The fundamental importance of economic institutions for economic growth through their impact on technological change has been argued, reconfirmed by recent empirical studies, but not examined theoretically. This paper tries to fill that gap. In the model proposed, economic growth is affected by...

The fundamental importance of economic institutions for economic growth through their impact on technological change has long been argued by Schumpeter and others. Recent empirical studies have reconfirmed such arguments. However, our understanding of the impacts of economic institutions on R&D...

An informal model is described that leads to multiple macroeconomic equilibria as a consequence of random variation in the relative amounts of technological change for new and existing goods. The novel observation is that the rate of introduction and market penetration of new goods vis-a-vis...

This paper revisits Keynes's (1930) essay titled "The economic possibilities for our grandchildren." We discuss the three broader trends identified by Keynes that he expected would come to characterize the socio-economic evolution of advanced countries under individualistic capitalism: first,...

We review some patterns of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth in the Mexican economy during the period 1991-2011 using the KLEMS data set published by INEGI in 2013. The data shows a strong positive correlation between TFP and output growth. As a result, tests were performed in order to...

Does the concept of General Purpose Technologies help explain periods of faster and slower productivity advance in economies? The paper develops a new comparative data set on the usage of electricity in the manufacturing sectors of the USA, Britain, France, Germany and Japan and proceeds to...

We develop a perpetual youth model to investigate how longevity affects economic growth and welfare. Life expectancy is determined by individuals’ investments in healthcare. We find that improvements in the healthcare technology always increase the steady state growth rate. Although the effect...

Economic analysts have used trends in total factor productivity (TFP) to evaluate the effectiveness with which economies are utilizing advances in technology. However, this measure is problematic on several different dimensions. First, the idea that it is possible to separate out the relative...

This paper studies the interplay between left-handedness and economic development. To explain the decline and subsequent recovery of left-handedness observed over the last few centuries in the Western world, we propose a theory in which economic development influences the prevalence of...

We study the role of endogenous healthcare choices by households to extend their expected lifetimes on economic growth and welfare in a decentralized overlapping generations economy with the realistic feature that households' savings are held in annuities. We characterize healthcare spending in...