The issue of whether government capital is productive has received a great deal of attention recently, yet empirical analyses of public capital productivity have generally been limited to the official capital stock estimates available in a small sample of countries. Alternatively, many researchers have investigated the output effects of public investment—recognizing that investment may be a poo...

We reevaluate the role of human capital in determining the wealth of nations. We use standard human capital theory to estimate stocks of human capital and allow the quality of human capital to vary across countries. Our model can explain differences in schooling and earnings profiles and, consequently, estimates of Mincerian rates of return across countries. We find that effective human capital...

When productivity is fostered by both the individual’s human capital and by the average level of human capital in the economy, individuals under-invest in human capital. A strictly positive probability of migration to a richer country, by raising both the level of human capital formed by optimizing individuals in the home country and the average level of human capital of non-migrants in the cou...

This paper addresses capital accumulation and capital productivity change in an economy with endogenous technological change and floors and ceilings in activity. The properties of the resulting two-variable noniinear differential equation system are studied in some detail. The welfare implications are also considered. When discrete lags are introduced, wide-ranging behaviour emerges, which incl...

This paper explores the productivity differential between return migrants (“Sea Turtles”) and non-migrants through a case study of China’s venture capital (VC) industry. I find that even after correcting for selection bias, return venture capitalists are less productive than comparable non-migrants in targeting promising projects and/or providing value-added services. Given that the VC industry...

We combine growth theory with US Census data on individual schooling and wages to estimate the aggregate return to human capital and human capital externalities in cities. Our estimates imply that a one-year increase in average schooling in cities increases their aggregate labor productivity by 8 to 11 percent. We find no evidence for aggregate human capital externalities in cities however. Our...

This paper sheds light on the transferability of human capital in periods of dramatic structural change by analyzing the unique event of German Reunification. We explore whether the comparatively low labor productivity in East Germany after reunification is caused by the depreciation of human capital at reunification, or by unfavorable job characteristics. East German workers should have been h...

A long history of debate exists among macroeconomists regarding the degree to which public capital contributes to overall economic activity. Estimates of the output elasticity with respect to public capital range anywhere from 0.06 in early work by Ratner (1983) to as high as 0.39 in a widely cited study by Aschauer (1989). This elasticity refers to the percentage change in GDP induced by a giv...

The issue of whether government capital is productive has received a great deal of attention recently, yet empirical analyses of public capital productivity have generally been limited to the official capital stock estimates available in a small sample of countries. Alternatively, many researchers have investigated the output effects of public investment—recognizing that investment may be a poo...