US-Europe Differences in Technology-Driven Growth: Quantifying the Role of Education

European economic growth has been weak, compared to the US, since the 80s. In previous work (Krueger and Kumar, 2003), we argued that the European focus on specialized, vocational education might have been effective during the 60s and 70s, but resulted in a growth gap relative to the US during the subsequent information age, when new technologies emerged more rapidly. In this paper, we extend our framework to assess the quantitative importance of education policy, when compared to labor market rigidity and product market regulation, other policy differences more commonly suggested to be responsible for US-Europe differences. A assigns a major role to education policy in explaining US-Europe growth differences.

Entry Costs, Intermediation, and Capital Flows

In this paper, we reexamine the question "Why doesn't capital flow from rich to poor countries?" posed, most recently, by Lucas (1990). We build a simple contracting framework where costly intermediation together with an adverse selection problem have quantitatively important effects on capital flows. When intermediation costs are ignored, the model behaves much like the neoclassical model in terms of capital returns. However, when intermediation costs are considered, the return for a given amount of capital can be non-monotonic in costs. Therefore, the combination of capital and cost differences across countries gives rise to a rich variation of returns, one that suggests a tendency for capital to flow to middle income countries, as seen in data. Indeed, when we embed the static return function in a two-country dynamic model, there is capital outflow from a poor country that removes capital controls and becomes open. We find that even though the closed economy dominates in terms of capital employed in production, it is the open economy that dominates in terms of income, consumption and welfare.Capital flows, Financial intermediation

Inappropriate Technology

In this paper, we investigate incentives other than altruism that developed countries have in improving technologies specific to developing countries. We propose a simple model of international trade between two regions, in which all individuals have similar preferences over an inferior good and a luxury good. The poor region has a comparative advantage in the production of the inferior good, and the rich in the luxury good. Even when costly adaptation of the technology to the poor region's characteristics is required -- which makes the technology inappropriate for local use -- we show that there are parameter configurations for which the rich region has an incentive to incur this cost. By raising the efficiency of the productive process of the developing region, the developed region can redirect its own productive resources toward the luxury good; it can also gain access to a more diversified set of consumption choices. Indeed, there are cases where the rich region would prefer to improve the poor region's technology for producing the inferior good rather than its own. Such technology transfers can increase the welfare of both regions. We apply our model to the Green Revolution and provide a quantitative assessment of its welfare effects.Technology improvements, Dynamic trade models, Welfare analysis

Evaluating Explanations for Stagnation

In this paper, we evaluate four explanations for economic stagnation that have been proposed in the literature: coordination failures, ineffective mix of occupational choices, insufficient human capital accumulation, and politico-economic considerations. We calibrate models that embody these explanations in the context of the stagnant economies of sub-Saharan Africa. The methodology of calibration is ideally suited for this evaluation, given the paucity of high-quality data, the high degree of model nonlinearity, and the need for conducting counterfactual policy experiments. In addition to studying how closely and robustly these models capture the African situation, we examine the quantitative aspects of their policy implications. We find that calibrations that yield multiple equilibria -- one prosperity and the other stagnation -- are not particularly robust. This tempers optimism about the efficacy of one-shot or temporary development policies suggested by models with multiplicity. However, the calibrated models indicate that small policy interventions are sufficient to trigger development in stagnant economies.Coordination failure, Occupational choice, Human capital accumulation, Political economy, Economic Development, Calibration.

Higher Education Subsidies and Heterogeneity, A Dynamic Analysis

In this paper, we develop a simple dynamic general equilibrium framework that can be used to study issues in higher education policy. The model features heterogeneity in income of parents and academic ability of students. Liquidity constraints create persistence in educational attainment even when ability is independently distributed. A unique steady state with a positive fraction of college educated workers, or one with a development trap, or multiple steady states which feature both of these, can result in equilibrium. We add a government that is equipped with a simple tax scheme and calibrate the model to the US economy to get a benchmark for our policy analysis. The government can design a tax and subsidy scheme that guarantees equality of opportunity, but only at the expense of a decrease in the efficiency of utilization of education resources; the welfare gain is minimal. A policy that aims to maximize the fraction of college-educated labor, by sending as many children as possible to college, results in a big drop in the above-mentioned efficiency with little or no welfare gain. If the government has the political will to use any available signal on ability and provide merit-based aid, it can increase this efficiency with little decrease in welfare. Education subsidies may be a potent tool for countries that are caught in a development trap; a sufficient level of subsidy can cause the economy to emerge from the trap.Dynamic General Equilibrium, Education, College Subsidies

