Growth and Productivity in East Asia (Volume 13) (National Bureau of Economic Research East Asia Seminar on Economics)

Considering the examples of Australia and the Pacific Rim, Growth and Productivity in East Asia offers a contemporary explanation for national productivity that measures contributions not only from capital and labor, but also from economic activities and relevant changes in policy, education, and technology. Takatoshi Ito and Andrew K. Rose have organized a group of collaborators from several Asian countries, the United States, and other parts of the globe who ably balance both macroeconomic and microeconomic study with theoretical and empirical approaches. Growth and Productivity in East Asia gives special attention to the causes for the unusual success of Australia, one of the few nations to maintain unprecedented economic growth despite the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2001 global downturn. A new database comprising eighty-four Japanese sectors reveals new findings for the last thirty years of sectoral productivity and growth in Japan. Studies focusing on Indonesia, Taiwan, and Korea also consider productivity and its relationship to research and development, foreign ownership, and policy reform in such industries as manufacturing, automobile production, and information technology. Part 1. Macro productivity. Ideas and education: level or growth effects and their implications for Australia / Steve Dowrick. Comments: John Leahy, Andrew K. Rose Australia's 1990s productivity surge and its determinants / Dean Parham. Comments: Chin Hee Hahn, Francis T. Lui Institutions, volatility, and crises / Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, James Robinson. Comments: Steve Dowrick, Dipinder S. Randhawa GATT/WTO accession and productivity / David D. Li, Changqi Wu. Comments: Simon Johnson, Epictetus E. Patalinghug The contribution of FDI flows to domestic investment in capacity, and vice versa / Assaf Razin. Comments: Kyoji Fukao, Dean Parham. Part II. Micro productivity. Sectoral productivity and economic growth in Japan, 1970-98: an empirical analysis based on the JIP database / Kyoji Fukao, Tomohiko Inui, Hiroki Kawai, Tsutomu Miyagawa. Comments: Peter Drysdale, Keiko Ito Foreign ownership and productivity in the Indonesian automobile industry: evidence from establishment data for 1990-99 / Keiko Ito. Comments: Muhammad Chatib Basri, Francis T. Lui Productivity growth and R&D expenditure in Taiwan's manufacturing firms / Jiann-Chyuan Wang, Kuen-Hung Tsai. Comments: Tsutomu Miyagawa, Jungho Yoo Bankruptcy policy reform and total factor productivity dynamics in Korea: evidence from microdata / Youngjae Lim, Chin Hee Hahn. Comments: Chong-Hyun Nam, Epictetus E. Patalinghug Information Technology and firm performance in Korea / Jong-Il Kim. Comments: Chong-Hyun Nam, Dipinder S. Randhawa How important is discrete adjustment in aggregate fluctuations? Andrew Caplin, John Leahy. Comments: Jong-Il Kim, Assaf Razin. The transition to personal accounts and increasing retirement wealth: macro- and microevidence / James M. Poterba, Steven F. Venti, David A. Wise. Comment: Sylvester J. Schieber For better or for worse: default effects and 401(k) savings behavior James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, Andrew Metrick. Comment: James M. Poterba Aging and housing equity: another look / Steven F. Venti, David A. Wise. Comment: Jonathan Skinner Intergenerational transfers and savings behavior / Jeffrey R. Brown, Scott J. Weisbenner. Comment: Alan J. Auerbach Wealth portfolios in the United Kingdom and the United States / James Banks, Richard Blundell, James P. Smith. Comment: John B. Shoven Mortality, income, and income inequality over time in Britain and the United States / Angus Deaton, Christina Paxson. Comment: James Banks Does money protect health status? evidence from South African pensions / Anne Case. Comment: Robert T. Jensen Socioeconomic status, nutrition, and health among the elderly / Robert T. Jensen. Comment David M. Cutler Changes in the age distribution of mortality over the twentieth century / David M. Cutler, Ellen Meara Area differences in utilization of medical care and mortality among U.S. elderly / Victor R. Fuchs, Mark McClellan, Jonathan Skinner. Comment: Joseph P. Newhouse Healthy, wealthy, and wise? tests for direct causal paths between health and socioeconomic status / Peter Adams, Michael D. Hurd, Daniel McFadden, Angela Merrill, Tiago Ribeiro. Comment: James M. Poterba.

Considering the examples of Australia and the Pacific Rim, Growth and Productivity in East Asia offers a contemporary explanation for national productivity that measures contributions not only from capital and labor, but also from economic activities and relevant changes in policy, education, and technology.

Takatoshi Ito and Andrew K. Rose have organized a group of collaborators from several Asian countries, the United States, and other parts of the globe who ably balance both macroeconomic and microeconomic study with theoretical and empirical approaches. Growth and Productivity in East Asia gives special attention to the causes for the unusual success of Australia, one of the few nations to maintain unprecedented economic growth despite the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2001 global downturn. A new database comprising eighty-four Japanese sectors reveals new findings for the last thirty years of sectoral productivity and growth in Japan. Studies focusing on Indonesia, Taiwan, and Korea also consider productivity and its relationship to research and development, foreign ownership, and policy reform in such industries as manufacturing, automobile production, and information technology.

This book investigates several important issues in the economics of aging, including the accumulation of wealth and the relationship between health and financial prosperity. Examining the changes in savings behavior and investment priorities in the United States over the past few decades, contributors to the volume point to a dramatic shift from employer-managed, defined benefit pensions to employee-controlled retirement savings plans. Further, the legislative reforms of the 1980s and the booming stock market of the 1990s did their share to influence individual wealth accumulation patterns of Contributors to this volume investigate several important issues including the accumulation of wealth and the relationship between health and financial prosperity, the changes in savings behaviour and investment priorities and the effects of legislative changes in the 1980s and the booming stock market of the 1990s. The importance of human capital for economic growth was highlighted in much of the "new growth theory" that came to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s.