Why do some countries produce so much more output per worker than others?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hall, RE; Jones, CI
• 署名单位: Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1162/003355399555954
• 发表日期: 1999
• 页码: 83-116
• 关键词: international comparisons; ECONOMIC-GROWTH; PRODUCTIVITY; allocation; Talent

摘要

Output per worker varies enormously across countries. Why? On an accounting basis our analysis shows that differences in physical capital and educational attainment can only partially explain the variation in output per worker-we find a large amount of variation in the level of the Solow residual across countries. At a deeper level, we document that the differences in capital accumulation, productivity, and therefore output per worker are driven by differences in institutions and government policies, which we call social infrastructure. We treat social infrastructure as endogenous, determined historically by location and other factors captured in part by language.