We develop a model where temporary non-technology shocks can lead to permanent changes in the rate of growth of total factor productivity (TFP). The key ingredient of the model is a matching processes between basic researchers, product developers, and the stock of knowledge of the economy. In...

In a dynamic general equilibrium setup, this paper highlights the role of vintages and creative destruction in business fluctuations. By stressing the forward-looking characteristic of the optimal scrapping rule, we use a standard rational expectations argument to show the constancy of the...

Conventional R&D-based growth theory argues that productivity growth is driven by population growth but the data suggest that the erstwhile positive correlation between population and productivity turned negative during the 20th century. In order to resolve this problem we integrate R&D-based...

Using data for six Asian miracle economies over the period from 1953 to 2006, this paper examines the extent to which growth has been driven by R&D and tests which second-generation endogenous growth model is most consistent with the data. The results give strong support to Schumpeterian growth...

This paper presents estimates of the long-term impact of various sources of knowledge (R&D performed by the business sector, the public sector and foreign firms) on multifactor productivity growth of 16 countries from 1980 to 1998. The main results show that the three sources of knowledge are...

One of the most topical issues that have received extensive attention in economics to date centers on: what determines economic growth? Attempts at answering this question have spawned an avalanche of possible reasons as determinants, ranging from economic, social, political to institutional...

In this paper, we define specific (general) human capital in terms of the occupations whose use is spread in a limited (wide) set of industries. We analyze the growth impact of an economy's composition of specific and general human capital, in a model where education and R&D are costly and...

There is cross-country and time-series evidence that volatility is associated with slower growth. However, matching this evidence has proven to be a challenge for growth models without market failures, as they tend to predict the opposite for values of risk aversion greater than unity. This note...