Geography, Structural Change and Development
Introduction
In his 1971 Nobel lecture Simon Kuznets (AER, 1973, n.5) defined “modern
economic growth” a process based both on technological progress and related
institutional change. He then identified six main “stylized facts”
which characterise quantitatively modern economic growth. Two of these features
relate to aggregate rates, that is, the growth rate of income and the rise in
productivity; two relate to structural transformation, that is, sectoral and
societal change; and two relate to international diffusion, that is, the improvements
in transport and communication and the uneven spread of economic development.
Remarkably, the main object of investigation of the abstracts assigned to this
project refers to: 1) the impact of geographical factors and location on growth;
2) the process of structural change of economies and the role of dualism in
development; 3) international trade and specialization. Moreover, other issues
of economic development such as the role of technological progress and productivity
change, improvements in communication and transport, the process of convergence
and the role of institutions are dealt with in detail within subgroups of abstracts.
In particular, the role of economic change (technological or structural change
or in the location of the productive activity) is a theme which runs through
all of them.
We grouped the abstracts in three headings (whose names are temporary): 1) LOCATION/GEOGRAPHICAL
FACTORS; 2) STRUCTURAL CHANGE; 3) INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND SPECIALISATION.
The first set of abstracts dealing with location and geographical factors (with
a stress on the role of economic policy) are COMMENDATORE & PETRAGLIA, TALAMO,
LO TURCO, and PRESBITERIO.
COMMENDATORE & PETRAGLIA propose a model in which industrial location and
growth are both endogenous and in which the government sector plays a crucial
role.
In TALAMO’s abstract the topic is the FDI and the theoretical framework
is the gravity model. Talamo intends to clarify the role of a country’s
institutional factors (and in particular of their quality) on its ability to
attract foreign investors.
LO TURCO aims to empirically evaluate the relation between regional trade agreements,
industrial location and per capita income inequality across countries.
The objective of PRESBITERIO is similar, since he aims to empirically investigate
direct and indirect effects of geographical factors (related to the physical
location of a country) on economic development.
The second set of abstracts dealing with structural change are CAPASSO &
CARRILLO, BILANCINI & D’ALESSANDRO, GUALERZI, and DI GUILMI &
NAPOLETANO.
CAPASSO & CARRILLO propose to frame a dual economy in an endogenous growth
model. Their objective is to analyse and reinterpret the process of convergence
between economies (North and South of Italy), if there is any, in the light
of the traditional theory of dualism.
BILANCINI & D’ALESSANDRO propose to model a two sector-economy (agriculture
and manufacture) in the attempt to clarify how productivity changes in agriculture
may affect the process of industrialisation (intended as an endogenous switch
in manufacture to an increasing returns technology) via changes in income distribution.
GUALERZI intends to clarify with an empirical analysis 1) how variations in
the level of investment in the US ICT sector, before and after the burst of
the speculative bubble in 2000, affected the structural evolution of that sector;
2) how such an evolution in turn impinged upon the structural transformation
of other sectors strictly linked to the diffusion of knowledge.
Finally, DI GUILMI & NAPOLETANO investigate the role played by firms’
financial heterogeneity in casting productivity and growth dynamics, also providing
indirect evidence of the structural change patterns undergoing the aggregate
pace of the economy in the long run.
The third set of abstracts, dealing with international trade specialisation
and economic growth, are MARIUTTI, GUARINI, TAMBERI et al. CUTRINI.
MARIUTTI aims to build a model of multi-sectoral (and multi-country) model of
structural change à la Pasinetti in which the possibility of international
trade is explicitly taken into account.
GUARINI proposes an empirical work in order to investigate which factors affect
the change in labour productivity and if and how European countries adjusted
their productive structure to the accelerating process of international competition
by increasing the weight innovation and technological progress. The theoretical
underpinnings of Guarini empirical investigation are the classical-post-Keynesian
Smith-Verdoorn-Kaldor law and the Sylos-Labini technological capability approach.
TAMBERI et al. aim to investigate empirically the long-run relationship between
international trade (and productive) specialisation and economic growth, in
order to highlight if and how specific patterns of specialization foster (or
bound) the path of economic growth.
Looking at the EU, CUTRINI aims to investigate the empirical relationship between
growth and regional specialization, taking into account some institutional and
geographical aspects such as the degree of urbanization, the quality of the
transport infrastructure and the degree of trade integration in the European
markets.
Follow scheme of the project and abstracts
PROPOSTA:
Geography, structural change and development
Distinzione nella metodologia (Lavori Teorici/Empirici)
1. Lavori prevalentemente teorici; 2. Lavori prevalentemente empirici.
Section 1 - LOCATION/GEOGRAPHICAL FACTORS
1. Commendatore-Petraglia (1): “The government sector as a propeller of growth in a New Economic Geography model”
2. Talamo (1): “Institutions, FDI and the Gravity Model”
3. Lo Turco: (2) “G1-RTAs Industrial Location and Convergence”
4. Presbiterio (2): “A Note on Geography and Economic Development”
Section 2 - STRUCTURAL CHANGE
5. Carrillo-Capasso (1): “Mezzogiorno d’Italia: A New Theory of Dual Economy to reinterpret and old issue”
6. Bilancini-D’Alessandro (1) “Functional Distribution and Industrial Takeoff: The Role of Wages and Natural Resources”
7. Gualerzi (2):”Crescita, investimento e settori a alto contenuto di
conoscenza”
8. Corrado Di Guilmi e Mauro Napoletano (2): “Structural Change and Firms’
Financial Structure: Some New Evidence”
Section 3 - INTERNATIONAL TRADE / SPECIALIZZAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE
9. Mariutti (1): “Production of commodities by means of labour –
A theory on international relations”
10. Guarini (2): “Una valutazione della crescita della produttività del lavoro nei paesi europei (o OCSE)”
11. Tamberi-Lo Turco-Presbiterio (2): “Modelli di Specializzazione e crescita”
12. Cutrini (2): “Integrazione economica europea, specializzazione e convergenza regionale”
SEZIONE 1 - LOCATION/GEOGRAPHICAL FACTORS
13) Commendatore-Petraglia (1)
“The government sector as a propeller of growth in a New Economic Geography
model”
Pasquale Commendatore and Carmelo Petraglia?
