Cristina Echevarria

Changes in Sectoral Composition Associated with Economic Growth

In this paper, the author uses dynamic general equilibrium methods to examine the interrelationship between sectoral composition and growth. She shows that growth is affected by sectoral composition and vice versa. The model is basically a Solow model of sustained growth with multiple consumption goods and nonhomothetic preferences. Each consumption good is produced using different factor intensities. The rate of exogenous technological change is different in each sector. Nonhomotheticity of preferences drives the result that sectoral composition affects growth rates. Copyright 1997 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.

Gender Differences in Education in a Dynamic Household Bargaining Model

In this paper, we explore the issue of gender differences in education in the context of a two-sexoverlapping generations model where men and women of each generation bargain over consumption, number of children, and investment in education of their children conditional on gender, andparents are altruistic toward their children. We show that the difference in the education levels ofboys and girls implied by our model is smaller than the one that would result from a pureinvestment model. Also, we show that as long as the time cost associated with bearing childrenis positive, women bear the entire time cost associated with child rearing. We use our model toestimate the cost to a woman of having a child. The estimate we obtain using cross-country datasuggests that such cost amounts to about 5% of the working lifetime of a woman.

Long-Run Economic Performance and the Labor Market

This article uses a simple variation of the Solow model to study the interrelations between economic growth and the labor market. We show, both analytically and empirically, that income and capital per worker in the steady state depend positively on flexibility of the labor market; that the steady-state unemployment rate depends positively on the rate of population growth and the productivity growth rate and negatively on the savings rate and flexibility of the labor market; and, finally, that labor market flexibility affects convergence toward steady state.

On the Need for Gender in Dynamic Models

In this paper we emphasize the need for more theoretical research using dynamic models that include gender as a variable of analysis. We begin by summarizing some of the main observations characterizing fertility, gender, and economic growth. We then explore three types of theoretical models: one-sex dynamic, two-sex static, and two-sex dynamic. We conclude that more models of the last type – dynamic models that include gender in the analysis – are needed to analyze issues that involve both an intertemporal and a gender dimension.