This paper investigates the impact of public expenditures and taxation on economic growth using panel data for a sample of OECD countries. The empirical results suggest that fiscal policy influences growth through three main channels. First, the government contributes directly to factor...

This paper illustrates how convergence equations can be used to analyse the dynamics of the income distribution, thus overcoming some of the limitations of this methodology noted by Quah. Using panel data for a sample of OECD countries, we estimate a growth equation that relates the growth rate...

This paper analyses the interaction between capital accumulation, technological progress and financial development. Growth is sustained by the development of new varieties of intermediate goods. Innovation is risky and the probability of success depends on entrepreneurs' actions, which can only...

We construct a revised version of the Barro and Lee (1996) data set for a sample of OECD countries using previously unexploited sources and following a heuristic approach to obtain plausible time profiles for attainment levels by removing sharp breaks in the data that seem to reflect changes in...

We investigate the sources of productivity convergence using panel data for the Spanish regions. As a framwork, we develop a simple descriptive growth model which allows for factor accumulation, technological diffusion and rate effects from human capital and which includes fixed regional effects...

This paper surveys the recent literature on convergence across countries and regions. We discuss the main convergence and divergence mechanisms identified in the literature and develop a simple model that illustrates their implications for income dynamics. We then review the existing empirical...

Recent empirical studies tend to confirm the importance of investment in human and technological capital as determinants of growth. Extensions of the neoclassical model that incorporate these factors explain rather well the long-run growth experience of a large sample of countries, and are...

This paper analyses the sources of post-war growth and convergence in the OECD using an extension of Mankiw, Romer and Weil's (1992) model in which the rate of technical progress is determined endogenously by the level of R&D spending and a process of technological catch-up. The results indicate...

This paper explores the sources of Ireland’s relative growth performance. Using panel data for a sample of OECD countries, we estimate a convergence equation and use it to conduct a growth accounting exercise which provides quantitative estimates of the immediate sources of Ireland’s growth...