Productivity Growth, Capital Reallocation and the Financial Crisis: Evidence from Europe and the US

Jonathan Haskel (), Carol Corrado and Cecilia Jona-Lasinio

No 13972, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: How has capital reallocation affected productivity growth since the financial cri- sis? For example, have low interest rates disrupted the reallocation process? This paper calculates the effect on productivity growth of capital reallocation between industries. It uses an accounting framework, due to Jorgenson and his co-authors, that computes the contribution of capital services to productivity growth relative to one where rates of return are equalised between sectors: if capital persists in the low return sectors, the reallocation measure falls. Using data from 11 countries (the major EU economies plus the US), in 1997-2013, we nd: (a) the contribution of capital reallocation to productivity growth is lower in most economies after than before the financial crisis, notably in Mediterranean countries; (b) more capital real- location is correlated with lower real interest rates, contrary to the hypothesis that low real interest rates have hurt capital reallocation; (c) controlling for shocks, lower capital reallocation is associated with lower optimism, and weaker financial systems.

Keywords: Productivity growth; Capital reallocation; Intangible capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E01 E22 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-fdg and nep-mac
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Journal Article: Productivity growth, capital reallocation and the financial crisis: Evidence from Europe and the US (2019)
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