, (ii) the increase in leisure time, and (iii) the increase in recreational services. To display the last pattern, we measure the fraction of the value added of the service sector explained by the consumption of recreational services, and we show that it increases during this period. We explain these three patterns of structural change in a multisector growth model, where leisure time and the consumption of recreational services are complements. We show that this complementarity introduces a mechanism of structural change that contributes to explain the rise of the service sector and that al so affects the labor supply. We measure the reduction in employment due to a tax increase to illustrate the effect on the labor supply of this mechanis