The impact on economic analysis of New Economic Geography paradigm, inspired
by Krugman (1991), has already been extensive. The new paradigm integrates urban,
regional and international economics in a single theoretical framework and,
more generally, remedies the omission of space from mainstream economics.
NEG theory has identified three main forces as determinants of the agglomerative
processes: factor mobility, economies of scale and transportation costs. A different
interplay of these determinants will become relevant to firms’ decision
to locate production activities. In particular lower transportation costs, larger
economies of scale and free factors mobility will lead to higher concentration
of firms in a region.
A natural area of research is the role of public policy in determining agglomeration
or dispersion of productive activities. Several works have dealt with taxes
in NEG models (see for example Baldwin and Krugman, 2004; Baldwin et al., 2003).
These contributions challenged the standard wisdom on tax competition and tax
harmonization, according to which the standard result of tax competition is
a race to the bottom between countries. Following their analysis, the presence
of agglomeration rents allows a core country to both retain its industry and
apply a higher tax rate exploiting agglomeration rents.
The role played by public spending in affecting firms’ locational choice
is gaining increasing attention within the NEG approach. The interest of scholars,
however, has been mainly devoted to the study of how higher productive public
spending – expenditure in infrastructure – can favor the agglomeration
of new firms due to induced beneficial effects on production costs and on the
productivity of the mobile factor.
These contributions share the common feature that countries not only compete
through tax competition but also through public expenditures; what emerges from
these works is that both taxation and public expenditures may affect spatial
concentration of the industry acting in opposite directions. It follows that
if governments want to retain (or acquire) the industrial core they have to
choose the most suitable policy mix.
A less investigated issue pertains the effects of public spending on capital
accumulation and, hence, on growth. Moreover, the issue of the alternative uses
of public spending and taxation has been neglected.
A combination of endogenous growth theory and the NEG approach has been proposed
by Martin (1999) and Martin and Ottaviano (1999 and 2001). As a major result,
the effect of endogenous growth is the emergence of multiple equilibria with
production taking place in both regions. That is to say that the Krugman (1991)
“circular causation” process is not operational. Martin (1999) highlights
the existence of a trade-off between growth and the spatial distribution of
economic activities. An improvement in infrastructures that reduces transaction
costs inside the poorest region, leads to a decrease in both the spatial concentration
of industries and the growth rate. Conversely, an improvement in infrastructure
facilitating transactions between regions has the reverse effect. In Martin’s
(1999) paper, public policies are financed via money transfers from the richer
country to the poorer country.
Our paper aims to analyze the linkage between public spending, taxation, long-run
growth and income distribution – both among and within countries –
within the New Economic Geography (NEG) approach. In order to do so, we will
try to reconcile recent insights on the impact of public infrastructure on firms’
locational choices developed within the NEG literature (Martin and Rogers, 1995;
Martin, 1999; Brakman et al. 2002) with the traditional view in the endogenous
growth literature (Barro 1990) on long-run growth effects induced by alternative
compositions of public spending (in consumption and investment goods). That
is, in a model where the government budget is in equilibrium, whereas public
spending in infrastructure may foster growth, increasing public consumption
reduces unambiguously capital accumulation.
References
Baldwin, R.E., Forslid R., Martin P., Ottaviano G. and Robert-Nicoud F. (2003),
“Economic Geography and Public Policy”, Princeton University Press,
Princeton.
Baldwin, R. E. (1999), “Agglomeration and endogenous capital”, European
Economic Review, 43: 253-280.
Baldwin, R. E. and Krugman P.(2004), “Agglomeration, integration and tax
harmonisation”, European Economic Review, 48: 1 – 23.
Brakman S., Gerrettsen H, and Van Marrewijk C. (2002), “Locational Competion
and Agglomeration: The Role of Government Spending”, mimeo.
Barro, R.J. (1990), “Government spending in a simple model of endogenous
growth”, Journal of Political Economy, 98: 103-125.
Krugman, P.R. (1991), “Increasing returns and economic geography”,
Journal of Political Economy, 99: 483-499.
Martin, P. (1999): Public policies, regional inequalities and growth. Journal
of Public Economics, 73: 85-105
Martin, P., and G. I. P. Ottaviano (1999): Growing locations: industry location
in a model of endogenous growth. European Economic Review, 43: 281-302.
Martin, P., and G. I. P. Ottaviano (2001): Growth and agglomeration. International
Economic Review, 42: 947-968.
Martin, P., and C. A. Rogers (1995): Industrial location and public infrastructure.
Journal of International Economics, 39: 335-351.
Keywords: Public Policy, New Economic Geography, Economic Growth
31) Lo Turco (2)
Alessia Lo Turco
Università Politecnica delle Marche
G1-RTAs industrial Location and Convergence
Abstract
Aim of this paper is to empirically evaluate the relation between regional trade
agreements, industrial location and inequality.
Location of production is determined by country specific features, such as factor
endowments, policy framework, technological advance and the size of the internal
market. Though, having care only to country specific characteristics would not
allow to explain why countries with a similar starting factor endowment, often
show different production structures: ceteris paribus, some countries show higher
shares of industrial production than others. This can be referred to the existence
of industry specific characteristics which, together with geography, cause agglomeration
forces to operate. In this sense, the presence of trade or transport costs,
economies of scale and backward and forward linkages can cause production to
concentrate in a few locations and only by time, when wages become unsustainable,
let it spread to lower wage economies. Thus, as Puga and Venables (1998) point
out, ”growth in world manufacturing relative to other tradable industries
does not lead to a steady development of low wage economies, but instead to
rapid industrialization of countries in turn”. While Puga and Venables(1998)
focus on the role of developing countries unilateral trade policy for industrial
development, Venables(2002) analyzes the effect of the negotiation of a Customs
Union(CU) on industrial development both in symmetrical(South-South, North-North)
and asymmetrical agreements. The idea is that preferential tariffs would affect
production location via their effect on the structure of regional comparative
advantages. The change in regional comparative advantage together with the above
mentioned country and industry characteristics then determine income and production
patterns. The main implication is that, via their effect on partners’
comparative advantages, symmetric integration schemes bring about an unequal
industrial location and, eventually, divergence in income levels, while asymmetric
RTAs cause income convergence.
