Venezuela's growth experience



Document title: Venezuela's growth experience
Journal: Latin american journal of economics
Database: CLASE
System number: 000351024
ISSN: 0719-0425
Authors: 1
2
3
Institutions: 1Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, Santiago de Chile. Chile
2Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, Washington, Distrito de Columbia. Estados Unidos de América
3University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. Canadá
Year:
Season: Nov
Volumen: 48
Number: 2
Pages: 199-226
Country: Chile
Language: Inglés
Document type: Artículo
Approach: Analítico, descriptivo
English abstract The standard of living, measured as gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, increased dramatically in Venezuela relative to that of the United States from 20 percent in 1920 to 90 percent in 1958, but since then has collapsed to around 30 percent nowadays. What explains these remarkable growth and collapse episodes? Using a standard development accounting framework, we show that the growth episode is mainly accounted for by an increase in capital accumulation and knowledge transfer associated with the foreign direct investment in the booming oil industry. The collapse episode is accounted for equally by a fall in total factor productivity and in capital accumulation. We analyze Venezuela during the collapse episode in the context of a model of heterogeneous production units were policies and institutions favour unproductive in detriment of more productive activities. These policies generate misallocation, lower TFP, and a decline in capital accumulation. We show in the context of an heterogeneous-establishment growth model that distortionary policies can explain a large portion of the current differences in TFP, capital accumulation, and income per capita between Venezuela and the United States
Disciplines: Economía
Keyword: Desarrollo económico,
Venezuela,
Economía nacional,
Crecimiento económico,
Modelo de desarrollo,
Productividad,
Política económica
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