We study whether the effects on registered manufacturing output of dismantling the License Raj — a system of central controls regulating entry and production activity in this sector — vary across Indian states with different labor market regulations. The effects are found to be unequal across Indian states with different labor market regulations. In particular, following delicensing, industries...

Researchers of regional and international productivity comparisons are increasingly adopting various frontier approaches to examine convergence and the possible causes of productivity differences. We argue that economy-wide technology frontiers estimated with aggregate measures of output are downward biased. This bias extends not only to estimates of the technology frontier, but also produces i...

Using a new dataset on imports of technology and total factor productivity (TFP) over more than a century for the OECD countries, this paper tests for international technological transmission through trade. The empirical estimates suggest that imports of knowledge have been responsible for an almost 200% increase in TFP over the past century, but that the spillover effect has been highly uneven...

Two approaches taken to the embodiment question are compared and discussed: quantitative theory and traditional growth accounting. The two approaches give very different estimates for the contribution of investment-specific technological advance to economic growth. Therefore, the approach taken matters. It is argued that the measures used in traditional growth accounting to gauge the importance...

We study the importance of input-output (IO) linkages and sectoral productivity (TFP) in determining cross-country income differences. find that while highly connected sectors are more productive than typical sector poor countries, opposite is true rich ones. To assess quantitative role TFP differences differences, we decompose variation using a multisector general equilibrium model. IO substan...

What are the prospects for long-run economic growth? One prominent line of thinking is trend toward stagnation. Stagnationism has a long history in economics, beginning prominently with Malthus and occasionally surfacing different guises. Prominent themes here following: Will growth slow perhaps even reverse under weight resource depletion? overpopulation diminishing returns lower living standa...