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Discussion Paper
The Stages of Economic Growth Revisited: Part 1: A General Framework and Taking Off into Growth
We propose a theory for classifying countries according to their stages of growth and for analyzing the determinants of growth in and between the different stages. {{p}} We conclude that, even if they have inefficient institutions and policies, poorer countries can achieve rapid growth by adopting the technologies and managerial practices of countries like the United States. As they become richer, however, their growth rates will decline unless these countries have efficient institutions and policies. For many countries, this requires that they undertake serious institutional and policy ...
Discussion Paper
The Stages of Economic Growth Revisited, Part 2: Catching Up to and Joining the Economic Leader
Rostow (1960) hypothesized that taking off into economic growth was a difficult task for countries in the 19th century, requiring major changes in institutions. In the 20th century, however, as the United States and other advanced countries became richer because of improvements in technologies and managerial practices, it became easier for poor countries to take off into rapid growth by adopting some of these improvements. {{p}} We hypothesize that, while taking off is now easier, the difficult transition is now from take-off to catch-up, where nations grow closer to the economic leader (now ...
Report
Macroeconomic Effects of Medicare
This paper develops an overlapping generations model to study the macroeconomic effects of an unexpected elimination of Medicare. We ?nd that a large share of the elderly respond by substituting Medicaid for Medicare. Consequently, the government saves only 46 cents for every dollar cut in Medicare spending. We argue that a comparison of steady states is insufficient to evaluate the welfare effects of the reform. In particular, we ?nd lower ex-ante welfare gains from eliminating Medicare when we account for the costs of transition. Lastly, we ?nd that a majority of the current population ...