Economic activities are directly supported by the natural environment, and in this context, it has become crucial to analyse the phenomenon of decoupling economic growth from environmental ...degradation. The negative effects of economic activities on the environment are clearly visible, and understanding how to separate economic growth from environmental harm is of utmost importance. This paper aims to study the degree of the decoupling of economic growth, measured by GDP, from environmental degradation, quantified through COsub.2 and HFCs emissions, at the level of each EU27 country in the periods 2008–2012 and 2013–2020. In the analysis, graphical representations and statistical tests were utilised. In the first period, most of the EU27 countries registered negative levels for the variables considered, placing them into the negative coupling stage. In the second period, the evolution of the decoupling process was visible in all the countries, enabling them to make a significant transition to the relative or absolute stages. Overall, the Nordic countries could be observed as examples of best practices, managing to achieve the most desired stage of decoupling, i.e., the absolute one. These results are important for a wide range of stakeholders implicated in the preparation of programs, projects and policies dedicated to achieving economic growth in a sustainable manner.
The network structure of economic output Hausmann, Ricardo; Hidalgo, César A.
Journal of economic growth (Boston, Mass.),
12/2011, Volume:
16, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Much of the analysis of economic growth has focused on the study of aggregate output. Here, we deviate from this tradition and look instead at the structure of output embodied in the network ...connecting countries to the products that they export. We characterize this network using four structural features: the negative relationship between the diversification of a country and the average ubiquity of its exports, and the non-normal distributions for product ubiquity, country diversification and product co-export. We model the structure of the network by assuming that products require a large number of non-tradable inputs, or capabilities, and that countries differ in the completeness of the set of capabilities they have. We solve the model assuming that the probability that a country has a capability and that a product requires a capability are constant and calibrate it to the data to find that it accounts well for all of the network features except for the heterogeneity in the distribution of country diversification. In the light of the model, this is evidence of a large heterogeneity in the distribution of capabilities across countries. Finally, we show that the model implies that the increase in diversification that is expected from the accumulation of a small number of capabilities is small for countries that have a few of them and large for those with many. This implies that the forces that help drive divergence in product diversity increase with the complexity of the global economy when capabilities travel poorly.
Growth and entrepreneurship Acs, Zoltan J.; Audretsch, David B.; Braunerhjelm, Pontus ...
Small business economics,
09/2012, Volume:
39, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
In this paper we suggest that the spillover of knowledge may not occur automatically as typically assumed in models of endogenous growth. Rather, a mechanism is required to serve as a conduit for the ...spillover and commercialization of knowledge from the source creating it, to the firms actually commercializing the new ideas. In this paper, entrepreneurship is identified as one such mechanism facilitating the spillover of knowledge. Using a panel of entrepreneurship data from 18 countries, we provide empirical evidence that, in addition to measures of Research & Development and human capital, entrepreneurial activity also serves to promote economic growth.
Studies on the impact of technological innovation on growth have been largely mute on the role of new firm formation. Using cross-sectional data on the 37 countries participating in GEM 2002, this ...paper uses an augmented Cobb-Douglas production to explore firm formation and technological innovation as separate determinants of growth. One area of interest is the contrast between different types of entrepreneurial activities as measured using GEM Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rates - high growth potential TEA, necessity TEA, opportunity TEA and overall TEA. Of the four types of entrepreneurship, only high growth potential entrepreneurship is found to have a significant impact on economic growth. This finding is consistent with extant findings in the literature that it is fast growing new firms, not new firms in general, that accounted for most of the new job creation by small and medium enterprises in advanced countries.
Economic transition and growth Phillips, Peter C. B.; Sul, Donggyu
Journal of applied econometrics (Chichester, England),
November/December 2009, Volume:
24, Issue:
7
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Some extensions of neoclassical growth models are discussed that allow for cross-section heterogeneity among economies and evolution in rates of technological progress over time. The models offer a ...spectrum of transitional behavior among economies that includes convergence to a common steady-state path as well as various forms of transitional divergence and convergence. Mechanisms for modeling such transitions, measuring them econometrically, assessing group behavior and selecting subgroups are developed in the paper. Some econometric issues with the commonly used augmented Solow regressions are pointed out, including problems of endogeneity and omitted variable bias which arise under conditions of transitional heterogeneity. Alternative regression methods for analyzing economic transition are given which lead to a new test of the convergence hypothesis and a new procedure for detecting club convergence clusters. Transition curves for individual economies and subgroups of economies are estimated in a series of empirical applications of the methods to regional US data, OECD data and Penn World Table data.
The future of US economic growth Fernald, John G; Jones, Charles I
The American economic review,
05/2014, Volume:
104, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Modern growth theory suggests that more than three-quarters of growth since 1950 reflects rising educational attainment and research intensity. As these transition dynamics fade, US economic growth ...is likely to slow at some point. However, the rise of China, India, and other emerging economies may allow another few decades of rapid growth in world researchers. Finally, and more speculatively, the shape of the idea production function introduces a fundamental uncertainty into the future of growth. For example, the possibility that artificial intelligence will allow machines to replace workers to some extent could lead to higher growth in the future.
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