Are current economic models well equipped to provide useful policy prescriptions? Many economists would have certainly answered, “yes” before the recent Global Recession. This economic crisis has not only demonstrated the importance of banking and financial markets for the dynamics of real economies. It has also revealed the inadequacy of the dominant theoretical framework. Standard models have...

In this paper we show how moving from the neoclassical model to the more recent endogenous growth paradigm can lead to markedly different interpretations of the same growth accounting data. In neoclassical theory, even if between 30 and 70 per cent of the growth of output per worker in OECD countries can be ‘accounted for’ by capital accumulation, yet in the long run all of the growth in output...

This paper studies the effect of real effective exchange rate (REER) volatility on economic growth as well as the euro’s effect on REER volatility. We first show that, after a plausible endogeneity correction, REER volatility is negatively associated with growth in a 1980~2011 panel of OECD countries. One standard deviation volatility decrease is associated with about two percentage points (0.8...

BACKGROUND Malaria illness imposes great burden on the society as it has adverse effects on the physical, mental and social well being of the people as well as on the economic development of the nation. METHODS The study uses the Willingness To Pay (WTP) approach to evaluate the burden of malaria in Nigeria. RESULTS The results indicate that households would be prepared to pay an average of...

Creativity is a fundamental value of a free society. Creativity flourishes when individuals are enabled to pursue individual independent paths of inquiry, exploration, and creative development (Jonathan S. Feinstein 2006; Philippe Aghion, Mathias Dewatripont and Jeremy C. Stein 2005). In such an environment personal intuition and knowledge is developed in unique and creative ways that leads to ...

Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic Development: A Simultaneous Approach* In this paper we investigate how telecommunications infrastructure affects economic growth. This issue is important and has received considerable attention in the popular press concerning the creation of the "information superhighway" and its potential impacts on the economy. We use evidence from 21 OECD countr...

Empirical analyses suggest that the employment creating effect of start-ups is highest in regions with a low level of new business formation and that an increase in the regional start-up rate beyond a certain level may lead to negative employment effect. In explaining these results, we assume that the average quality of regional start-ups decreases with the number of start-ups, while the costs ...

The new comparative economics focuses on individual institutions rather than considering the economic system as an entity. In this essay we argue that economic systems should be defined in terms of clusters of complementary or covarying institutions. A cluster analysis of OECD countries, using data on forty different economic institutions, shows that four economic systems can be used to charact...

32 Productivity is, once more, on the agenda in many OECD countries. It has long been regarded as the long-run driver of economic growth, but attention for productivity-related issues has waxed and waned over the past decades. In recent years, productivity growth has received a great deal of attention in several OECD countries, notably Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and ...

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that a fundamental shift in Europe, along with the other OECD countries, is taking place. This shift is from the managed economy to the entrepreneurial economy. While politicians and policy makers have made a plea for guidance in the era of entrepreneurship, scholars have been slow to respond. The purpose of this paper is to make a first step identifying ...