María Jesús Freire-Serén

On the relationship between human capital accumulation and economic growth

The central concern of this article is to give new empirical conclusions on the relationship between human capital and economic growth. With this aim, it runs an estimation that allows us to analyse not only the contribution of human capital to output growth, but also the effect of the level of income on human capital accumulation. In particular, it uses Spanish economic data to jointly estimate the equations of the dynamic system that describes the behaviour of the economy.

Does Tax Evasion Modify the Redistributive Effect of Tax Progressivity

This article shows how tax evasion modifies the redistributive effect of tax progressivity. The analysis, which is conducted by means of the standard tax evasion model, suggests a possible reduction of the redistributive effect of progressive income taxation. This issue is important to empirically evaluate and compare the redistributive effect of tax systems in economies with different tax evasion levels.

R&D-EXPENDITURE IN AN ENDOGENOUS GROWTH MODEL

The aim of this paper is to analyze the role that aggregate R&D-expenditure plays in economic growth. We introduce a technology of innovation based on expenditure that generates endogenous sustainable growth in absence of any scale effect. This R&D-model permits us to study the effects of some fiscal policies. In particular, we analyze how subsidies to R&D-investment and physical capital accumulation affect the long-run growth rate. For the empirical cross-country analysis we directly derive a structural econometric model.

Anatomizing the Mechanics of Structural Change

We characterize several possible mechanisms of structural change by using a general multisector growth model, where preferences and technologies are not parameterized. In this generic set up, we derive the growth rates of sectoral employment shares at the equilibrium. We find that the economic fundamentals governing structural change in the sectoral employment shares are: (i) the income elasticities of the demand for consumption goods; (ii) the Allen-Uzawa elasticities of substitution between consumption goods; (iii) the capital income shares in sectoral outputs; and (iv) the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor in each sector. These fundamentals determine the effect that the growth rates of aggregate income, relative prices, rental rates and technological progress have on structural change. Finally, we estimate the aforementioned fundamentals to develop an accounting exercise that quantifies the contribution of each mechanism to the U.S. structural change.