Does high technology matter? An application to United States regional growth

This paper studies the influence of"high technology"on the growth of output by using cross-section data on U.S. states. An eclectic approach to the"sources-of-growth"literature leads to the estimate of a"base"equation which explains about half of the differences in per capita GSP growth rates of the 48 contiguous states in the decade 1976-86. Through the use of micro-data on employment in high-tech activities, tests are then conducted to see whether the importance of high-tech, as measured by employment creation in new firms, enhances the explanation of growth differences. The results obtained confirm first, the importance of starting income levels and of changes in the investment share in output, as well as of participation rate changes, in influencing regional growth rates. In addition, it appears that a high overall birth rate of firms, on average during the period, is negatively related to growth during that period. However, the share of employment created in new firms that occurs in high-tech activities does have a powerful and positive influence on per capita income growth. This provides support for the hypothesis that innovative activity at the frontier of technology contributes to rising living standards.Achieving Shared Growth,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Governance Indicators,Economic Growth

Did China follow the East Asian development model?

China is located in East Asia and, just as Japan, Taiwan or (South) Korea at earlier stages of their development, has now grown very rapidly for some three decades. That is not enough, however, for it to qualify for membership of the club. The East Asian development model has a number of additional and important characteristics. Four are selected for discussion: the almost constant encouragement given to investment, the manufacturing sector and external competitiveness, and pursued via a variety of fairly interventionist industrial, trade and financial policies; a concomitant belief in the virtues of intense domestic (Japan and Taiwan) and foreign (Korea) competition; a set of broadly sensible and appropriate macroeconomic policies; and a number of favourable (pre-)conditions, such as the presence of a homogeneous population, a relatively high stock of human capital, reasonable income equality and fairly authoritarian governments. China, since reforms began in the late 1970s, has shared some of these characteristics, but not all. In particular, it is still much more of a command economy than the other three countries have ever been, yet, at the same time, has embraced globalization with, arguably, much greater enthusiasm than was done, in earlier times, by Japan, Taiwan or Korea. If China's experience, however, is compared with that of other, more or less successful, developing countries, the similarities with the East Asia development model would seem to dwarf such differencesChina, Growth, East Asia, Economic Policy

Can we return to rapid growth?

The projections for economic growth in the industrial countries during 1985-95 have been revised steadily downward - to a pessimistic 2.5 percent a year. The crucial element in achieving high growth rates is a rising rate of investment, itself a reflection of confidence in the economy. The conditions that stimulate higher investment can result from sharp changes in economic policy. Chances that the former will occur, while slim, depend on putting in place policies that favor a surge in investment led growth. Maintaining low inflation rates and strong demand are equally important. Despite the existence of many of these conditions for some time, growth has slowed even further. Expansionary government policies may be a more plausible route, although the pace is crucial. One possible solution is to strive for international policymaking and to regain some degree of exchange rate stability. This kind of international coordination could be the impulse for rapid growth, as it was after the Second World War.Environmental Economics&Policies,Achieving Shared Growth,Economic Growth,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Economic Theory&Research

Italy, Germany, Japan: From Economic Miracles to Virtual Stagnation

Over the last six decades, economic developments in the three countries that were defeated in World War II look strikingly similar. First came rapid reconstruction. Then followed the economic miracles of the Golden Age. The years that went from the first oil shock to the mid-1990s still saw fairly robust, and relatively similar, economic developments. Finally, during the last 15 years, the three countries held the dubious record of having the lowest output growth rates in the OECD area. The paper looks primarily at Italy, using the examples of Germany and Japan to search for parallels and contrasts. Among similarities, the main one lies in overall macroeconomic trends. The main differences are in economic policies (where Germany and Japan followed a much more orthodox stance than Italy), in institutional set-ups (with Italy much less efficient than Germany and Japan), in labour market relations (with much greater conflict in Italy than in the other two countries), and in regional developments (where Italy was handicapped by the presence of the Mezzogiorno, while Germany and Japan were hardly touched by regional differentials, at least until unification in Germany. Indeed, had Italy's government institutions, labour market relations and regional differentials been less problematic, Italy's growth performance might well have been superior to that of both Germany and Japan.Comparative economic history

The competitiveness of nations and implications for human development

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.Human development should be the ultimate objective of human activity, its aim being healthier, longer, and fuller lives. Thus, if the competitiveness of a nation is properly managed, enhanced human welfare should be the key expected consequence. The research described here explores the relationship between the competitiveness of a nation and its implications for human development. For this purpose, 45 countries were evaluated initially using data envelopment analysis. In this stage, global competitiveness indicators were taken as input variables with human development index indicators as output variables. Subsequently, an artificial neural network analysis was conducted to identify those factors having the greatest impact on efficiency scores

Why East Germany Did Not Become a New Mezzogiorno

Economic integration is generally thought to favour convergence in the economic performance of previously separated regions; but this is far from universally true, as the experience of the members of the Eurozone testifies. The paper considers the two sharply contrasting cases of East and West German convergence following reunification and the enduring poverty of the Italian Mezzogiorno since Italian unification a century and a half ago. In both countries, political integration delivers much higher consumption in the lagging relative to the leading region than of per capita GDP. Consumption convergence can be supported by transfers but ‘production’ convergence ultimately requires catch-up in the production of tradeables. The paper demonstrates the radically different performance of the tradeable sector in the two cases, and suggests that this may be the result of differences in labour market flexibility, in investment performance and in the social norms required for the production of complex manufacturing