We present a model of nonbalanced growth based on differences in factor proportions and capital deepening. Capital deepening increases the relative output of the more capital-intensive sector but simultaneously induces a reallocation of capital and labor away from that sector. Using a two-sector...

This paper studies whether labor scarcity encourages technological advances, that is, technology adoption or innovation, for example, as claimed by Habakkuk in the context of nineteenth-century United States. I define technology as strongly labor saving if technological advances reduce the...

We exploit the major international health improvements from the 1940s to estimate the effect of life expectancy on economic performance. We construct predicted mortality using preintervention mortality rates from various diseases and dates of global interventions. Predicted mortality has a large...

This paper examines the implications of regulatory change for input mix and technology choices of regulated industries. We study the increase in the relative price of labor faced by U.S. hospitals that resulted from the move from full cost to partial cost reimbursement under the Medicare...

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires employers to accommodate disabled workers and outlaws discrimination against the disabled in hiring, firing, and pay. Although the ADA was meant to increase the employment of the disabled, the net theoretical effects are ambiguous. For men of...

This paper offers a theory of development that links the degree of market incompleteness to capital accumulation and growth. Because sectoral indivisibilities limit the extent of diversification, poor economies suffer higher volatility of growth and endogenously lower productivity. As the...