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...

Over the last decade, a growing body of literature dealing with the phenom-enon of the "middle-income trap" (MIT) has emerged. The term MIT usually refers to countries that have experienced rapid growth and thus reached the status of a middle-income country (MIC) in a very short period of time,...

In this paper, we investigate the role of labor productivity growth and whether the determinants of labor productivity growth differed among the middle income trap (MIT) and the graduated (non-middle income trap, NMIT) countries in the 1950–2005 period. We decompose labor productivity growth...

This paper examines how the services sector could provide decent and gainful employment in developing Asia. Using living wages as a reference point, this paper reports that a significant portion of the workforce in developing Asian economies, the majority of which are employed in the...

This policy brief provides results regarding productivity levels and dynamics in the Western Balkan countries in a comparative perspective, drawing on the newly established wiiw Western Balkan Productivity Database. The database provides time series of value added, gross output and intermediate...

We investigate (i) the characteristics of real economic and price convergence, (ii) the relationship between economic growth (convergence) and real exchange rate (RER) misalignments within the European Union (EU) during the period 1995-2016. In addition to the relative external price level of...

Global potential output growth has been flagging. At 2.5 percent in 2013-17, post-crisis potential growth is 0.5 percentage point below its longer-term average and 0.9 percentage point below its average a decade ago. Compared with a decade ago, potential growth has declined 0.8 percentage point...

Economists have reported econometric results that rely on estimates of the population of every country in the world for the past two thousand or more years. The underlying source is usually McEvedy and Jones' Atlas of World Population History, published in 1978. The McEvedy and Jones data have...

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...

It is now over three decades since the eleven EU member states in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe (EU-CEE) started their transition to market capitalism. All countries experienced deep recessions in the early 1990s, but since have achieved mostly sustained convergence with Western...