Education Policies to Revive a Stagnant Economy: The Case of Sub- Saharan Africa

In this paper, we argue that the condition of education and the economy of the low performing sub-Saharan African countries can be characterized as a stagnant steady state -- a "trap". We present a simple heterogeneous-agent model in which high costs of education relative to income and the skill premium can cause the economy to be trapped in such a steady state with minimal educational attainment. We calibrate the model to available data from the sub-Saharan African countries to study policies that could potentially free these trapped economies and set them on a path to a higher steady state. We find that a tax and subsidy scheme that redistributes resources at the trap from poor households with lower ability children to those with higher ability children can pry the economy out of the trap, thus freeing it from dependence on foreign aid in order to achieve the same goal. In addition to the direct cost, a portion of the indirect cost also needs to be subsidized. Moreover, such a policy outperforms the abolition of child labor and the institution and enforcement of compulsory education laws when expenditure neutral welfare comparisons are made.Dynamic heterogeneous-agent models, Economic stagnation, Education subsidies, Calibration of a trap

Does the progressivity of taxes matter for economic growth?

A sizeable literature has argued that the growth effects of changes in flat rate taxes are small. In this paper, we investigate the relatively unexplored area of the growth effect of changes in the tax structure, in particular, in the progressivity of taxes. Considering such a tax reform seems empirically more relevant than considering changes in flat tax rates. We construct a general equilibrium model of endogenous growth in which there is heterogeneity in income and in the tax rates. We limit heterogeneity to two types, skilled and unskilled, and posit that the probability of staying or becoming skilled in the subsequent period depends positively on expenses on "teacher" time. In the production sector, we consider two sources of growth. In the first, growth arises as a purely external effect on account of production activities of skilled workers. In the second, a portion of the skilled workforce is used to work in research and other productivity enhancing activities and is compensated for it. Our analysis shows that changes in the progressivity of tax rates can have positive growth effects even in situations where changes in flat rate taxes have no effect. Experiments on a calibrated model indicate that the quantitative effects of moving to a flat rate system are economically significant. The assumption made about the engine of growth has an important effect on the impact of a change in progressivity. Quantitatively, welfare is unambiguously higher in a flat rate system when comparisons are made across balanced growth equilibria; however, when the costs of transition to the higher growth equilibrium is taken into account only the currently rich slightly prefer the flat rate system.Taxation ; Economic development

What Determines Firm Size?

Motivated by theories of the firm, which we classify as technological' or organizational,' we analyze the determinants of firm size across industries and across countries in a sample of 15 European countries. We find that, on average, firms facing larger markets are larger. At the industry level, we find firms in the utility sector are large, perhaps because they enjoy a natural, or officially sanctioned, monopoly. Capital intensive industries, high wage industries, and industries that do a lot of R&D have larger firms, as do industries that require little external financing. At the country level, the most salient findings are that countries with efficient judicial systems have larger firms, and, correcting for institutional development, there is little evidence that richer countries have larger firms. Interestingly, institutional development, such as greater judicial efficiency, seems to be correlated with lower dispersion in firm size within an industry. The effects of interactions (between an industry's characteristics and a country's environment) on size are perhaps the most novel results in the paper, and are best able to discriminate between theories. As the judicial system improves, the difference in size between firms in capital intensive industries and firms in industries that use little physical capital diminishes, a finding consistent with size of firms in industries dependent on external finance is larger in countries with better financial markets, suggesting that financial constraints limit average firm size.

Design and Development of an Airblast Atomiser for the KAVERI engine and the sectoral combustor tests

This report deals with the design and development of an airblast atomiser for application in the KAVERI engine. Five atomisers of the chosen design were fabricated and tested at ambient conditions to determine the fuel spray SMD, patternation, cone angle and atomiser flow number. The atomiser performance parameters specified were achieved and hot tests carried out in the 90° combustor sector. The combustor pressure loss, exit temperature distribution, ignition and stability limits were evaluate