Infrastructures and New Technologies as Sources of Spanish Economic Growth

Mas, Matilde (2006): Infrastructures and New Technologies as Sources of Spanish Economic Growth. Published in: Fundación BBVA - Documentos de trabajo No. 14 (August 2006)

Abstract

The paper revises the impact of infrastructures and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on economic growth. It takes Spain as a reference case due to the accessibility to capital services estimates. The Spanish database allows the measurement of the impact on growth of three ICT assets (software, hardware and communication) and six different types of infrastructures (roads, railways, airports, ports, as well as urban and water infrastructures). It also allows the distinction between public and privately owned infrastructures. As a first step, the paper recommends the adjustment of the National Accounts (NA) figures, especially when the endogenous approach to compute the user cost is utilized. The rationale for the adjustment relies on the need to recognize explicitly the services provided by public capital, not fully included in NA.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: ICT, Infrastructures, growth accounting
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity > O47 - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth ; Aggregate Productivity ; Cross-Country Output Convergence; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity > O40 - General; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O5 - Economywide Country Studies > O52 - Europe

References

ASCHAUER, D. A. (1989A): “Is Public Expenditure Productive?, Journal of Monetary Economics 23, 177-200 .

___________(1989B): “Public Investment and Productivity Growth in the Group of Seven”, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Economic Perspectives, 13, 17-25.

BAILEY, M.N. (2003): “The Sources of Economic Growth in OECD Countries: A Review Article”, International Productivity Monitor, 7, fall.

BAILEY, M.N., AND R. GORDON (1998): “The Productivity Slowdown, Measurement Issues and the Explosion of Computer Power”, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1998(2): 347-420.

COLECHIA, A. AND P. SCHREYER (2001): “ICT Investment and economic growth in the nineties: is the United States a unique case? A Comparative study of nine OECD countries”, Review of Economic Dynamics, 5, 2, 408-42.

DIEWERT, E.D. AND A. NAKAMURA (2003): “The Measurement of Aggregate Total Factor Productivity Growth”, forthcoming en Heckman and Leamer (eds), Handbook of Econometrics, Volume 6.

GOERLICH, F.J. AND M. MAS (2001): La Evolución Económica de las Provincias Españolas. Volumen II, Desigualdad y Convergencia, 330 pp. Fundación BBVA, Bilbao.

GORDON, R.J. (1999): “Has the “new economy” rendered the productivity slowdown obsolete?” June, Northwestern University, mimeo.

JORGENSON, D.W., GOLLOP, F.M. AND B. FRAUMENI (1987): Productivity and US Economic Growth, Cambridge, MA, Cambridge University Press.

JORGENSON, D.W. AND K. STIROH (2000): “Rising the speed limit: US economic growth in the information age”, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1, 125-211.

JORGENSON, D.W. AND J.S. LANDFELD (2004): “Blueprint for Expanded and Integrated US Accounts: Review, Assessment, and next steps”, paper presented at the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, New Architecture for the US National Accounts, Washington DC, April, 16-17

MAS, M., MAUDOS, J, F. PÉREZ Y E. URIEL (1996): “Infrastructures and Productivity in the Spanish Regions”, Regional Studies, Vol. 30, nº 7, 641-649

MAS, M., PÉREZ, F. AND E. URIEL (DIRS) (2005): El stock y los servicios del capital en España (1964-2002). Nueva Metodología, Fundación BBVA, Bilbao, 323 pp.

____________ (2006): “Spanish New Capital Stock Estimates” in Mas, M. y P. Schreyer (eds.) Growth, Capital and New Technologies, Fundación BBVA, Bilbao, forthcoming.

MAS, M. (2005): “Public Capital, Internal Rate of Return and Growth Accounting” (www.euklems.net).

MAS, M. AND J. MAUDOS (2004): “Infraestructuras y Crecimiento Regional Diez Años Después” in José Villaverde Castro (coord.) Competitividad Regional en la Unión Europea Ampliada, Instituto de Estudios Fiscales, Madrid, 143-168.

MAS, M. AND J. QUESADA (2005A): Las Nuevas Tecnologías y el Crecimiento Económico en España, Fundación BBVA, 384 pp.

_________ (2005B): “ICT and Economic Growth. A quantification of productivity growth in Spain”, OECD Statistics Working Papers, Statistics Directoriate, STD/DOC(2005)4, Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico, París (disponible en Internet http://www.oecd.org/ findDocument/0,2350,en_2649_33715_1_119684_1_1_1,00.html).

_________ (2006): “The role of ICT on the Spanish Productivity Slowdown”, Fundación BBVA Working Paper, forthcoming.

NORDHAUS, W.D. (2004): “Principles of National Accounting for Non-Market Accounts” paper presented at the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, New Architecture for the US National Accounts, Washington DC, april 16-17.

OLINER, S.D. AND D.E. SICHEL (2000): “The resurgence of growth in the late 1990s: is information technology the story?” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14, fall, 3-22.

O´MAHONNY, M. AND B. VAN ARK (EDS) (2003): EU productivity and competitiveness: an industry perspective, Luxemburg, European Commission, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. 24

PILAT, D. (2003): “ICT and economic growth: evidence from OECD countries, industries and firms”, DSTI, ICCP 2, OECD, Paris

SCHREYER, P. (2004): “Measuring Multi-Factor Productivity when Rates of Return are Exogenous”, paper presented in la SSHRC International Conference on Index Number Theory and the Measurement of Prices and Productivity, Vancouver, 30 June-3 July.

SCHREYER, P., DIEWERT, E. AND A. HARRISON (2005): “Cost of Capital Services and the National Accounts”. Paper presented to the meeting of the Canberra Group on Non-Financial Assets, Canberra.

SOLOW, R. (1957): “Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function”, Review of Economics and Statistics, 39, 3, 312-320

STIROH, K. (2002): “Are ICT Spillovers Driving the New Economy?”, The Review of Income and Wealth, 48, 1, 33-58.

STURM, J.E, KUPER, G.H. AND J. DE HAAN (1996): Modelling Government Investment and Economic Growth on a Macro Level: a Review, CCSO Series n’ 29, Groningen University.

TIMMER, M. AND B. VAN ARK (2005): “Does information and communication technology drive EU-US productivity growth differentials?”, Oxford Economic Papers, Vol. 57, nº 4, October, 693-716.

VAN ARK, B. AND M. TIMMER (2006): “Computers and the Big Divide: productivity growth in the European Union and the United States” in Mas, M. y P. Schreyer (eds) Growth, capital stock and new technologies, Fundacion BBVA, Bilbao, forthcoming.