From an empirical point of view it is important to highlight how the regional
integration process together with a pre-existing different trade specialization
among partners can affect the location of production and to compare industrial
structures in symmetric and asymmetric integration schemes. Lo Turco(2005),
partially explores the relation between regional partners' trade specialization
patterns, localization of industry and inequality across Latin American sub-regions,
especially the Andean Community and the Central American Common Market, before
and after the negotiations of the early 90s.
In line with this strand of research, the paper is an empirical work and represents
an improvement on the existing literature in that it more deeply deals with
the construction of measures of integration directed to specifically test theory
predictions. Furthermore, the availability of higher quality industry-level
data will allow for better panel data estimation techniques. Finally, while
the main focus remains the Latin American region and especially the Mercosur
sub-region the paper will be addressed at compare patterns of industrial location
in North-South and North-North agreements too, e.g NAFTA and the EU.
The first part of the work will be devoted to the construction of measures of
integration, starting from simple measures of revealed comparative advantage
and tariffs. Part of this section will be devoted to the analysis of within
agreement trade patterns in order to highlight how and if trade patterns among
partners have changed after the formation of the RTA. Subsequently an empirical
model will be estimated with the precise aim to put at a trial both the measures
of integration obtained in the first part and the typical factors which usually
affect industry location.
The second part of the work, instead, will be based on the detection of the
impact of trade agreements on overall inequality using aggregated country data
on real GDP per capita.
References
Dan Ben-David. Equalizing exchange: trade liberalization and income
convergence. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 108:653{79, August 1993.
L. Iapadre. Regional integration agreements and the geography of world
trade. statistical indicators and empirical evidence. mimeo.
K.H. Midelfart-Knarvik, H. Overman, and A. Venables. Compara-
tive advantage and the economic geography. CEPR Discussion Paper,
(2618), 2000.
H. Overman, S. Redding, and A. Venables. The economic geography of
trade production and income: a survey of empirics. CEPR Discussion
Paper, (2978), 2001.
P. Sanguinetti, I. Traistaru, and C. Volpe Martincus. The impact of
south-south preferential trade agreements on indistrial development: an
empirical test. mimeo, 2004
M. J. Slaughter. International trade and per capita income convergenge:
a di®erence-in-di®erences analysis. NBER Working Paper, (6557), May
1998.
A. Venables. Winner and losers from regional integration agreements.
The Economic Journal, (113), 2003
Keywords:
RTAs, Industrial Location, Convergence, Dynamic Panel Data Models.
33) Andrea Presbiterio (2)
A Note on Geography and Economic Development
Andrea F. Presbitero
The aim of this paper is a further analysis of the direct and indirect effects
of geographical factors on economic development. Moving from a previous paper
(Presbitero, 2006), I would like to check the validity of those results using
different measures of institutional quality and different econometric techniques.
The basic idea is that current differences in the level of income and well-being
across countries are due to different causes, which are related to the institutional
framework and to geographical factors. In this context, therefore, geography
is not strictly related to its economic meaning, but more to the physical location
of a country, which affects its health environment, its ecology and its predisposition
to trade. In other words, the point is that being located in the tropics instead
of central Europe is a disadvantage because of market access, tropical diseases,
and other ecological factors that impact on labour and land productivity as
well as on human well being.
Furthermore, following Acemoglu et al. (2001), geographical factors affected
the early settles’ behaviour and, therefore, they shaped the development
of good or bad institutions. The relevance of institutions for economic growth
and development is today widely accepted and it is built on the grounds of the
seminal work by Douglas North (1990) about the difference between British and
Spanish institutions, with the former that are believed to be more favorable
to economic growth. This explains the relative success of the former British
colonies in North America, with respect to the Latin American countries which
were influenced by the Spanish and by other European institutions.
According to this approach (see, among others, Rodrick, Subramanian and Trebbi,
2002; Easterly and Levine, 2002) geographical factors shaped the development
and the quality of institutions, so that their effect on economic development
is indirect.
Nonetheless, some authors (Diamond, Sachs) suggest that the environment has
other direct effect on economic development, because of health conditions (countries
more subject to tropical diseases face more severe constraints) and market access.
In a previous paper (Presbitero, 2006) I find evidence from a cross country
regression, using instrumental variables, that geographical factors (measured
as malaria endemic) have a direct impact on economic development (measured as
GDP per capita), apart from its impact on institutional quality.
Here, the aim is twofold: a first work is a simple robustness check, based on
the availability of new indicators and econometric techniques, while the second
goal is broadening the analysis, looking at different measure of development
and including the aspect of trade into the analysis.
For what concerns the methodology, it is possible to run the cross country regression
using the Identification through Heteroscedasticity method (Rigobon, 2004),
to check the validity of results obtained using the standard Instrumental Variable
(GMM) technique.
The availability of more institutional indicators (ICGR detailed data from 1984
to 2004 and World Bank’s CPIA ratings from 1977 to 2004), a corrected
series of mortality rates of early settlers and some new indicators of trade
openness (Economic Freedom Network) could be used to check the robustness of
previous findings and to broad the model specification in order to explicitly
include the role played by market access as another geographical factor, other
than the health environment. With respect to the dependant variable, I would
like not to focus exclusively on GDP as measure of economic development, but
to look also at other aspects, like inequality (measured by Gini), the Human
Development Index (HDI, from the World Bank) and other poverty and deprivation
measures, not only related to monetary indicators. In that way, it should be
possible to stress the relevance of geographical factors, related to location
and ecology, for human development and well-being.
From a policy perspective, this kind of empirical analysis could provide sound
evidence in favour of development policies that aim to improve health conditions
(i.e. fighting malaria and other tropical diseases) in poor countries, especially
in Sub-Saharan African countries. The recent debate on the production of vaccines
for tropical disease is a key aspect for the achievement of the Millennium Development
Goals, for which a stronger commitment by donors is required.
Basic References
Acemoglu D, Johnson K, Robinson JA. 2001. The Colonial Origins of Comparative
Development: an Empirical Investigation. American Economic Review 91(5): 1369-1401.
