Browsing by Author "Hall, Joshua D."

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Measuring the Diffusion of Technologies Through International Trade.
    (Springer Nature, 2019-11) Hall, Joshua D.
    Technological advancements affect economic growth, income distribution and levels of unemployment. However, quantifying the pace of technological diffusion is problematic. This paper develops a new measure of technological progress by estimating the high-skill content of imports using industry-level, bilateral trade data. Intuitively, during periods of trade liberalization, a higher skill content embodied within imports will lead to a faster change in the arrival rate of new technologies. Trade accelerated since the 1980s and with that came a diffusion of new technologies into developing countries. By utilizing the industry-level trade data in conjunction with the high-skill factor content of each industry, a measure of technological diffusion is developed using a theoretically consistent gravity model. This measure is highly correlated with other measures of technological progress and provides a new data set for a large number of both developed and developing countries. How the high-skill content of imports increased is analyzed for countries across the development spectrum. This measure of technological progress is applied to income inequality. It significantly increases inequality, consistent with theoretical expectations, and provides an additional avenue in how to measure technological progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]   Copyright of International Advances in Economic Research is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    OPTIMAL R&D SUBSIDIES WITH HETEROGENEOUS FIRMS IN A DYNAMIC SETTING
    (Cambridge University Press, 2019-07) Hall, Joshua D.; Laincz, Christopher A.
    When observably heterogeneous firms engage in R&D and policy can be conditioned on the heterogeneity, what is the optimal policy? This paper starts with a static duopoly model of R&D competition with uncertainty and finds it welfare enhancing to subsidize the larger firms with no subsidies for the smaller firm, extending existing results. This result follows because the policymaker's goal is to minimize the average cost of production. Our paper demonstrates that these results are not robust to a dynamic setting. The optimal policy depends on the equilibrium type of competition that emerges without intervention—an insight that cannot be found in a static setting. In a dynamic setting, the degree of competition becomes an endogenous variable. Interestingly, although the optimal policy in some cases provides a slightly larger subsidy for the larger firm, it is the smaller firm that benefits most in terms of firm value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]   Copyright of Macroeconomic Dynamics is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    A Test of Neo-Fisherism: 1964-2019
    (De Gruyter, 2021-01-01) Bias, Peter V.; Hall, Joshua D.
    Neo-Fisherism, the theory that monetary authorities should expect inflation rates to be positively and causally related to their targeted nominal interest rates, is reviewed and empirically investigated. Using several different measures of interest rates and inflation we analyze US monthly data from January 1964 to April 2019. Granger causality tests are performed in search of a Neo-Fisherist impact of interest rates causally impacting inflation or the reverse. The full period is reviewed and is also divided into three sub-periods: the period before the Federal Reserve targeted federal funds rate at 25 basis points (labeled here as the effective lower bound, ELB), the ELB period, and the post-ELB period. Prior to the effective lower bound, we find evidence largely supporting the classical view of causality from inflation to interest rates, however the relationship is bidirectional depending on the measurement of inflation and interest rates. During the ELB, we find moderate evidence in support of Neo-Fisherism. In this period, federal funds rate Granger-cause changes in inflation as measured using the CPI and Core CPI. In contrast, during the effective lower bound period, the standard classical result holds when considering the Shadow federal funds rate. In the period following the effective lower bound, the standard relationship is found as well, in which inflation granger causes movements in the interest rates. Overall, the results regarding causality between interest rates and inflation largely support the classical view of causality but are dependent on data measurements and the observed time period.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    The effects of the quality and quantity of education on income inequality
    (Springer, 2018-01) Hall, Joshua D.
    High levels of income inequality characterize both developed and developing countries. This paper focuses on how the quality of education, measured by international, standardized test scores, and the quantity of education, measured by the average years of school attainment, affect the distribution of income. Overall, both greater educational achievement and educational attainment reduce income inequality. The marginal effect, however, is stronger for increases the educational attainment when considering their interactive effects. This result is robust, and strengthened, when the focus is on only developing countries, and to the inclusion of additional factors attributed to the growth of inequality such as globalization, technological progress, the quality of institutions and educational spending. Considering only the quantity of education misses other important elements of education that contribute to explaining the dynamics of income inequality.