This paper shows that unit labor costs (ulcs), the most widely used measure of competitiveness, can be interpreted as the labor share in output multiplied by a price-adjustment factor. This has three main implications. First, ulcs are not just a technical concept since they embody the social...

The Cobb-Douglas production function is still today the most ubiquitous form in theoretical and empirical analyses of growth and productivity. The estimation of the parameters of aggregate production functions is central to much of today's work on growth, technological change, productivity, and...

This paper revisits the conundrum surrounding the measurement of the impact of public infrastructure spending in the light of the aggregation literature (Fisher, 1969; 1993). It shows why estimations of aggregate production functions (APFs) augmented with a proxy for public expenditures do not yield...

This paper analyses total factor productivity growth in China, and discusses the evidence regarding whether or not it increased after the implementation of market reforms in 1978. The paper addresses to two major issues. The first considers the case when technical progress in China was biased in...

The key factor underlying China's fast development during the last 50 years is its ability to master and accumulate new and more complex capabilities, reflected in the increase in diversification and sophistication of its export basket. This accumulation was policy induced and not the result of...

With a decrease in formal trade barriers, trade facilitation has come into prominence as a policy tool for promoting trade. In this paper, we use a gravity model to examine the relationship between bilateral trade flows and trade facilitation. We also estimate the gains in trade derived from...

In this paper we look at the economic development of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in the context of structural transformation. We use Hidalgo et al.'s (2007) concept of product space to show the evolution of the region's productive structure, and discuss the opportunities for growth and...