Easterly W, Levine R. 2002. Tropics, Germs and Crops: How Endowments Influence
Economic Development. Center for Global Development Working Paper 15.
Presbitero, AF. 2006. “Institutions and Geography as Sources of Economic
Development”, Journal of International Development, Vol. 18, Issue 3,
April 2006, pp. 351-378.
Sachs JD. 2003. Institutions Don’t Rule: Direct Effects of Geography on
Per Capita Income. NBER Working Paper 9490.
JEL classification: C31, O10, O11, P16
Keywords: Economic development, Institutions, Geography.
Talamo (1)
A. The Gravity Model and its Origins
B. Forms, Applications and Econometric Properties
of the Gravity Model
1. DESCRIZIONE TEMA GENERALE:
Over the recent past, the importance of international trade and foreign direct
investment flows (FDI) has been increasing at an exponential rate. In the light
of these developments, a large number of papers have attempted to analyse the
nature of international flows of goods and capital. Recently, a popular and
empirically successful stream of research has built on the gravity model to
investigate bilateral trade flows across a large number of countries.
According to the gravity model of international trade, the amount of trade flows
between two countries is assumed to increase in their sizes (GDP or Population),
and decrease in the cost of transport, as measured by their geographical distance.
Furthermore, several other variables have been introduced in the basic gravity
equation to control for linguistic, cultural and historical similarities, regional
integration, common financial development, quality of institutions, common currency,
and trade agreements. In the traditional gravity model, trade is expected to
be positively influenced by the countries’ sizes, common language, the
presence of trade agreements, and geographical proximity (indicated by variables
such as common border). On the other hand, bilateral trade flows are expected
to be negatively correlated with geographical distance, which is considered
as a proxy for trade costs or informational asymmetries.
Recently, the gravity approach has been used to model the international pattern
of foreign direct investment flows, as an evolution to the literature on trade.
When considering foreign direct investment flows we expect to find that, other
things equal, an increase in the host countries’ size leads to an increase
in FDI flows. Common language, the presence of trade agreements, adjacency have
a positive impact on FDI. The correct sign of the coefficient of distance is
more open to debate.
One important characteristic of the gravity model is the possibility of introducing
several independent variables such as quality of domestic institutions, level
of education, political instability, transparency, quality of the legal system,
control of corruption, level of freedom and civil rights. In particular, after
the Asian financial crisis, commentators have focused their attention on these
factors as important determinants of international trade and foreign direct
investment location. Recent empirical studies suggest that the quality of domestic
governance has a quantitatively important impact on a country’s ability
to attract foreign investors, who prefer to invest in countries with better
governance. Indeed, host countries could compete by improving the quality of
their institutions, their labour force, their infrastructures, their investment
climate, the level of corporate tax, the quality of corporate governance practices
and systems. In general, a better domestic quality of governance should be associated
with more efficient financial integration and positive spillovers to the receiving
countries.
2. NATURA METODOLOGICA:
A. The Gravity Model and its Origins
B. Forms, Applications and Econometric Properties of the Gravity Model
3. BIBLIOGRAFIA:
• Loungani P. and A. Razin (2001) “How beneficial is foreign direct
investment for developing countries?”, Finance and Development, Vol. 38,
No. 2, June 2001.
• Loungani P. Mody and A. Razin (2002), “The global disconnect:
the role of transactional distance and scale economies in gravity equations”,
November 2002
• Màtyàs L. (1997), “Proper Econometric Specification
of The Gravity Model”, The World Economy, vol.20, pp.363-368.
• Màtyàs L. (1998), “The Gravity Model: Some Econometric
Considerations”, The World Economy, 21, 397-401Blackwell Publishers.
• Màtyàs L.,Harris M. (1998), “The Econometric of
Gravity Models”, Melbourne Institute WP. No 5/98.
• Stein E. and Daude C. (2001), “Institutions, Integration and the
location of Foreign Direct Investment”, Inter American Development Bank,
Washington, DC.
4. PAROLE CHIAVE: Gravity model, Trade, Foreign Direct Investment, Institutional Variables.
SEZIONE 2- STRUCTURAL CHANGE
23) Carrillo-Capasso (1)
Mezzogiorno d’Italia: A New Theory of Dual Economy to reinterpret and
old issue
S. Capasso, M.R. Carillo - University of Naples “Parthenope”
The main objective of the paper is to analyse and reinterpret the process of
convergence between economies, if there is any, in the light of the traditional
theory of dualism. The main idea is that the traditional framework of a dual
economy à-la-Lewis, engineered in an endogenous growth model, can add
significant insights to the analysis of the dynamics of growth. Indeed, by focusing
on the issue of structural change and market imperfections a dual economy model
can explain specific features of poverty traps and non convergent capital accumulation
paths which a standard endogenous growth framework cannot fully explain. In
a recent work Caselli and Coleman JPE 01 interpret the process of convergence
of U.S. regions (the catching up of the Midwest to the Northeast) by means of
the structural transformation within each regions. The process of adjustment
is quite simple and very much dualistic in its dynamics. Decreasing education/training
costs favour the transfer of unskilled labour force, initially employed in the
agricultural sector of the southern regions, in the manufacturing sector of
northern regions. Specialisation and increasing productivity in each regions
lead to convergence in the average income level and average wage rate across
industries and sectors. Adopting similar arguments, Gollin, Parente and Rogerson
02, Temple MS 05, and Temple and Graham 04 find that development and growth
can be explained by means of a process of structural transformation for which
a decreasing share of agriculture output in the economy leaves space to the
increasing role for manufacturing and industry. The process can only start if
there is a sufficient initial increase in agriculture productivity which allows
sustaining the increasing manufacturing labour force. The model implies the
asymptotic disappearance of dualism and convergence to a one-sector economy.
Though these recent developments of the theory, the features of the dynamics
of some economies and the emergence of poverty traps, remain partially unexplained.
Moving from this literature, we analyse the issue of convergence with the goal
to find a general theoretical framework which could explain an old question:
the Italian Mezzogiorno’s delayed development.
References
Caselli, F. and Coleman, W. J., II (2001). ‘The US Structural Transformation
and Regional Convergence: a Reinterpretation’, Journal of Political Economy,
Vol. 109, No. 3, pp. 584–616.
