A method for analyzing productivity convergence based on frontier production functions is proposed. It is examined whether departures from the frontier - country-level inefficiencies - exhibit long-run relationships and convergence. The method is applied to 1-digit industries of 14 OECD...

This paper aims to analyse the effects of institution quality on technology catch-up in five North African countries (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia) compared to 3 groups of developing and emerging countries (Sub Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America) over the period 1970-2005. The...

In this paper, we make an empirical analysis of the roles of total factor productivity (TFP), capital and labor in China's economic growth for 1952-1998, with the consideration of a structural change due to reform in 1978. We find that China's TFP has fluctuated drastically during 1952-1998, due...

Scrutinizing post-Keynesian theory of endogenous technical progress and Régulation Theory, this paper examines productivity growth and its variation within capitalist economies. The aim is to identify how institutions steer productivity growth. Based on the vast literature demonstrating that...

This research explores the effects of culture on technological diffusion and economic development. It shows that culture's direct effects on development and barrier effects to technological diffusion are, in general, observationally equivalent. In particular, using a large set of measures of...

We examine the importance of total factor productivity (TFP) growth in middle-income countries based on cross-country panel data for the period 1975-2014. We find that TFP growth contributed significantly to a country’s upward transition from middle-income to high-income country group. The TFP...

We argue theoretically and document empirically that aging leads to greater (industrial) automation, and in particular, to more intensive use and development of robots. Using US data, we document that robots substitute for middle-aged workers (those between the ages of (36 and 55). We then show...

Traditional sources of growth studies generally assume that the nature of technological progress is Hicks-neutral. However, the nature of technological progress compatible with steady state conditions is Harrod-neutral rather than Hicks-neutral. This study thus investigates sources of growth for...

The productivity generated by capital goods is not uniform along the time. When there exist conventional physical capital goods the productivity obtained is minor that the one generated by quality capital goods. To obtain a correct measure of growth in presence of this embodied technical...

This study answers the question: What are the results of assuming the nature of technological progress as Harrod-neutral in growth accounting for the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries? Accordingly, this study contributes to the debate over whether the sources of economic growth stem...