This paper attempts to ascertain which of the convergence hypotheses – absolute, conditional, or club – best describes the economic development of the U.S. states since 1950. We use regression tree analysis to identify convergence clubs among the states and argue that the club characterization of the data dominates the other two. We find three convergence clubs with a state's age and it's initi...

Empirical results through a fixed effects regression model show that government size has a negative effect on growth mainly through hampering capital accumulation. When a sample is divided into OECD and non-OECD countries, the negative effect of government size on capital accumulation persists for non-OECD countries but not for OECD countries.

This paper proposes a dynamic economic model with physical capital and renewable resources. Different from most of the neoclassical growth models with renewable resources which are based on microeconomic foundation and neglect physical capital accumulation, this study proposes a growth model with dynamics of renewable resources and physical capital accumulation. The model is a synthesis of the ...

In this paper we seek to identify those childhood interventions that show real promise of positively influencing children's human capital accumulation. Next we explore the quality of existing research on these interventions; establish a set of quality standards that can be applied to evaluations of childhood interventions and finally focus on the extent to which research can link the interventi...

Will the world be able to sustain economic growth indefinitely without running into resource constraints or despoiling the environment beyond repair? What is the relationship between a steady increase in incomes and environmental quality? Are there trade-offs between the goals of achieving high and sustainable rates of economic growth and attaining high standards of environmental quality? For s...

Within an endogenous growth framework, we examine dynamic gains from trade for parametrically distinct countries. In the absence of international spillovers or factor mobility, previous endogenous growth models generally imply that trade in goods must amplify differences in (1) factor endowments, (2) rates of technical change and (3) economic growth. Even the dynamic HOS model suggests that tra...

This research challenges prevailing popular ideas about the socalled "informal sector" and questions the very significance of the formal/informal classification. It also suggests an alternative analytical framework which stresses the need to understand the connections between a broad economic and political context and a set of micro socioeconomic arrangements involved in the work arena. In the ...

We investigate the effects of human capital accumulation on trade and productivity by integrating a micro-founded education and fertility decision of households into a model of international trade with firm heterogeneity. Our theoretical framework leads to two testable implications: i) the export share of a country increases with the education level of its population, ii) the average profitabil...

We are witnessing, in the second half of this century, an unprecedented wave of growth across the world. The experience of the East Asian and OECD economies has proved that real convergence can be achieved within a few decades. However, the welfare and technological gap between the developed and the least developed countries continues to widen, even as large sections of the world economy have r...

Strikes are totally ine¢cient from an economic point of view. They occur when the two parties that bargain over a contract do not ...nd an agreement and the result is a loss of utility for both. In spite of their clear ine¢ciency in the real world strikes are very common both in the rich economies as well as in the poor countries. Moreover recent empirical literature found some regularities ove...