abstract production is a process by which a productive activity will require some conditions (before and after the start of the production). one of the most important pre-required factors for start up a production unit is suitable business environment. one of the most important factors that must be provided after the start of production -during the production process and the time to market and ...

Labor Productivity and Vocational Training: Evidence from Europe In this paper we show that vocational training is an important determinant of productivity growth. We construct a multi-country, multi-sectoral dataset, and quantify empirically to what extent vocational training has contributed to increase the growth rate of labor productivity in Europe between 1999 and 2005. We find that one ext...

We consider a Rebelo (1991) type model of endogenous growth in which the environmental quality positively affects the rate of human capital accumulation and the environmental quality itself is positively affected by human capital accumulation and is negatively affected by physical capital accumulation. We analyse the effects of taxation on the steady state equilibrium growth rate in this model....

We introduce social capital accumulation into a neoclassical model, showing how it differs from physical and human capital accumulation. We take the view that social capital is crucial to the enjoyment of socially provided goods and that it is mainly accumulated by means of participation to social activities. Under-investment in social capital may lead a growing economy to fall into a social po...

We provide two ways to reconcile small values of the intertemporal elasticity of substitution (IES) that range between 0.35 and 0.5 with empirical evidence that the IES is large. We do this reconciliation using a model in which all agents have identical preferences and the same access to asset markets. We also conduct an encompassing test, which indicates that specifications of the model with s...

This article presents a summary of our conversation on the past, present and future of the new economic geography, which took place with the help of an interlocutor in San Juan, Puerto Rico in November 2002. Following the introduction, we explain what the new economic geography is, and we describe some basic models. The discussion of its various critical aspects is presented subsequently, and t...

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...

In this paper we apply the wavelets methodology to the analysis of the comovements of for some MENA countries from June 1997 until March 2005. We decompose weekly stock market returns into di¤erent time scale components using the non-decimated discrete wavelet transform and then analyze the relationships among these variables at the di¤erent time scales. Keywords : Stock market returns, Wavelet...

This paper proposes three models of social capital and growth that incorporate different perspectives on the concept of social capital and the empirical evidence gathered to date. In these models, social capital impacts growth by assisting in the accumulation of human capital, by affecting financial development through its effects on collective trust and social norms, and by facilitating networ...

Departing from explanations that involve either altruistic or political motivations of donors, we link a donor’s willingness to give aid to economic incentives and returns. Since targeted aid might increase the returns from trade and FDI linkages for donors, there exists a non-altruistic basis for helping poor countries. We explore this idea by developing a two-country dynamic strategic interac...