A paper for presentation at the SSHRC Conference on Index Numbers and Productivity Measurement to be held during 30 June � 3 July, 2004 in Vancouver. The author wishes to thank Bettina Aten, Erwin Diewert, Alan Heston, Chris O�Donnell and Marcel Timmer for helpful discussions on the...

In this paper we examine levels and trends in agricultural output and productivity in 93 developed and developing countries that account for a major portion of the world population and agricultural output. We make use of data drawn from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations...

The literature has concentrated on evaluating technological spillovers from trade and inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI). Little effort has been directed towards identifying efficiency externalities arising from international linkages. We evaluate these for a sample of 20 OECD countries...

We estimate an input distance function for U.S. electric utilities under the assumption that non-negative variables associated with technical inefficiency are timeinvariant. We use Bayesian methodology to impose curvature restrictions implied by microeconomic theory and obtain exact...

While earlier empirical studies found a negative saving effect of old-age dependency rates without considering longevity, recent studies have found that longevity has a positive effect on growth without considering old-age dependency rates. In this paper, we first justify the related yet...

Economic development may feature entry into high-tech industries (�high-tech industrialization�), or expansion along low-tech trajectories (�low-tech industrialization�). By endogenizing technological capability within a coordination failure framework, we uncover mechanisms...

This paper examines whether monetary policy shocks have asymmetric effects on output in Australia. Using methods similar to Cover (1992) together with some other simple threshold models, evidence is found of certain types of asymmetries when comparing monetary contractions to monetary policy...

A Bayesian model averaging procedure is presented within the class of vector autoregressive (VAR) processes and applied to two empirical issues. First, stability of the Great Ratios in U.S. macro-economic time series is investigated, together with the presence and effects of permanent shocks....

Can financial development play a role in abating the natural resource curse? What are the channels via which financial development may negate the potential detrimental effects of natural resources on economic growth? To attempt to answer these questions, the paper employs panel unit root,...