We explore the uses of double-calibrated general equilibrium models as a decomposition tool for analysing contributory factors in the growth and increasing wage inequality in an advanced economy (the UK) since 1979. Calibration of a model to start and end years, based upon an assumed functional...

The standard search model of unemployment predicts, under plausible assumptions about household preferences, that disembodied technological progress leads to higher unemployment. This prediction is at odds with the experience of industrialized countries in the 1970s. This paper shows that...

A recent paper by Dollar and Kraay (2001) finds that higher primary educational attainment of the workforce does not increase the income of the poor except for its effect on average income. We test the robustness of their finding by using a broader measure of human capital that accounts for...

The paper surveys the literature on the effects of finance on productivity growth. In both the theoretical and empirical literature, there is no consensus regarding the contribution of financial liberalization and financial development to growth. Focusing on the direct channels of growth, the...

Unlike in Asia, the manufacturing sector has not (yet) become a driver of structural change in Africa. One common explanation is that the natural resource-focus of many African economies leads to Dutch disease effects. To test this argument for the case of newly found oil in Ghana we develop a...

This paper studies the impact of financial openness on the size of government, and other key economic variables, such as the consumption-wealth ratio, the growth rate of wealth, and welfare, in a two-country world, based on a portfolio approach, assuming that public spending is...

Contemporary policy debates on the macroeconomics of resource booms often concentrate on the short-run Dutch disease effects of public expenditure ignoring the possible long-term effects of alternative revenue-allocation options and the supply-side impact of royalty-financed public investments....

We develop an endogenous growth model which is focussed on entrepreneurial skills and their impact on growth and convergence. Our work is closely related to the model by Acemoglu et al. (2006) but extends their analysis in some important respects. Entrepreneurs in our model dispose of two...

This paper answers the question which developing countries have gained and which have lost in the international division of labor during the last thirty years. The indicators used are GDP per capita in constant purchasing power parity and relative distance to the United States. Nearly all...

The present contribution tests whether countries can be pooled when studying the financegrowth nexus. Overall, our results point toward a ‘pragmatic’ positive answer, though considerable heterogeneity is present among developing countries.