Gollin, D., Parente, S. L. and Rogerson, R. (2002b). ‘Structural Transformation
and Cross-country Income Differences’, Manuscript, University of Illinois.
Graham, B. S. and Temple, J. R. W. (2001). ‘Rich Nations, Poor Nations:
How Much Can Multiple Equilibria Explain?’, CEPR Discussion Paper 3046.
Lewis, W. A. (1954). ‘Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of
Labour’, The Manchester School, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 139–191.
Paci, R. and Pigliaru, F. (1999). ‘Is Dualism Still a Source of Convergence
in Europe?’, Applied Economics, Vol. 31, pp. 1423–1436.
Temple, J. R. W. (2005). The Manchester School, Vol. 73, No. 4, pp. 435–478.
7) Ennio Bilancini and Simone D’Alessandro:
“Functional Distribution and Industrial Takeoff: The Role of Wages and Natural Resources”
ABSTRACT
We study a stylized economy composed of two sectors, agriculture and manufacturing.
The former produces a single subsistence good while the latter is constituted
of a continuum of markets producing distinct commodities. Following Murphy et
al. (1989) we model industrialization as the introduction of an increasing returns
technology in place of a constant returns one. In particular, we take in to
account a modified version of this model provided by Bilancini and D’Alessandro
(2005) which introduces the functional distribution of income among groups’
membership (landowners, capitalists, workers). We develop this framework towards
two lines of research.
The first one analyses the effect of the increase of agricultural productivity
on income and industrialization stressing the role of the distribution of the
generated agricultural surplus between landowners and workers. Given hierarchical
preferences of individuals and the structure of manufacturing sector the distribution
of the surplus in favour of workers or of landowners affects the equilibrium
level of income and industrialization. The role of productivity improvements
and their persistent effects of structural change and growth is the central
issue analysed for decades by development economists (Lewis, 1967).
The second line tries to include in the model some specific characteristics
of natural resources in order to compare our results with those of the literature
on the curse of natural resources (Sachs and Warner, 1999). This (part of the)
work should take into consideration an open economy. To put it in a nutshell,
the idea is to compare the effects on income and growth of the inclusion of
natural resource in the tradable goods.
La natura del lavoro è strettamente teorica, si propone un modello che vuole ridiscutere alcuni risultati standard dei modelli ad economia duale.
- Bilancini, D’Alessandro (2005) “Functional Distribution, Land
Ownership and Industrial Takeoff”. Quaderni del dipartimento di Economia
Politica, n.467.
- Lewis, W. A. “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour”.
The Manchester School 22 (1954), 139–191.
- Matsuyama, K. “The Rise of Mass Consumption Societies”. Journal
of Political Economy 110, 5 (2002), 1035–1070.
- Murphy, K. M., Shleifer, A., and Vishny, R. W. “Income Distribution,
Market Size, and Industrialization”. Quarterly Journal of Economics 104
(1989), 537–564.
- Sachs, Jeffery D., and Andrew M. Warner, “Natural resource abundance
and economic growth,” NBER Working Paper 5398, (December 1995) 54 p.
Parole chiave: Functional Distribution, Industrial Takeoff, Hierarchical Preferences,
Structural Change.
19.3) Gualerzi (2.2)
Crescita, investimento e settori a alto contenuto di conoscenza
1) descrizione del tema, cercando di sottolineare la relazione con il tema generale
della sezione
Il lavoro si propone un’analisi della spesa per investimenti nel settore
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) prima e dopo la bolla speculativa
del 2000. Si propone quindi un analisi disaggregata della spesa per investimenti
prima e dopo il 2000, in relazione alle fluttuazione della crescita economica
negli Stati Uniti. Questa analisi dovrebbe mettere in luce l’evoluzione
strutturale del settore ICT e i legami con la ricerca di base, la spesa in R&D,
la strategia tecnologica delle imprese e la politica tecnologica del Governo
Usa.
Il secondo tema è quello della trasformazione delle industrie che sono
maggiormente interessate dall’innovazione resa possibile dallo sviluppo
dell’ICT, in primo luogo le industrie che manipolano informazione, dal
settore culturale a quello della produzione di sapere. Questo in relazione allo
studio dell’impatto economico di Internet, con attenzione particolare
al dibattito sugli effetti complessivi su produttività e cambiamento
strutturale, ai fenomeni di increasing e decreasing returns, alle condizioni
tecniche e sociali di sviluppo dei networks.
Il risultato dovrebbe essere un’analisi della trasformazione strutturale
indotta dallo sviluppo dell’ICT in una specifico periodo di crescita dell’economia
degli Stati Uniti. Questo contribuisce a chiarire il processo di trasformazione
strutturale che sta alla base della leadership degli Stati Uniti nei settori
a alto contenuto di conoscenza, e quindi la questione della geografia della
specializzazione produttiva internazionale.
2) natura metodologica del lavoro
L’interesse è principalmente per un’analisi empirica, da
condurre su materiale statistico, e/o aziendale e con ricerca su campo, con
interviste a imprenditori e studiosi. La ricerca empirica si avvale tuttavia
di un parte teorico-concettuale tesa a chiarire il problema dell’investimento
nell’analisi della crescita come premessa di fondo e strumento per guidare
la ricerca empirica. Infine un ruolo importante avrà una consultazione
mirata della letteratura sul settore ICT e sul suo sviluppo negli Stati Uniti.
3) bibliografia
Atkinson, R. 2005. The past and Future of America’s Economy: Long Waves
of innovation that Power Cycles of Growth. Edward Elgar.
Bonifati, G. 2002. “Produzione, investimentie produttività. Rendimenti
crescenti e cambiamento strutturale nell’industria manifatturiera americana
(1960-1994), Moneta e Credito, n. 217, March.
Hazewindus, N. 1982. The U.S. Microelectronics Industry. Pergamon Press.
Helpman, E. (ed.) 1998. General Purpose Technologies and Economic Growth. The
MIT Press.
Maffeo, V. 2001. “Effective Demand Versus Wage Flexibility: Some Notes
on the Causes of the Growth of Employment in the USA in the Nineties”,
Contributions to Political Economy, Vol. 20.
Simonazzi, A. 2003. “Innovation and growth: supply and demand factors
in the US expansion”, The Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol. 27, No.
