In this presentation I view a Malmquist productivity index as a theoretical index with desirable properties. I then discuss the properties of three approximations to it: an empirical Malmquist index, and Fisher and Tornqvist indexes. Next I discuss the decomposition properties of the theoretical...

This paper applies a stochastic frontier production model to the data from Penn World Table’s 49 countries over the period 1965-1990, to decompose total factor productivity growth into technical change and technical efficiency change. Empirical results show East Asian countries led the...

In this paper, we investigate the role of the components of demographic change on economic development. Population growth has both positive and negative effects on income growth. Kelley and Schmidt (1995) states that high birth rates are costly in terms of growth but this effect can be offset by...

Recent evidence based on longitudinal firm-level data suggests that within-firm productivity growth explains about 50 percent of total factor productivity growth in the manufacturing sector while net entry effects account for about 30 percent of total factor productivity growth. These two forces...

Human capital plays an important role in the theory of economic growth, but it has been difficult to measure this abstract concept. We survey the psychological literature on cross-cultural IQ tests, and conclude that modern intelligence tests are well-suited for measuring an important form of a...

We attempt to explain why standard explanations of the poverty of nations are unsatisfactory. We first argue that human capital is low in poor countries because its production has increasing returns with respect to life expectancy. We then show that the reason why capital does not flow to poor...

This paper analyses plant entry, total factor productivity growth, average productivity level differentials and turnovers across Colombia's petrochemical industry for the 1974-1998 period. Results show that successful entrants shaped industry productivity and induced plant restructuring among...

This paper tackles the problem of aggregate TFP measurement using stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Data from Penn World Table 6.1 are used to estimate a world production frontier for a sample of 75 countries over a long period (1950-2000) taking advantage of the model offered by Battese &...

USAGE is a 500 industry dynamic computable general equilibrium model of the US economy being developed at Monash University in collaboration with the US International Trade Commission. In common with the MONASH model of Australia, USAGE is designed for four modes of analysis: Historical, where...

Two different theoretical treatments of technology diffusion in an economy are examined. The traditional model based on the aggregate production function approach first introduced by Solow (1957) assumes technology is unstructured and arrives as a continuous exogenous flow. This model predicts...