Philip Hemmings

Economic Growth: The Role of Policies and Institutions. Panel Data Evidence from OECD Countries

This paper discusses links between policy settings, institutions and economic growth in OECD countries on the basis of cross-country time-series regressions. The econometric approach allows short-term adjustments and convergence speeds to vary across countries, imposing restrictions only on the long-run coefficients. In addition to the ‘primary’ influences of capital accumulation and skills embodied in the human capital, the results confirm the importance for growth of R&D activity, the macroeconomic environment, trade openness and well developed financial markets. They also confirm that many of the policy influences operate not only ‘directly’ on growth but also indirectlyviathe mobilisation of resources for fixed investment. The paper also reports some bivariate correlations between OECD indicators of product regulation and growth. They provide some supporting evidence that the negative impact of stringent regulations and administrative burden on the efficiency of product ... Ce document analyse les liens entre la croissance economique et les politiques et les institutions dans les pays de l’OCDE sur la base de regressions en coupe transversale et en series temporelles. L’approche econometrique permet aux parametres de court terme et a la vitesse de convergence de varier d’un pays a l’autre, alors que seuls les parametres de long terme sont estimes communs. Au-dela du role “primaire” joue par l’accumulation du capital physique et humain, les resultats confirment l’importance pour la croissance de l’activite de R-D, du cadre macroeconomique, ainsi que de l’ouverture aux echanges et du developpement des marches financiers. Les resultats confirment que les variables politiques influencent la croissance economique non seulement directement, mais aussi indirectement par le biais de l’accumulation du capital. Le document montre enfin des correlations bivariees entre des indicateurs de regulation sur les marches des produits et la croissance economique dans ...

Economic Growth: The Role of Policies and Institutions

This paper discusses links between policy settings, institutions and economic growth in OECD countries on the basis of cross-country time-series regressions. The econometric approach allows short-term adjustments and convergence speeds to vary across countries, imposing restrictions only on the long-run coefficients. In addition to the ‘primary’ influences of capital accumulation and skills embodied in the human capital, the results confirm the importance for growth of R&D activity, the macroeconomic environment, trade openness and well developed financial markets. They also confirm that many of the policy influences operate not only ‘directly’ on growth but also indirectlyviathe mobilisation of resources for fixed investment. The paper also reports some bivariate correlations between OECD indicators of product regulation and growth. They provide some supporting evidence that the negative impact of stringent regulations and administrative burden on the efficiency of product ...

The Role of Policy and Institutions for Productivity and Firm Dynamics

This paper presents empirical evidence on the role that policy and institutional settings in both product and labour market play for productivity and firm dynamics. It exploits a new firm-level database for ten OECD countries and industry-level data for a broader set of countries, together with a set of indicators of regulation and institutional settings in product and labour markets. Aggregate productivity patterns are largely the result of within-firm performance. But, the contribution from firm dynamic processes should not be overlooked, most notably in high-tech industries where new firms tend to play an important role. Industry productivity performance is negatively affected by strict product market regulations, especially if there is a significant technology gap with the technology leader. Likewise, high hiring and firing costs seem to hinder productivity, especially when these costs are not offset by lower wages and/or more internal training. Moreover, burdensome regulations ...

Policy Influences on Economic Growth in OECD Countries

This paper examines the recent literature on economic growth with a focus on policy issues and evidence relevant to OECD countries. The review begins with an overview of developments in the theory of economic growth and also comments generally on the nature of evidence exploring the influences on growth. This is followed by an examination of issues relating to the link between growth and factors of production (physical and human capital). The third section of the paper assesses the evidence linking a number of other factors (or ‘framework conditions’) to growth, namely: macroeconomic policy; finance; trade and competition policy; ‘social capital’; and, population and health issues ...

Family Policy in Hungary

Hungarian family policy focuses on providing generous options to take time off work to look after children. This system not only contributes to Hungary’s low employment rate but encourages long separation from the labour market, has largely failed to significantly influence fertility rates and is relatively expensive to run. This paper looks at how to shift the policy focus towards reconciling work and family life. Reasons for under-provision in childcare by local governments are discussed and recommendations for further central-government intervention to improve supply are made. Recommendations for reform are also made regarding the complex system of family cash benefits and leave allowances. La politique familiale en Hongrie : comment mieux concilier travail et vie de famille En Hongrie, la politique familiale consiste surtout en larges facilites de conge pour l’education des enfants. Cette politique ne se traduit pas seulement par un faible taux d’emploi ; elle a aussi favorise de longues periodes d’inactivite tout en echouant largement dans son objectif de plus forte fecondite et en etant relativement couteuse. On examinera dans ce document comment reorienter ces mesures d’une facon qui permette de mieux concilier travail et vie de famille. On verra pourquoi les services d’accueil de l’enfance sont insuffisants au niveau des collectivites locales et on recommandera de nouvelles initiatives de l’administration centrale pour developper ces services. On preconisera egalement une serie de reformes du systeme complexe de prestations familiales en especes et d’allocations pour conges.