5, September.
4) tre-quattro parole chiave
Crescita, Investimento, ICT, settori a alto conoscenza, Economia Usa, anni 90.
26) Corrado Di Guilmi e Mauro Napoletano: “Structural Change and Firms’
Financial Structure: Some New Evidence” (C4)
ABSTRACT
In this work we investigate the role played by firms’ financial heterogeneity in casting productivity and growth dynamics. On the one hand, much of the literature on productivity dynamics has highlighted the importance of structural change - in terms of the coupled evolution between within firms productivity levels and firms size dynamics - for explaining the pace of aggregate productivity (see e.g. [2] for a survey). However, this literature has paid so far few attention to the determinants of such patterns, notwithstanding the hints coming from the theoretical literature on the subject, in particular those enrolled in the evolutionary strand of thought (see e.g. [7] for a seminal contribution). On the other hand, the recent literature on finance and growth (e.g. [8] and [9]) has pointed to the importance played by the financial structure of firms in determining their real performance. Nevertheless, this literature has carried over the analysis mostly through pooled regressions of productivity and firms size measures on various financial indicators, neglecting the analysis of the impact of financial structure on the characteristics of the whole firm size and productivity distributions (e.g. on higher moments of those distributions), and paying few or no attention to structural change issues, e.g. like those implied by joint dynamics of productivity and size. We improve upon the foregoing strands of literature, by exploring the role played by the firms financial structure as a possible underpinning of the coupled dynamics between firms size and productivity. More precisely, relying on a large micro data set of U.S. quoted firms, we study the statistical properties of firms’ size (see e.g. [1] and [5]), growth and productivity distributions conditioned upon key financial indicators (e.g. the equity ratio, see [6]). Moreover, we study how the moments of these conditioned distribution co-move with indicators summarizing the aggregate behaviour of the economy (e.g. the low frequency component of gdp growth rates). In this way, we grasp whether the relation between finance and productivity, and that between finance and firm growth are affected or not by the overall dynamics of the economy. In addition, we provide indirect evidence of the structural change patterns undergoing the aggregate pace of the economy in the long run.
KEYWORDS:
Productivity Distribution, Firms-Size Distribution, Financial Structure, Structural
Change, Aggregate Growth.
REFERENCES
1) Axtell, R., Zipf Distribution of U.S. Firm Sizes, Science 293, 1818-1820
(2001).
2) Bartelsman, E.J. and Doms, M., 2000. "Understanding Productivity: Lessons
from Longitudinal Microdata," Journal of Economic Literature, vol. 38(3),
pages 569-594, September.
3) Delli Gatti, D., Di Guilmi, C. Gaffeo E. and Gallegati, M., Bankruptcy as
an Exit Mechanism for Systems with a Variable Number of Components, Physica
A 344, 8-13 (2004).
4) Di Guilmi, C., Gaffeo, E. and Gallegati, M., Empirical Results on the Size
Distribution of Business Cycle Phases, Physica A 333, 325-334 (2003).
5) Gaffeo, E., Gallegati, M. and Palestrini, A., On the Size Distribution of
Firms. Additional Evidence from the G7 Countries, Physica A, 324, 117-123 (2003).
6) Greenwald, B. and Stiglitz, J., Financial Market Imperfections and Business
Cycles, Quart. J. Econ. 108, 77-113 (1993).
7) Nelson, R., 1981, "Research on Productivity Growth and Productivity
Differences: Dead Ends and New Departures," Journal of Economic Literature,
vol. 19(3), pages 1029-64, September.
8) Rajan, R., and Zingales, L., 1998, "Financial Dependence and Growth,"
American Economic Review, vol. 88(3), pp. 559-86, June.
9) Schivardi, F., Nucci, F., and Pozzolo A., 2005, “Capital structure
and productivity: an analysis on firm- level data”, Rivista di Politica
Economica, Vol. 45, pp. 177-198.
SEZIONE 3 - INTERNATIONAL TRADE / SPECIALIZZAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE
42) Luciano Boggio (1)
On the long-run effects of low-wage countries’ growing competitiveness and exports of manufactures.
1) L’analisi teorica esistente, sia neoclassica che ricardiana, di fronte
all’aumento rapido della produttività e delle esportazioni industriali
nei paesi a bassi salari, sottolinea la possibilità che (anche) nel lungo
periodo i paesi ricchi subiscano una perdita di benessere/reddito; ciò
a causa del peggioramento dei terms of trade, del salario relativo e del rapporto
tra salario e prezzo dei beni già importati.
Nel mio lavoro si riesamina il problema con un modello Ricardo-Mill (RM) a 2
paesi ed n beni, che viene poi modificato per tener conto delle caratteristiche
dell’offerta di lavoro nei paesi a bassi salari.
Togliendo nel paese a bassi salari l’ipotesi di piena occupazione di un’offerta
di lavoro fissa, propria del modello RM, costruisco due modelli alternativi.
1) Un’economia con “offerta di lavoro illimitata” nel senso
di Lewis (1954), in cui il settore moderno (capitalista) può assumere
“qualunque” ammontare di forza lavoro ad un salario fisso, basato
sul livello di sussistenza, che prevale nel settore tradizionale.
2) Un “modello intermedio” in cui variazioni di occupazione nel
settore moderno sono possibili, ma sono accompagnate da variazioni salariali
nella stessa direzione.
Nel confronto tra i tre modelli, il paese ad alti salari ottiene
• l’effetto meno favorevole, forse negativo, nel modello RM,
• l’effetto più favorevole nel modello alla Lewis, dove non
c’è più peggioramento del salario relativo,
• un effetto intermedio nel terzo modello.
Conclusioni: La possibilità di perdite di reddito reale appare molto
meno certa che nella letteratura precedente; e, per quanto riguarda i lavori
di impostazione ricardiana, di entità minore.
Il lavoro è già quasi finito.
Rispetto al tema generale della sezione, si tratta degli effetti di una modifica della SPECIALIZZAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE con ovvi legami coi temi dello sviluppo economico, della politica commerciale e della convergenza tra economie in via di sviluppo e sviluppate.
2) E’ un’analisi teorica di statica comparata.
