Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T05:19:23.917Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

MEDIUM RUN REDUX

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2012

Peter McAdam*
Affiliation:
European Central Bank and University of Surrey
Alpo Willman
Affiliation:
European Central Bank
*
Address correspondence to: Peter McAdam, Research Department, European Central Bank Kaiserstrasse 29, D-60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany; e-mail: [email protected].

Abstract

We develop a framework for measuring and analyzing medium-run departures from balanced growth, and apply it to developments in the euro area. A time-varying factor-augmenting production function (mimicking directed technical change) with below-unitary substitution elasticity is shown to account for the observed dynamics of factor incomes shares, TFP growth, and its components. Based on careful data accounting, we also identify a rising markup and the importance of financial-market regulations in the 1970s. The balanced growth path emerges as a special (and testable) case of our framework, as do existing strands of medium-run debates.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, D. (2002a) Directed technical change. Review of Economic Studies 69, 781809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acemoglu, D. (2002b) Technical change, inequality and the labor market. Journal of Economic Literature 40 (40), 772.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acemoglu, D. (2009) Introduction to Modern Economic Growth. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Alexopoulos, M. (in press) Read all about it! What happens following a technology shock? American Economic Review.Google Scholar
Antràs, P. (2004) Is the US aggregate production function Cobb–Douglas? New estimates of the elasticity of substitution. Contributions to Macroeconomics 4, Article 4.Google Scholar
Ardagna, , Alesina, A.S., Nicoletti, G., and Schiantarelli, F. (2005) Regulation and investment. Journal of the European Economic Association 3, 791825.Google Scholar
Arrow, K.J. (1962) The economic implications of learning by doing. Review of Economic Studies 29, 155173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bai, J. and Perron, P. (2003) Computation and analysis of multiple structural change models. Journal of Applied Economics 18, 122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barro, R.J. and Sala-i-Martin, X. (2004) Economic Growth, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Blanchard, O.J. (1997) The medium run. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 2, 89158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanchard, O.J. (2000) Rents, Products and Labor Market Regulation, and Unemployment. Lionel Robbins lecture, London School of Economics.Google Scholar
Blanchard, O.J. (2006) European unemployment. Economic Policy 21 (21), 7155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanchard, O.J. (2008) The State Of Macro. NBER working paper 14259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruno, M. and Sachs, J. (1985) Economics of Worldwide Stagflation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caballero, R.J. and M. Hammour (1997) Jobless growth: Appropriability, factor substitution and unemployment. Carnegie–Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy 48, 5194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caballero, R.J. and Jaffe, A.B. (1993) How high are the giants' shoulders: An empirical assessment of knowledge spillovers and creative destruction in a model of economic growth. NBER Macroeconomics Annual 8, 1586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cantore, C., León-Ledesma, M.A., McAdam, P., and Willman, A. (2011) Shocking Stuff: Technology, Hours, and Factor Substitution. Working paper 1278, European Central Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chirinko, R.S. (2008) σ: The long and short of it. Journal of Macroeconomics 30 (30), 671686.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christoffel, K., Coenen, G., and Warne, A. (in press) Forecasting with DSGE models. In Clements, M. and Hendry, D. (ed.), Oxford Handbook on Economic Forecasting. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Coenen, G. and Wieland, V. (2005) A small estimated euro area model with rational expectations and nominal rigidities. European Economic Review 49 (49), 10811104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conway, P. and Nicoletti, G. (2006) Product Market Regulation in Non-manufacturing sectors in OECD Countries: Measurement and Highlights. Working paper 530, OECD.Google Scholar
De Ávila, D.R. (2003) Finance and Growth in the EU: New evidence from the liberalization and harmonization of the banking industry. Working paper 266, European Central Bank.Google Scholar
de La Grandville, O. (1989) In quest of the Slutzky diamond. American Economic Review 79, 468481.Google Scholar
de La Grandville, O. (2012) How much should a nation save? A new answer. Forthcoming in de La Grandville, O. (ed.), Economic Growth and Development (Frontiers of Economics and Globalization, Vol. 11). Emerald Group Publishing, Ltd.Google Scholar
Fagan, G., Henry, J., and Mestre, R. (2001) An area wide model (AWM) for the euro area. ECB Working paper 42, European Central Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faini, R., Hasckel, J., Navaretti, G. Barba, Scarpa, C., and Wey, C. (2003) Contrasting Europe's Decline: Do Product Markets Reform Help. Conference report, Fondazione de Benedetti.Google Scholar
Fernald, J.G. and Ramnath, S. (2004) The role of information technology in the acceleration in U.S. total factor productivity after 1995. FRB Chicago Economic Perspectives 28, 5266.Google Scholar
