Barriers to capital accumulation and aggregate total factor productivity

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Restuccia, D
• 署名单位: University of Toronto
• 刊物名称: INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0020-6598
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2354.2004.00123.x
• 发表日期: 2004
• 页码: 225-238
• 关键词: growth

摘要

I develop a growth model where a single good can be produced with a traditional and a modern technology. The traditional technology features low total factor productivity (TFP) and a low share of reproducible capital. In this framework, barriers to capital accumulation affect technology use and therefore aggregate TFP. The theory thus connects recent models of factor accumulation and of TFP. The model is calibrated by interpreting traditional production as agriculture and nonreproducible capital as land. The theory implies that barriers are associated with large agricultural shares, as supported by cross-country and time-series evidence. The required TFP differences needed in the model to account for a given income disparity are reduced by 1/2 relative to the standard model that abstracts from technology choice.