3) Bibliografia essenziale:
Krugman, Paul. 1986. “A “Technology Gap” Model of International
Trade”, in K. Jungenfelt and D. Hague eds., Structural Adjustment in Advanced
Economies, London, Macmillan. Reprinted in Krugman, 1990, Rethinking International
Trade, Cambridge (Mass.), MIT Press, pp.152-64.
Hymans, Saul H. and Stafford, Frank P. 1995. “Divergence, Convergence,
and the Gains from Trade”, Review of International Economics, February,
v. 3, iss. 1, pp. 118-23.
Johnson, George E. and Stafford Frank P., 1993. “International Competition
and Real Wages.” American Economic Review. May, 83, pp. 127–30.
Samuelson, Paul. 2004, “Where Ricardo and Mill Rebut and Confirm Arguments
of Mainstream Economists Supporting Globalization”, Journal of Economic
Perspectives (Summer), pp. 135-146.
4) Parole chiave: INTERNATIONAL SPECIALIZATION CATCHING-UP GLOBALIZATION
50.2) Mariutti (1)
Production of commodities by means of labour – A theory on international relations
Abstract
Since (at least) Ricardo, international trade has been perceived as a positive-sum-game
– any trading partner would be at the end better-off, no matter how bad
(that is, how uncompetitive) was in autarchy. The principle of comparative advantages
justifies precisely an argument of this kind: international specialization and
free trade generate always a rise of income. What is wrong with this argument?
Three points are worth discussing. First, it is theoretically based on some
ad hoc assumptions, that do not match often reality: the assumption of full
employment is the most evident, but not the only one. Second, it dismisses the
point that some patterns of specialization may slow future growth, endangering
dynamically the economic systems that have chosen to specialize in that way.
Third, it focuses exclusively (or mainly) on the trade of goods, while little
attention is paid on what occurs in other variables not directly connected with
market values.
This paper attempts to discuss constructively these three limitations, by presenting
a multisectoral model of international relations. The principle of comparative
advantages, though present, is not central to this theory. What is central is
the process of uneven change in sectoral productivities that affects both the
international relations and the process of domestic growth. The model, while
taking into account the possibility of unemployment and more in general of economic
instability, focuses at international level on the consequences of the process
of structural change, both in the product, technological (knowledge) and consumption
space.
The model hints at three conclusions. First it shows how reductive is international
economics if looked at exclusively in terms of international trade. The principle
of comparative advantages is one of the sources of international benefits. But
it is not the only – and it is not even the primary – source of
such benefits. Second, the paper will show that the gains from international
trade are based crucially on changes of prices. If prices are relatively sticky,
or are not allowed to change to the same degree in which the rate of specialization
or the rate of change of productivities occur, the traditional gains from trade
will tendentially disappear, while other problems caused by international trade
will remain. Third, and most importantly, it will show that in a situation of
structural dynamics, both the choice of specialization and the kind of international
relations are rather complex (far more than those assumed by the traditional
theory) and maintain a strategic component. By making a wrong choice it is possible
that international trade itself may result not in a positive-, but rather in
a negative-sum-game.
Methodology
This is a theoretical paper, which however attempts to be “history-friendly”.
It assumes an economic system based on many sectors (a multisectoral model),
in which – for simplicity and without loss of generality – labour
is the only factor of production (a pure labour economic theory). The technology
(that is, the labour productivity) is differentiated both across sectors, across
countries and across time. The model builds up on the final chapters of Pasinetti’s
works (1981) and (1993), and takes into account the further developments on
international trade made by Araujo and Teixeira (2004a and 2004b). It tries
to interpret that kind of evidence which is also discussed in the recent literature
of the new international trade (among others Brezis et al. 1993). Some results
given by Samuelson (2004) on the effects of globalization (which sometime may
hurt countries) are put in a different and apparently more general framework.
The theoretical work will be used to tackle also some issues of economic policy.
Basic References
Araujo R. and Teixeira J. (2004a) “Structural economic dynamics: an alternative
approach to
North–South models”, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 28: 705-717.
Araujo R. and Teixeira J. (2004b) “A Pasinettian Approach to International
Economic Relations: the Pure Labor Case” Review of Political Economy,
16: 117–129.
Brezis; E., Krugman P., and Tsiddon D. (1993), “Leapfrogging in International
Competition: A Theory of Cycles in National Technological Leadership”,
The American Economic Review, 83: 1211-1219.
Pasinetti, L. L. (1981), Structural Change and Economic Growth. A Theoretical
Essay on the Dynamics of the Wealth of the Nations, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Pasinetti, L. L. (1993) Structural Economic Dynamics. A Theory of the Economic
Consequences of Human Learning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Samuelson, P. (2004), “Where Ricardo and Mill Rebut and Confirm Arguments
of Mainstream Economists Supporting Globalization”, Journal of Economic
Perspectives, 18: 135–146.
Key Words: international trade, human learning, structural and technological
change, gains and losses from trade.
24) Guarini (2)
Titolo provvisorio: Una valutazione della crescita della produttività
del lavoro nei paesi europei (o OCSE)
Descrizione del tema generale.
In questo lavoro intendo studiare quali fattori influenzano la dinamica della
produttività del lavoro nei paesi europei e di conseguenza anche “se”
ed “in che modo” i paesi europei di fronte ad un processo accelerato
di competizione internazionale hanno orientato il loro sistema economico verso
l’innovazione ed il progresso tecnico.
Per far questo, utilizzo una funzione della produttività alla Sylos Labini
modificata che ha come variabile dipendente la produttività media del
lavoro e come variabili indipendenti: “investimenti”, “technological
skills” (low -diplomati istituti tecnici- e high -laureati in materie
scientifiche-), “effetto Ricardo” (differenza tra salari e costo
del capitale), “effetto Smith-Verdoorn-Kaldor” (output –export
ritardato), “effetto cumulativo”(produttività ritardata).
