Capital misallocation and economic development in a dynamic open economy

Bruno R. Delalibera, Luciene Pereira, Heron Rios and Rafael Serrano-Quintero

Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 2024, vol. 168, issue C

Abstract: Some countries, such as Canada, Italy, and Mexico, have experienced a higher growth rate of capital per worker but a lower growth rate for GDP per worker compared to the United States. This paper explains these two facts through the lens of a dynamic multisector open economy model where capital flows across countries. In the model, firms face sector-specific distortions on capital and intermediate inputs that influence the actual rate of return on capital and the aggregate total factor productivity (TFP). We calibrate the model to Mexico for the period 2000-2014 and show that changes in sectoral distortions and productivities reduced the actual rate of return on capital, triggering capital accumulation and a reduction in TFP. The results show that aggregate output decreased by 7.3% and aggregate capital increased by 10.6%. From 33 sectors (out of 48) that suffered productivity losses, approximately 50% accumulated more capital. Furthermore, the capital-intensive sectors explain 82% of the capital-output ratio increase.

Keywords: Misallocation; Open economy growth models; Capital accumulation; Technology adoption; Mexico (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F12 F43 O10 O19 O41 O47 O54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165188924001611
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:168:y:2024:i:c:s0165188924001611

DOI: 10.1016/j.jedc.2024.104969

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control is currently edited by J. Bullard, C. Chiarella, H. Dawid, C. H. Hommes, P. Klein and C. Otrok

More articles in Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().