Gomez-Salvador, R., Musso, A., Stocker, M., and Turunen, J. (2006) Labour Productivity Developments in the Euro Area. Occasional paper 53, European Central Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Growiec, J. (2008a) A new class of production functions and an argument against purely labor-augmenting technical change. International Journal of Economic Theory 4, 483502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Growiec, J. (2008b) Production functions and distributions of unit factor productivities: Uncovering the link. Economics Letters 101 (101), 8790.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gual, J. (1999) Deregulation, integration, and market structure in European banking. Journal of the Japanese and International Economies 13, 372396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hicks, J. (1932) The Theory of Wages. London: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Hubbard, R.G. and Kashyap, A.K. (1992) Internal net worth and the investment process: An application to U.S. agriculture. Journal of Political Economy 100 (100), 506534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hubbard, R.G., Kashyap, A.K., and Whited, T.N. (1995) Internal finance and firm investment. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 23 (23), 683701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Issing, O. (1997) Monetary targeting in Germany: The stability of monetary policy and of the monetary system. Journal of Monetary Economics 39, 6779.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jorgensen, D. and Yun, K.-Y. (1991) Tax Reform and the Cost of Capital. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaldor, N. (1961) Capital accumulation and economic growth. In Lutz, F.A. and Hague, D.C. (eds.), The Theory of Capital, pp. 177222. New York: St. Martin's Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, C. (1964) Induced bias in innovation and the theory of distribution. Economic Journal 74, 541547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klump, R., McAdam, P., and Willman, A. (2007) Factor substitution and factor augmenting technical progress in the US. Review of Economics and Statistics 89 (89), 183192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klump, R., McAdam, P., and Willman, A. (2011) The Normalized CES Production Function: Theory and Empirics. Working paper 1294, European Central Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klump, R. and Preißler, H. (2000) CES production functions and economic growth. Scandinavian Journal of Economics 102, 4156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kmenta, J. (1967) On estimation of the CES production function. International Economic Review 8, 180189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krusell, P., Ohanian, L., Rios-Rull, J.V., and Violante, G. (2000) Capital–skill complementarity and inequality. Econometrica 68 (68), 10291053.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
León-Ledesma, M.A., McAdam, P., and Willman, A. (2010a) Identifying the elasticity of substitution with biased technical change. American Economic Review 100 (100), 13301357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
León-Ledesma, M.A., McAdam, P., and Willman, A. (2010b) In Dubio pro CES. Working paper 1175, European Central Bank.Google Scholar
Leung, H-M. (2009) Non-balanced Economic Growth. Working paper, School of Economics, Singapore Management UniversityGoogle Scholar
Lombardo, G. and P. McAdam (in press) Financial Market Frictions In A Small Open Economy for the Euro Area. Working paper, European Central Bank.Google Scholar
Marquetti, Adalmir A. (2003) Analyzing historical and regional patterns of technical change from a classical-Marxian perspective. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 52 (52), 191200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAdam, P. and Willman, A. (2004) Supply, factor shares and inflation persistence. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 66, 637670.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicoletti, G. and Scarpetta, S. (2003) Regulation, productivity and growth. Economic Policy 18 (18), 972.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliner, S.D. and Sichel, D.E.. (2000) The resurgence of growth in the late 1990s: Is information technology the story? Journal of Economic Perspectives 14 (14), 322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perman, R. and Tavera, C. (2005) A cross-country analysis of the Okun's law coefficient convergence in Europe. Applied Economics 37, 25012513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Romer, Paul M. (1990) Endogenous technological change. Journal of Political Economy 98 (98), S7102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowthorn, R. (1999) Unemployment, wage bargaining and capital–labor substitution. Cambridge Journal of Economics 23, 413425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Samuelson, P.A. (1965) A theory of induced innovations along Kennedy–Weisacker lines. Review of Economics and Statistics 47 (47), 344356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smets, F. and Wouters, R. (2003) An estimated stochastic dynamic general equilibrium model of the euro area. Journal of the European Economic Association 1 (1), 11231175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solow, R.M. (1956) A contribution to the theory of economic growth. Quarterly Journal of Economics 70, 6594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solow, R.M. (1958) A skeptical note on the constancy of relative shares. American Economic Review 48 (48), 618631.Google Scholar
Solow, R.M. (1987) Growth Theory and After. Nobel lecture. Available at http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1987/solow-lecture.html.Google Scholar
Solow, R.M. (2000) Toward a macroeconomics of the medium run. Journal of Economic Perspectives 14 (14), 151158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vives, X. (1991) Regulatory reform in European banking. European Economic Review 35, 505–5 15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, A.T. (2010) One of the things we know that ain't so: Is US labor's share relatively stable? Journal of Macroeconomics 32, 90102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar