A VERSUS K REVISITED:EVIDENCE FROM SELECTED MENA COUNTRIES

Suleiman Abu-Bader (abubader@bgu.ac.il) and Aamer Abu-Qarn (aamer@bgu.ac.il)

No 513, Working Papers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper reconsiders the A versus K debate, namely, which factor is the leading contributor to economic growth productivity gains (A) or factor accumulation (K). The growth accounting analysis is conducted for ten MENA countries over the period 1960-1998. The longrun share of capital in national income is estimated using cointegration (country-specific) and panel data (region-specific) methods. As has been shown for many developing economies, we find that for most of the countries the share is much higher than the conventional share of 0.3- 0.4. The growth accounting exercise conducted with the incorporation of human capital reveals that for the MENA region the contribution of productivity gains to economic growth is negligible and frequently even detrimental. Thus, we conclude that it is factor (both physical and human) accumulation that drives the economic performance of MENA economies.

Keywords: Growth Accounting; Productivity and Factor Accumulation; MENA; Middle-East; Cointegration; Panel Data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C22 C23 O47 O53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2005
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: A Versus K Revisited: Evidence from Selected MENA Countries (2005)
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