Showing papers by "Robert M. Solow published in 1990"

The labor market as a social institution

Abstract: satisfaction: the complexity, breadth and depth in conjunction with the unexplicated. I relish the gaps and the loose ends. They create the necessary climate for inspiration; they allow us to utilise what he has to say; they facilitate development. On Cohen's own admission, 'the most significant contributions to social theory always leave as many unsettled issues as those which they explicitly confront' (IC ?. 287). Closed-off arguments like closed systems are invariably dead. For life to exist and for creativity to flourish there . . . . . . . neec to oe varlatlon, Inconslstencles anc gaps, in other words there has to be room for improvement. There is no doubt that Giddens's work deserves attention but we have to take great care that we don't reneer It Inanlmate In t le process. Barbara Adsm

Chapter 6 Money, inflation and growth

Abstract: Publisher Summary Different long-run rates of growth of money supply are eventually reflected in different rates of inflation Tobin studied this in a simple descriptive model with aggregate saving depending only on current income It was found that money growth was associated with higher capital stock and output per person in the steady state Faster inflation led savers to shift their portfolios in favor of real capital The chapter examines Sidrauski model illustrating the central neutrality result and presents some of its variations in which neutrality with respect to output fails even though the real interest rate is not affected by inflation It examines the Fisher relation and focuses on deviations from the one infinitely lived family models The exact function of money and the sensitivity of the long-run inflation–growth relation to different assumptions about the reasons why money is held are also examined

Growth, productivity, unemployment : essays to celebrate Bob Solow's birthday

Abstract: Robert Solow received the Nobel Prize in economics in 1987, and his contributions to growth theory, productivity, and short run macroeconomics have influenced an entire generation of scholars. The essays in this book extend and elaborate on many of the important ideas Solow has either originated or developed in the past three decades. Frank Hahn and Avinash Dixit offer useful surveys of the growth literature. Hahn reflects on specific problems in standard growth models, while Dixit presents a chronological review of research developments. Robert Hall and Lawrence Summers present challenging empirical findings. Hall shows that the Solow productivity residual is in fact correlated with variables which, according to Solow's assumptions, it should not be correlated with. Summers uses multi-country data to investigate the apparent divergence between private and social rates of return to capital. He argues that this phenomenon stems from the dependence of the rate of technical progress on the rate of capital formation and discusses the policy implications of this idea. Olivier Jean Blanchard and Peter Diamond describe a search-matching model that is a welcome addition to understanding the Beveridge curve. Also included are comments by Eytan Shoshinski, Joseph Stiglitz, Martin Baily, William Nordhaus, George Aherlot, and Robert Gorden. Robert Solow has provided a response to both the essays and these comments. The book concludes with a bibliography of Solow's work.

Goodwin’s Growth Cycle: Reminiscence and Rumination

Abstract: I came to Harvard College as a 16-year-old freshman in September 1940. So far as I had any coherent plan at all, it was to study plant genetics. I can no longer remember where that idea came from; my best guess is that I had heard there were jobs to be had in the US Forest Service. Today’s students cannot imagine how large a factor that was in our minds as the decade of the thirties came to a close.