nep-gro New Economics Papers
on Economic Growth
Issue of 2021‒02‒15
six papers chosen by
Marc Klemp
University of Copenhagen

  1. Immigrant inventors and diversity in the age of mass migration By Francesco Campo; Mariapia Mendola; Andrea Morrison; Gianmarco Ottaviano
  2. Family Characteristics and Economic Development By Le Bris, David
  3. Intergenerational Transmission of Culture among Immigrants: Gender Gap in Education among First and Second Generations By NoghaniBehambari, Hamid; Tavassoli, Nahid; noghani, farzaneh
  4. Complexity and Growth By Alberto Bucci; Lorenzo Carbonari; Pedro Mazeda Gil; Giovanni Trovato
  5. Measuring Income Inequality and Implications for Economic Transmission Channels By Robert Blotevogel; Eslem Imamoglu; Kenji Moriyama; Babacar Sarr
  6. Optimal Factor Taxation in A Scale Free Model of Vertical Innovation By Barbara Annicchiarico; Valentina Antonaroli; Alessandra Pelloni

  1. By: Francesco Campo; Mariapia Mendola; Andrea Morrison; Gianmarco Ottaviano
    Abstract: A possible unintended but damaging consequence of anti-immigrant rhetoric, and the policies it inspires, is that they may put high-skilled immigrants off more than low-skilled ones at times when countries and businesses intensify their competition for global talent. We investigate this argument following the location choices of thousands of immigrant inventors across US counties during the Age of Mass Migration. To do so we combine a unique USPTO historical patent dataset with Census data and exploit exogenous variation in both immigration flows and diversity induced by former settlements, WWI and the 1920s Immigration Acts. We find that co-ethnic networks play an important role in attracting immigrant inventors. However, we also find that immigrant diversity acts as an additional significant pull factor. This is mainly due to externalities that foster immigrant inventors' innovativeness. These findings are relevant for todays advanced economies that have become major receivers of migrant flows and, in a long-term perspective, have started thinking about immigration in terms of not only level but also composition.
    Keywords: International Migration, Cultural Diversity, Innovation
    JEL: F22 J61 O31
    Date: 2020–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1700&r=all
  2. By: Le Bris, David
    Abstract: This paper links economic development to age-old family characteristics through the propensity to invest and thus increase human productivity. Inequality among siblings favors investment in physical capital, while a high status of women and strong parental authority favor investment in human capital. To test this theory, a family score is built according to the presence of these three characteristics in the traditional family type of each country. This family score as well as basic family characteristics are significantly associated with better economic outcomes (GDP per capita as well as proxies for investment in human and physical capital). These relationships are robust to other factors already identified as playing a role, such as geography, ethnic fractionalization, genetic diversity, religion, and formal institutions. Reverse causality is rejected by both historical anthropology and an instrumental investigation.
    Keywords: Economic development, Family model, Cultural Economics, Reversal of fortune
    JEL: N10 N30 N50 O10 O50 Z10
    Date: 2020–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:105325&r=all
  3. By: NoghaniBehambari, Hamid; Tavassoli, Nahid; noghani, farzaneh
    Abstract: This paper illustrates the intergenerational transmission of the gender gap in education among first and second-generation immigrants. Using the Current Population Survey (1994-2018), we find that the difference in female-male education persists from the home country to the new environment. A one standard deviation increase of the ancestral country’s female-male difference in schooling is associated with 17.2% and 2.5% of a standard deviation increase in the gender gap among first and second generations, respectively. Since gender perspective in education uncovers a new channel for cultural transmission among families, we interpret the findings as evidence of cultural persistence among first generations and partial cultural assimilation of second generations. Moreover, Disaggregation into country-groups reveals different paths for this transmission: descendants of immigrants of lower-income countries show fewer attachments to the gender opinions of their home country. Average local education of natives can facilitate the acculturation process. Immigrants residing in states with higher education reveal a lower tendency to follow their home country attitudes regarding the gender gap.
    Keywords: Gender Gap, Immigration, Human Capital, Education, Assimilation
    JEL: I2 J15 J16 Z13
    Date: 2020–12–31
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:105265&r=all
  4. By: Alberto Bucci (Università di Milano, CEIS, RCEA-Rimini); Lorenzo Carbonari (CEIS & DEF, University of Rome "Tor Vergata"); Pedro Mazeda Gil (Universidade do Porto and CEF.UP); Giovanni Trovato (CEIS & DEF, University of Rome "Tor Vergata")
    Abstract: Over the past decades, research effort in high income countries has substantially increased. Meanwhile, the growth rates of per capita output have been rather stable. The first goal of this paper is to investigate the reasons for such trends. The second goal of the paper is to show that the occurrence of different phases in the economic growth dynamics traces back to the interplay between complexity and specialization in production. To do this we use data from a sample of OECD countries and estimate a Hidden Markov Model, through which we identify four distinct growth regimes.
    Keywords: Economic growth, Population growth, Complexity, Hidden Markov Model
    JEL: O3 O4 J1
    Date: 2020–05–13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:483&r=all
  5. By: Robert Blotevogel; Eslem Imamoglu; Kenji Moriyama; Babacar Sarr
    Abstract: We study the channels that theoretically transmit the effects of inequality to economic growth, unlike much of the existing literature that focuses on the direct linkage. The role of inequality in these transmission channels is difficult to pin down and varies with the particular inequality indicator chosen. We run our analyses with six methodologically distinct inequality measures (Gini coefficients and Top10 income shares). Methodological differences within the set of Gini coefficients and the Top10 income shares exert a first-order impact on the estimated relationships, which is generally larger than the effect of switching between Gini and Top10 income shares. For a given inequality indicator, we find that the transmission channels can react in opposite directions, with the net effect on growth difficult to determine. Finally, we emphasize two additional but so far underappreciated empirical complications: (i) estimated relationships change over time; and (ii) fragile countries create significant but counterintuitive empirical associations that may obscure structural relationships.
    Keywords: Income inequality;Personal income;Income distribution;Human capital;Disposable income;WP,inequality indicator,event study,income share,capital consumption,price level
    Date: 2020–08–14
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2020/164&r=all
  6. By: Barbara Annicchiarico (DEF and CEIS, Università di Roma "Tor Vergata"); Valentina Antonaroli (DEF, Università di Roma "Tor Vergata"); Alessandra Pelloni (DEF and CEIS, Università di Roma "Tor Vergata")
    Abstract: The objective of the paper is to study how the tax burden arising from an exogenous stream of public expenditures and transfers should be distributed between labor and capital in a scale-less endogenous growth model, where the engine of growth are successful innovations. Our laboratory is a prototypical quality ladder model with a labor/leisure choice where R&D productivity is decreasing in the size of the economy. This decreasing productivity removes scale effects, which are a controversial prediction of first-generation endogenous growth models. Our contribution is to show that even when labor supply has no effects on growth in the long run, it will still be optimal to tax capital, for reasonable parametrizations of the model. This is true even if the long-run growth rate decreases, with respect to the initial situation in which capital income is not taxed.
    Keywords: Endogenous growth, Scale effects, Capital Income Taxation, Welfare effect.
    JEL: O41 E62 H21
    Date: 2020–05–13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:485&r=all

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