In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...

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Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital

This paper examines whether the Solow growth model is consistent with the international variation in the standard of living. It shows that an augmented Solow model that includes accumulation of human as well as physical capital provides an excellent description of the cross-country data. The paper also examines the implications of the Solow model for convergence in standards of living, that is, for whether poor countries tend to grow faster than rich countries. The evidence indicates that, holding population growth and capital accumulation constant, countries converge at about the rate the augmented Solow model predicts. This paper takes Robert Solow seriously. In his classic 1956 article Solow proposed that we begin the study of economic growth by assuming a standard neoclassical production function with decreasing returns to capital. Taking the rates of saving and population growth as exogenous, he showed that these two vari- ables determine the steady-state level of income per capita. Be- cause saving and population growth rates vary across countries, different countries reach different steady states. Solow's model gives simple testable predictions about how these variables influ- ence the steady-state level of income. The higher the rate of saving, the richer the country. The higher the rate of population growth, the poorer the country. This paper argues that the predictions of the Solow model are, to a first approximation, consistent with the evidence. Examining recently available data for a large set of countries, we find that saving and population growth affect income in the directions that Solow predicted. Moreover, more than half of the cross-country variation in income per capita can be explained by these two variables alone. Yet all is not right for the Solow model. Although the model correctly predicts the directions of the effects of saving and

/pdf/a-contribution-to-the-empirics-of-economic-growth-27cl5gkqam.pdf

A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth

Large sample properties of generalized method of moments estimators

Growth in this model is driven by technological change that arises from intentional investment decisions made by profit-maximizing agents. The distinguishing feature of the technology as an input is that it is neither a conventional good nor a public good; it is a nonrival, partially excludable good. Because of the nonconvexity introduced by a nonrival good, price-taking competition cannot be supported. Instead, the equilibrium is one with monopolistic competition. The main conclusions are that the stock of human capital determines the rate of growth, that too little human capital is devoted to research in equilibrium, that integration into world markets will increase growth rates, and that having a large population is not sufficient to generate growth.

/pdf/endogenous-technological-change-4yzdlw043b.pdf

Endogenous Technological Change

Growth in this model is driven by technological change that arises from intentional investment decisions made by profit maximizing agents. The distinguishing feature of the technology as an input is that it is neither a conventional good nor a public good; it is a nonrival, partially excludable good. Because of the nonconvexity introduced by a nonrival good, price-taking competition cannot be supported, and instead, the equilibriumis one with monopolistic competition. The main conclusions are that the stock of human capital determines the rate of growth, that too little human capital is devoted to research in equilibrium, that integration into world markets will increase growth rates, and that having a large population is not sufficient to generate growth.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/nber_w3210.pdf?abstractid=226703&mirid=1

Hedonic Wage Equations and Psychic Wages in the Returns to Schooling.

Efficiency and Equality in a Simple Model of Efficient Unemployment Insurance

Contents: Part I: Introduction 1 The Context 2 The Determinants of Migration: Controls, Pressures and Outcomes Part II: Consequences for Economic Development in the Countries of Origin 3 Labor Market Responses to Emigration 4 Emigration of the Highly Skilled: Regimes, Costs and Responses 5 Reported and Informal Remittances: How Much? Who Sends? Who Benefits? 6 The Diaspora and Transnational Networks 7 Repeat and Return Migration: A Habit or 'There and Back Again' 8 Poverty, Inequality and the Social Impacts of Migration Part III: Conclusions: Policy Choices and the Political Economy of Migrations Regimes 9 Who Benefits from International Migration? Beyond Economic Development at Origin 10 Migration Regimes and Economic Development: Policy Implications References Index

International Migration And Economic Development: Lessons from Low-income Countries

Capacity, Overtime, and Empirical Production Functions

This paper introduces and partially develops a new model of endogenous technological change, viewed as the product of a class of problem-solving producers. The model, based on earlier work by Eaton and Kortum, is built up from the premise that all knowledge resides in the head of some individual person and the knowledge of a firm, or economy, or any group of people is simply the knowledge of the individuals that comprise it. The model is applied to an economy with a cohort structure. A calibration of the model using cross-section earnings data, in addition to aggregate GDP growth, is considered. What is it about modern capitalist economies that allows them, in contrast to all earlier societies, to generate sustained growth in productivity and living standards? It is widely agreed that the productivity growth of the industrialized economies is mainly an ongoing intellectual achievement, a sustained flow of new ideas. Are these ideas the achievements of a few geniuses, Newton, Beethoven and a handful of others, viewed as external to the activities of ordinary people? Are they the product of a specialized research sector, engaged in the invention of patent-protected processes over which they have monopoly rights? Both images are based on important features of reality and both have inspired interesting growth theories, but neither seems to me central. What is central, I believe, is the fact that the industrial revolution involved the emergence (or rapid expansion) of a class of educated people, thousands - now many millions - of people who spend entire careers exchanging ideas, solving work-related problems, generating new knowledge. In this paper I introduce and partially develop a new model of technological change, viewed as the product of a class of problem-solving producers. The model is built up from the premise that all knowledge resides in the head of some individual person, so that the knowledge of a firm, or economy, or any group of people is simply a list of the knowledge of its members. A main feature of the model will be the social or reciprocal character of intellectual activity: Each person gains from the knowledge of the people around him; his ideas in turn stimulate others.1 As we will see, this idea is very flexible, but to develop it we need to have a tractable mathematical idealization of an individual's knowledge, of the relation of this knowledge

Robert E. Lucas

Papers

Hedonic Wage Equations and Psychic Wages in the Returns to Schooling.

Efficiency and Equality in a Simple Model of Efficient Unemployment Insurance

International Migration And Economic Development: Lessons from Low-income Countries

Capacity, Overtime, and Empirical Production Functions

Ideas and Growth