We investigate the fundamental determinants of sustainability in general equilibrium. We adopt a definition of sustainability that requires that the welfare of future generations is not expected to decrease on average. We then use a stochastic growth model to explore the conditions under which...

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of empirical cross-country growth literature. The paper begins by describing the basic framework used in recent empirical cross-country growth research. Even though this literature was mainly inspired by endogenous growth theories, the neoclassical...

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of empirical cross-country growth literature. The paper begins with describing the basic framework used in recent empirical cross-country growth research. Even though this literature was mainly inspired by endogenous growth theories, the...

We reconsider the empirical links between volatility and growth between 1970 and 2007. There is a strong and significant correlation between individual country growth rates and global factors that are arguably exogenous with respect to their economies. The amount of volatility driven by these...

Following an unparalleled rise in uncertainty over the Great Recession, the US economy has been experiencing anaemic productivity growth. This paper offers a quantitative study on the link between uncertainty and low productivity growth. Firstly, using micro level data I show that uncertainty...

This paper documents several stylized facts on the real effects of economic uncertainty. First, higher uncertainty is associated with a more dispersed and negatively skewed distribution of output growth. Second, the response of economic growth to an increase in uncertainty is highly nonlinear...

The paper analyzes the impact of natural disasters on per-capita GDP growth. Using a quantile regressions and growth-at-risk approach, the paper examines the impact of disasters and policy choices on the distribution of growth rather than simply its average. We find that countries that have in...

We analyze the relationship between uncertainty and economic growth expectations in Mexico through the Growth at Risk methodology. Our analysis consists of two stages: first, we estimate a quantile regression of annual output growth conditional on lagged values of a measure of macroeconomic...