I contributi teorici di riferimento sono:
l’approccio classico-postkeynesiano in quanto alla TFP si preferisce la produttività del lavoro, si considerano l’“effetto Smith-Verdoorn-Kaldor” che identifica la stretta relazione tra dimensione del mercato e divisione del lavoro, “l’effetto Ricardo” che si concentra sugli aumenti della produttività dovuti ad un aumento del costo del lavoro relativamente a quello dei macchinari, l’“effetto cumulativo” in quanto si ritiene che i processi di crescita siano caratterizzati da rendimenti crescenti e dunque da circoli cumulativi;
l’approccio technological capability in quanto nell’analisi empirica vengono utilizzati elementi tipici di tale approccio quali “technological skills”
Inoltre con questo tipo di impianto analitico diventa interessante studiare
quali fattori influenzano il gap di produttività (del lavoro): “technological
skills gap”, “Smith effect gap”. In tal modo diventa immediato
individuare le differenti “dinamiche” dei singoli paesi e se esiste
un processo di convergenza/divergenza.
Natura metodologica
Lo studio è di carattere prettamente empirico pur presentando solide
basi teoriche. Come tipologia di analisi econometrica intendo utilizzare una
pooled cross-section time series analysis prendendo in considerazione i paesi
europei (tutti o alcuni) per un periodo di tempo medio (da definire).
Nota di cautela
In base agli approfondimenti in itinere e ai dati disponibili, l’analisi
potrà subire delle modifiche non sostanziali.
Biografia essenziale
Corsi Marcella, Division of Labour, Technical Change and Economic Growth, Avebury,
Aldershot, 1991.
Lall S., 2001. Competitiveness, Technology and Skills, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Sylos Labini, P., 1984, Le forze dello sviluppo e del declino, Laterza, Roma-Bari.
Sylos Labini P., 2004, Torniamo ai classici. Produttività del lavoro,
progresso tecnico e sviluppo economico, Laterza, Roma-Bari.
Parole chiave
Produttività del lavoro, progresso tecnico, skills tecnologici, divisione
del lavoro, rendimenti crescenti.
35) Tamberi-Lo Turco-Presbiterio (2)
Modelli di Specializzazione e crescita - Abstract
Il progetto si propone di rintracciare empiricamente la relazione dilungo periodo tra specializzazione produttiva e crescita economica. La specializzazione produttiva è intesa principalmente in senso ricardiano, avendo cioè riguardo al tipo di beni che ogni paese produce ed esporta, e non nel senso smithiano di quanto ogni paese è specializzato al proprio interno.
In linea teorica le ragioni per le quali la specializzazione produttiva conta
ai fini della crescita di lungo periodo possono essere rintracciate in due diversi
filoni di letteratura:
1) in modelli di “offerta” per cui la presenza si economie di scala
differenziate per settore, induce differenti tassi di crescita della produttività
(Grossman, Helpman,1991) o differenti effetti di learning (Lucas, 1988) in settori
diversi. Quando i paesi si specializzano, in conseguenza della presenza di vantaggi
comparati differenziati, alcuni saranno vincolati a sentieri di crescita inferiori.
2) in modelli di stampo kaldoriano per i quali la domanda è centrale.
Per esempio in Thirlwall (1980) l’elasticità di domanda di esportazioni
e importazioni, insieme alla crescita della domanda mondiale, determinano un
vincolo di crescita per l’economia. In questo tipo di analisi è
implicito che una delle determinanti più dirette delle elasticità
aggregate deriva proprio dalla specializzazione produttiva del paese, in funzione
del fatto che le elasticità alla domanda sono differenziate per prodotto.
In questo contesto teorico l’obiettivo del progetto è di fornire
un test empirico del legame tra specializzazione e crescita; in primo luogo,
si tratta di rintracciare e comparare criticamente le performance di diversi
indicatori di specializzazione; in secondo luogo, di testare l’impatto
di tali indicatori sulla crescita di lungo periodo. La letteratura empirica
di questo genere è, a nostra conoscenza, piuttosto scarsa (recentemente
Rodrik e altri, 2005)
La nostra analisi empirica, prevede l’uso di analisi econometriche con
stime di tipo panel. Si userà il più ampio numero di paesi possibile,
a diverso livello di sviluppo; il periodo coperto dalle stime potrà variare
a seconda della disponibilità di dati, ma dovrebbe coprire almeno l’ultimo
ventennio; gli indicatori di specializzazione (da individuare) potranno essere
applicati sia a dati di trade, in questo caso con livelli di specificità
settoriale anche spinti, sia di produzione e/o occupazione.
Riferimenti bibliografici
DalumB., Laursen K., Verspagen B. (1999), Does Specialization Matters for Growth?,
Industrial and Corporate change, n. 8
Grossman G., Helpman E. (1991), Innovation and Growth in the Global Economy, MIT Press
Hausman R., Hwang J., Rodrik D. (2005), What you Export Matters, NBER working Paper n.11905
Lucas (1988), On the Mechanics of Economic Development, Journal of Economic Development, n.22, June, pp.3-42
Mc. Combie J., Thirlwall A.(1994), Economic Growth and the Balance-of-Payments Constraints, St. Martin’s Press
Parole chiave:
Crescita economica, specializzazione, struttura
34) Cutrini (2)
Eleonora Cutrini: “Integrazione economica europea, specializzazione e convergenza regionale”
ABSTRACT
La relazione tra liberalizzazione degli scambi e diversificazione regionale
ha un indubbio rilievo nel contesto della costruzione istituzionale europea.
Da un punto di vista teorico si ritiene che la creazione del mercato unico abbia
esacerbato, attraverso la specializzazione produttiva, la vulnerabilità
delle economie agli shock idiosincratici di tipo settoriale. D’altro canto,
l’emergere di uno spazio economico con strutture produttive sempre più
dissimili è da ritenersi uno dei fattori causali della crescente disuguaglianza
interregionale nel reddito, nell’occupazione e nella produttività.
L’avvio dell’Unione Economica e Monetaria ha destato un rinnovato
interesse per la dimensione regionale delle problematiche economiche in seguito
ai limiti posti dal Patto di Stabilità e Crescita alla capacità
dei governi nazionali di far fronte, attraverso la politica fiscale, agli squilibri
regionali interni.
Il lavoro si propone di indagare la relazione empirica tra crescita e specializzazione
regionale, tenendo anche conto di alcuni aspetti di carattere istituzionale
quali il grado di urbanizzazione, la qualità delle infrastrutture di
trasporto e l’integrazione commerciale nei mercati europei.