This paper examines the feasibility of constructing a consistent set of multilateral comparisons of manufacturing sector output and productivity within the framework of the ICOP project. A major objective of the paper is to construct truly multilateral comparisons using the existing data base of...

The rapid growth performance of the Dutch economy in terms of growth in real GDP, employment and per capita income can be traced back to the mid-1980s. This paper suggests that the growth acceleration of the Dutch economy has primarily been the result of a below-average performance during...

Gains from productivity and knowledge transmission arising from the presence of foreign firms have received a good deal of empirical attention, but theoretical micro-foundations for this mechanism are limited. Here we develop a dynamic model in which foreign experts may train domestic workers...

A number of writers have recently questioned whether labour productivity or per capita incomes were ever higher in the United Kingdom than in the United States. We show that although the United States already had a substantial labour productivity lead in industry as early as 1840, especially in...

The paper comprises a thorough survey of the literature on growth in Western Europe since 1950. This experience is put in the context both of long-run historical trends and the ideas emanating from recent work in growth economics. The exceptional nature of the Golden Age (c.1950-73) is confirmed...

This paper reinterprets a simple model of growth and fluctuations across many economies to allow for the explicit characterization of the dynamically-evolving cross-economy distribution of income. Such a framework provides a more natural, revealing study of the convergence hypothesis. The data...

This Paper investigates whether there is convergence in Total Factor Productivity towards the technological frontier at the establishment level. We find convergence to the frontier is statistically and quantitatively important, suggesting the existence of technology spillovers. Foreign...

The initial publication of the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World index prompted an explosion of empirical research on the institutions-growth relationship. To date, little of this research has appeared in the top economics journals. Subsequently, a number of empirical...

Jakob De Haan, Susanna Lundström, and Jan-Egbert Sturm have written a valuable survey of the literature that uses the Gwartney and Lawson economic freedom (EFW) index. Their discussion of the index’s theoretical underpinnings and methodological ins and outs itself should be useful to scholars...

This paper presents a theoretical model and empirical evidence to explain the observation that a country in which the level of technology approaches the technology frontier tends to rely more on technology creation than adoption, and to invest more in basic research than in development. The...