Papers on TFP/Income differences and trends

 

 

On The Tyranny of Numbers: East Asian Miracles in World Perspective

Pedro Cavalcanti  Ferreira, Samuel Pessôa and Fernando Veloso

 

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An Investigation of Cross-Country Income Differences

Pedro Cavalcanti  Ferreira, João Victor Issler and Samuel Pessoa

 

This paper investigates the nature of income inequality across nations. Several exercises, such as variance decompositions, simulations and counter-factual analyses are performed. The picture that emerges is one where countries grew in the past for different reasons, which should be an important ingredient in policy design. Although there is not a single-factor explanation for the difference in output per-worker across nations, productivity differences can explain a considerable portion of income inequality, followed by distortions to\ capital accumulation and then by human capital accumulation

 

Published in the Revista de Analisis Economico, Vol. 20, nº2, Dec. 2005

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The Evolution of International Output Differences (1960-2000): from Factors to Productivity

Pedro Cavalcanti  Ferreira, Samuel Pessôa and Fernando Veloso

 

This article presents a group of exercises of level and growth decomposition of output per worker using cross-country data from 1960 to 2000. Its shown that at least until 1975 factors of production ( capital and education) were the main cause of output dispersion and that productivity variance was considerably smaller than in late years. Only after this date the prominence of TFP started to show up in the data, as the majority of the literature have found. The growth decomposition exercises showed that the reversal of relative importance of TFP vis-à-vis factors is explained by the very good (bad) performance of detrended TFP of fast (slow) growing economies. Although growth in the period, on average, is mostly due to factors accumulation, its variance is explained by productivity.

                                                                                              

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The Evolution of TFP in Latin America

Pedro Cavalcanti  Ferreira, Samuel Pessôa and Fernando Veloso

 

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Produtividade Agregada Brasileira (1970-2000): Declínio Robusto e Fraca Recuperação

Pedro Cavalcanti  Ferreira, Roberto Ellery e Victor Gomes

 

Este artigo discute comportamento da Produtividade Total dos Fatores (PTF) no Brasil entre 1970 e 1998. É feita uma análise de quanto da queda da PTF pode ser explicada a partir de mudanças na forma tradicional de cálculo desta variável. Entre as variações serão consideradas: utilização da capacidade instalada, modificações no uso do capital, mensuração do capital por meio do consumo de eletricidade, distorções no preço relativo, capital humano e investimento específico à determinada tecnologia. O único caso onde a TFP apresenta uma modificação em seu comportamento é o de correção de distorções no preço relativo, onde a PTF se recupera mais rapidamente.

 

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