In this paper the Malmquist index of total factor productivity is applied to a sample of 87 countries observed over the period 1960-90. This index and the method needed to quantify it, the data envelopment analysis, has substantial advantages as compared to traditional growth accounting. Two of these advantages are that it does not rely on questionable equilibrium assumptions to merge multiple ...

This paper builds a two-country (North, South), two-sector (polluting, nonpolluting) trade model with directed technical change, examining whether unilateral environmental policies can ensure sustainable growth. The polluting good is produced with a clean and a dirty input. A temporary Northern policy combining clean research subsidies and a trade tax can ensure sustainable growth but Northern ...

In this paper we conduct a series of field experiments in rural India in order to measure preferences related to risk, loss, and ambiguity. Disaggregating by data, we find that on average women are significantly more risk averse and loss averse than men, though the higher average risk aversion arises due to a greater share of women who are extremely risk averse. Through a series of two empirica...

Article history: Received 31 August 2010 Available online 14 January 2011 Explanations of Japanese technological modernization from the late nineteenth to the midtwentieth century have increasingly focused on domestic capabilities as opposed to the traditional emphasis on knowledge transfers from the West. Yet, the literature is mostly qualitative and it lacks a comparative context. This articl...

Arguably the most important development in recent decades in US factor markets is the decline in the relative wage of the unskilled. By contrast, in Europe it is undoubtedly the rise and persistence of unemployment. Technology has been identified as a key reason for the rising US wage inequality, while labor market rigidities are often cited as a key reason for European unemployment. This paper...

Thousands of jobs have been automated over the past few decades thanks the increasing capability of technology, and there is considerable debate on which workers are most at risk of being displaced by automation. In this paper we estimate that 44 per cent of Australian jobs are highly susceptible to automation. We find that automation susceptibility has in fact fallen over time as jobs that are...

Industrial buyer-seller relationships are frequently characterized by the fact that the seller and/or the buyer have to dedicate specific up-front investments to the relationship. Marketing research analyzes these relationships on the basis of Transaction Cost Economics (TCE). TCE highlights the risk of hold-up which arises after specific investments are dedicated. However, exogenous uncertaint...

We bring together the topics of geographical clusters and technological trajectories, and shift the focus of the analysis of regional innovation to main technological trends rather than firms. We define a number of inventive clusters in the US space and show that long chains of citations mostly take place between these clusters. This is reminiscent of the idea of global pipelines of knowledge t...

We provide empirical evidence that Rwandans use the mobile phone network to transfer airtime to those affected by unexpected shocks. Using an extensive dataset on mobile phone activity in Rwanda and exploiting the quasi-random timing and location of natural disasters, we show that individuals make transfers and calls to people affected by disasters. The magnitude of these transfers is small in ...

This paper investigates whether workers who use Internet at work earn a higher wage than otherwise similar workers who do not use Internet at work. By replicating Krueger’s analysis using recent Current Population Survey data sets, this study is able to compare the similarities and differences of the use of two revolutionary modern technologies, computer and Internet. Estimates suggest that whi...