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Robert M. Solow

Bio: Robert M. Solow is an academic researcher from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The author has contributed to research in topics: Unemployment & Medicine. The author has an hindex of 77, co-authored 264 publications receiving 57825 citations. Previous affiliations of Robert M. Solow include Princeton University & New York University.
Topics: Unemployment, Medicine, Productivity, Inflation, Wage


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
19 Mar 1999-Science
TL;DR: Any NIH action to initiate funding of pluripotent stem cell research would violate both the letter and spirit of the federal law banning federal support for research in which human embryos are harmed or destroyed.
Abstract: Last month, 70 members of the U.S. Congress, including Henry Hyde, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and J. C. Watts Jr. Republican Conference Chairman, signed a letter urging the federal government to ban all research on stem cells obtained from human embryos and fetuses. The letter calls upon the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to reverse National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Harold Varmus's decision to allow funding of pluripotent stem cell research. The lawmakers object “in the strongest possible terms” to Varmus's decision, as well as to the memorandum issued in January by DHHS General Counsel Harriet Rabb, which served as the legal basis for Varmus's position. In their letter, the members of Congress state, “Any NIH action to initiate funding of such research would violate both the letter and spirit of the federal law banning federal support for research in which human embryos are harmed or destroyed.” Federal laws and regulations, they claim, have protected human embryos and fetuses “from harmful experimentation at the hands of the Federal government” for more than two decades. “This area of law has provided a bulwark against government's misuse and exploitation of human beings in the name of medical progress. It would he a travesty for this Administration to attempt to unravel this accepted ethical standard.”

9 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Au cours des dernieres annees, plusieurs arguments ont ete avances pour remettre en cause le recours aux politiques budgetaires dans une optique de stabilisation conjoncturelle as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Au cours des dernieres annees, plusieurs arguments ont ete avances pour remettre en cause le recours aux politiques budgetaires dans une optique de stabilisation conjoncturelle. Les modeles inspires de la theorie du cycle reel, qui postulent que l’economie est toujours dans une situation d’equilibre global, concluent certes a l’inutilite de la politique budgetaire ; mais, bien que dominant le paysage de la macroeconomie theorique, ils ne sont guere fondes empiriquement. De meme, l’hypothese d’equivalence ricardienne, qui nie tout effet des choix de financement public sur l’epargne nationale ne semble pas pertinente en pratique. Les arguments en termes d’economie politique, qui mettent en doute les capacites des elus a decider promptement et efficacement des modifications budgetaires souhaitables, sont sans doute beaucoup plus recevables. Ils conduisent a penser que les stabilisateurs automatiques budgetaires sont preferables aux politiques discretionnaires. Mais la puissance de ces stabilisateurs automatiques depend de la structure des systemes de prelevements obligatoires et de depenses publiques. Or ceux-ci ont ete, notamment aux Etats-Unis, profondement modifies depuis une vingtaine d’annees, dans un sens qui a attenue la stabilisation automatique. Il apparait souhaitable et possible d’en restaurer la puissance, par exemple en rendant les taux d’imposition et, eventuellement, certains transferts aux menages variables en fonction de l’activite economique, selon des formules preetablies.

8 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Dec 1982

8 citations

Book
01 Jan 2001
TL;DR: In this article, Solow has made a significant contribution in the field of aggregative economics and this volume should be an important starting point for any researcher or professional economist seeking to understand how this branch of economics advanced in the 20th century.
Abstract: Robert Solow has made a significant contribution in the field of aggregative economics. This volume should be an important starting point for any researcher or professional economist seeking to understand how this branch of economics advanced in the 20th century.

8 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the prospects for constructing a neoclassical theory of growth and international trade that is consistent with some of the main features of economic development, and compare three models and compared to evidence.

16,965 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examined whether the Solow growth model is consistent with the international variation in the standard of living, and they showed that an augmented Solow model that includes accumulation of human as well as physical capital provides an excellent description of the cross-country data.
Abstract: 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

14,402 citations

ReportDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show 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.
Abstract: 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.

12,469 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the style in which their builders construct claims for a connection between these models and reality is inappropriate, to the point at which claims for identification in these models cannot be taken seriously.
Abstract: Existing strategies for econometric analysis related to macroeconomics are subject to a number of serious objections, some recently formulated, some old. These objections are summarized in this paper, and it is argued that taken together they make it unlikely that macroeconomic models are in fact over identified, as the existing statistical theory usually assumes. The implications of this conclusion are explored, and an example of econometric work in a non-standard style, taking account of the objections to the standard style, is presented. THE STUDY OF THE BUSINESS cycle, fluctuations in aggregate measures of economic activity and prices over periods from one to ten years or so, constitutes or motivates a large part of what we call macroeconomics. Most economists would agree that there are many macroeconomic variables whose cyclical fluctuations are of interest, and would agree further that fluctuations in these series are interrelated. It would seem to follow almost tautologically that statistical models involving large numbers of macroeconomic variables ought to be the arena within which macroeconomic theories confront reality and thereby each other. Instead, though large-scale statistical macroeconomic models exist and are by some criteria successful, a deep vein of skepticism about the value of these models runs through that part of the economics profession not actively engaged in constructing or using them. It is still rare for empirical research in macroeconomics to be planned and executed within the framework of one of the large models. In this lecture I intend to discuss some aspects of this situation, attempting both to offer some explanations and to suggest some means for improvement. I will argue that the style in which their builders construct claims for a connection between these models and reality-the style in which "identification" is achieved for these models-is inappropriate, to the point at which claims for identification in these models cannot be taken seriously. This is a venerable assertion; and there are some good old reasons for believing it;2 but there are also some reasons which have been more recently put forth. After developing the conclusion that the identification claimed for existing large-scale models is incredible, I will discuss what ought to be done in consequence. The line of argument is: large-scale models do perform useful forecasting and policy-analysis functions despite their incredible identification; the restrictions imposed in the usual style of identification are neither essential to constructing a model which can perform these functions nor innocuous; an alternative style of identification is available and practical. Finally we will look at some empirical work based on an alternative style of macroeconometrics. A six-variable dynamic system is estimated without using 1 Research for this paper was supported by NSF Grant Soc-76-02482. Lars Hansen executed the computations. The paper has benefited from comments by many people, especially Thomas J. Sargent

11,195 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show 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.
Abstract: 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.

11,095 citations