文档介绍：NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES
CAPITAL GOODS IMPORTS
AND LONG-RUN GROWFH
Jong-Wha Lee
Working Paper No. 4725
NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH
1050 Massachuseus Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
April 1994
The author is grateful to Robert Barro, Susan Collins and Elhanan Helpman for their helpful
comments on earlier drafts of this paper. This paper is part of NBER's research programs in
Growth and International Trade and Investment. Any opinions expressed are those of the
author and not those of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
NBER Working Paper #4725
April1994
CAPITAL GOODS IMPORTS
ANDLONG-RUN GROWIH
ABSTRACT
This paper presents an endogenous growth model of an open economy in which the
growth rate of e is higher if foreign capital goods are used relatively more than domestic
capital goods for the production of capital stock. Empirical results, using cross country data for
the period 1960-85, confirm that the ratio of imported to domestically produced capital goods in
position of investment has a significant positive effect on per capita e growth rates
across countries, in particular, in developing countries. Hence, position of investment
in addition to the volume of total capital accumulation is highlighted as an important detenninant
of economic growth.
Jong-Wha Lee
Department of Economics
Korea University
Anam-Dong, Sungbuk-Ku
Seoul 136-701
KOREA
and NBER
I. Introduction
The links between international trade and economicgrowth haveinterested
economists for a longtime. Caninternational trade increase the growth rate of
e? Should less developed countries follow parative advantage in order
to e as rich as developed countries or should they protect certain key industries
to grow faster?Free trade orthodoxy since Adam Smith typically predicts that
internationaltrade, by following the law parative advantage, produces static
gains in e in all trading partner has, however, been equivocal in
answeri